Mission Trip Report to Veracruz, Mexico
January 20th – January 26th, 2011
Due
to the fact that it is harvest season for the unsaved, we didn’t want to miss any opportunity to minister anywhere God opened for us. This is our second mission trip we had in Mexico.
Last year my daughter Anna had to put her studying on hold for a year and decided to with ‘Youth With a Mission’ (YWM) in Australia. After her theoretical study with YWM, her team was appointed to a practical experience in Gospel ministry in Mexico City. When I heard of the news, I visited her on the mission field in Mexico City. In order to work for the Lord while being in Mexico, I contacted Sam and Sera Qarau, a missionary couple in Mexico from Fiji. To accomplish the work in an efficient way,
I would require a Spanish translator and so after calling a few mission members, but they all had other priorities. As I was praying and asking the Lord for guidance, the Lord inspired me to call Dinu Rodila from Gethsemane Romanian Church and Cornel Ianchici from Philadelphia Church. Both of them responded and felt compelled by the Lord to take part in this mission trip.
When
we arrived in Mexico City, Pastor Sam and a pastor from Restoration Church in Mexico City waited for us and brought us to his church. As we departed the airport, he spoke of a church that he had a vision of a night before which had white pillars in front and he also described the entire perimeter of the church and the Lord said that this is a church that is mission oriented. Afterward, Cornel showed him a picture of Philadelphia Romanian Church, he was amazed that it matched the one in his vision. That night, we ministered to the Restoration Church where people were delivered and set free of addictions; others were blessed by the word of God. Dinu Rodila, translated very accurately from Romanian to Spanish. There was a great blessed night in which people rejoiced and were so happy.
This
church was located in a bad neighborhood of violence and cartel. The pastor had been attacked a few times but the Lord had miraculously saved him. He gave us testimonies of how the Lord intervened and saved him from the hands of the cartels. His father, a former police officer, was killed by the cartels years ago. His mother is now leading the church. The next day, we went through heavy traffic to visit my daughter Anna. She and her team were staying in the church
apartment and during the day they had a schedule to minister to children, nursing homes and other churches. I was a little concerned about her safety, being in Mexico City, but after I met her and saw what she was doing, I gained confidence that she was under the Lord’s protection. She was very happy to see us and my team prayed for them.
That
evening, we left Mexico City together with Pastor Sam Qarau and the three of us drove by bus to Veracruz. A pastor from the area came with his truck early in the morning and drove us to the mountains of Chicontepec region in Veracruz. That Saturday morning, we ministered to a Church of God Bible School where Pastor Vicente Baez Torres is a director. At night, we ministered to the church in Ahuimol in Veracruz pastored by Vicente. This church was so open to the gospel that night and many of them repented their sin and rededicated their lives to Jesus Christ. Despite the critical situation involving crime and the cartels in Mexico, we found that the town Ahuimol doesn’t have a police station since the gospel changed 80% of the town’s people.
There used to be a prison there years ago but since lots of people converted to Jesus Christ, the delinquency percentage was so low that the community transformed the prison into a grocery and material store. A Christian brother later purchased and is operating the site. Isn’t it amazing what the gospel can do when people obey and fear the Lord instead of the authorities?
“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “ Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:2-4
Early
Sunday morning, a group of youth was praying and interceding for almost two hours. This is the secret action when you want to have a revival within a church and challenge the community. Intercession for the unsaved brings God’s presence to the hardened human heart and causes them to surrender all to Christ. On the same day, we ministered to the people of Ahuimol. There was also a funeral in the afternoon and we encouraged the family of the deceased with words of life.
Monday
morning, Dinu and I went to a church named La Puerta in Cristo in Tlanempa Comon pastored by Antonio Hernandez Tolentino. We arrived there a couple hours after passing through the mountain. This was a very poor area but people had a great faith in God.
“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” James 2:5
When we arrived to Pastor Antonio’s house, we felt compelled to pray and intercede for the evening service. We prayed for an hour and I knew in my spirit that the Lord had a surprise for us that night. Even though it was not a regular church service that Monday evening; we were impressed to see a great multitude of people that could not fit inside the church and the service was held outside. The surprise from the Lord was His deep presence that touched the hearts of people and lots of them came with tears in their eyes
and confessed their sins out loud without shame. Dinu was unusually impressed to hear them confess in their language. This is really the work of the Holy Spirit at which people did not consider the public of their shameful sins because of the deeper desire to be right with God. If you confess your sin, he is just and merciful to forgive you.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:8-10
“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:1-5
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
At the same time, Cornel ministered to the Palma Sola Church in Tlaquextla both located on the mountain. Pastor Eugenio Cruz is pastoring Palma Sola Church. Roberto Bautista Martinez has translated for Cornel. Dinu and I drove almost four hours Monday night through the mountains to find the village of Palma Sola Church.
Tuesday
Morning, we drove back to Veracruz and headed to Mexico City and attended the service at Restoration Church where a few people were miraculously delivered of unclean spirits. While I was preaching from Acts 16, I heard a noise all of a sudden caused by a woman falling down. I was a bit concerned since I didn’t know what happened but the pastor told me that she fainted after hearing that a possessed woman was delivered from a spirit of fortune-telling.
“Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.” Acts 16:16-18
The
possessed woman came to church the previous Sunday with her husband for the first time. Towards the end, we prayed for the sick and other people seeking the freedom from our Lord Jesus Christ. Our mission is to fulfill the Great commission. God has opened for us connections with individuals, churches, families and prison ministry. Our main areas of focus are evangelism, teaching, preaching, healing and deliverance, prison ministry and rehabilitation centers, feeding the needy and hungry and restoring hope in the lives that lost it.
“I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:1-2
“The
Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3
Rev. Constantin Lupancu
