Earlier this year, Karla Gonzalez, Interim Executive Director, and Rev. Misael Tovar represented Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) and the Cd. Juarez/Chihuahua missions at the Mexico FORO’s spring meeting in Mexico City. Karla was invited to share YLM’s work along the border, extending an invitation for the FORO to hold its fall meeting at YLM’s campus. Over the summer, YLM worked diligently to plan and organize the Mexico FORO, reaching out to its partnering churches for help in different areas as preparations began at the YLM campus.

In the past two months, YLM staff and volunteers made significant progress to prepare for this event. Thanks to generous donations from supporting congregations, necessary repairs and renovations were completed at San Pablo Lutheran Church and YLM’s Dining Hall. Volunteers painted the inside of the buildings in the two weeks leading up to the meeting, ensuring the historic sites would be ready to welcome new relationships and partnerships.
Round tables and chairs were requested from CrossPoint Church, to which they gladly agreed, while Zion Lutheran Church opened their fellowship hall for the FORO meetings and noontime meals. San Pablo Lutheran Church’s vicar, Alex Escarciga, helped organize an opening worship service, coordinating with several of the local and traveling pastors, while the ladies of their congregation helped decorate the church’s side room and YLM’s Dining Hall, along with putting together little welcome “swag” bags and snacks for the dormitory.

The mission-churches in Cd. Juarez and Chihuahua have been working with YLM for over 20 years, with some partnerships, like Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey, dating back even further. Together, they have brought the Gospel to their communities, while YLM has provided essential resources to help meet the growing needs of these areas. However, the increasing demands of the congregations and communities, combined with limited pastoral staff, have made it difficult to keep pace. Currently, only three pastors are serving more than one of the seven independent mission-churches.

To address this challenge, YLM initiated talks with the Mexico Lutheran Synod a few years ago to explore ways to help these mission-churches grow. As a result of these conversations, several women from the Anapra mission-churches were able to complete online deaconess courses through the Seminario Concordia El Redentor de la Republica Dominicana, successfully graduating in 2022. These women assist with the Anapra missions, along with Cristo Rey.

Meanwhile, two other pastors, Rev. Jose Hernandez and Rev. Misael Tovar, manage multiple congregations in Cd. Juarez and Chihuahua, with both helping Iglesia Luterana La Santa Biblia, one of the Anapra mission-churches, whenever they’re able to get to the Anapra area. Despite these efforts, the demand for church workers—both pastors and deaconesses—continues to rise in Mexico, and it’s especially difficult for YLM’s partnering mission-churches, as they are not in partnership with the Mexico Lutheran Synod, through which theological education is offered, along with prepared church-workers.

To address this need, YLM has sought to repair and strengthen its connections with the Mexico FORO, a collaboration of congregations, districts, and organizations dedicated to spreading the Gospel, planting churches, and showing mercy. It is their hope this Mexico FORO will be the time when the Cd. Juarez/Chihuahua pastors and the Mexico Lutheran Synod can speak the truth in love and arrive at an understanding and agreement on how they can work together to fulfill the Great Commission.

YLM is honored to serve as a bridge between the mission-churches in Cd. Juarez/Chihuahua and the Mexico Lutheran Synod by working within the Mexico FORO, along with others. With prayer and hope, this gathering will foster new connections, bringing more church workers and resources to support the mission-churches as they continue to grow and thrive.