MexicoAG.org

Unrest has been brewing for some time along the border as a result of the government crackdown against narcotrafficking and corruption. This week the U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert due to the increase of violence by heavily armed cartels, kidnappings and homicides. Also, reportedly unconnected to narcotics-related violence, armed robberies, public shootouts and carjackings have been on the rise.

Cities mentioned in the alert include Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua City, Matamoros, and Nuevo Laredo.

• Pray for God’s intervention
• Pray for believers and churches of these cities
• Pray for the protection of missionaries living/working in these areas:
• Art and Joyce Stoneking – Tijuana
• Nickie and Janie Rider – Chihuahua City
• Mike and Peggy McDonald - Ciudad Juarez
• Mark and Sandy Smith family – Reynosa/Matamoros
• Mike and Becky McGee family – Reynosa/Matamoros
• Bruce and Bonita Thomas – Nuevo Laredo

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License

Chihuahua, known for it’s beef, ranchero music, and Pancho Villa, is home to the Tarahumara Indians and also hosts the largest of eight settlements of Old Colony Germans in Mexico (similar to the Amish). Its largest border city, Ciudad Juarez, has been dubbed ‘the killing fields of Mexico’ for its number of murdered women over the past decade.

Coahuila, birthplace to nachos and cheese, shares the Chihuahua desert, the largest in North America, with its neighbor to the west. Due to the diversity of featured springs, mountains, lagoons, forests and white-sand oasis, it is evolving into a leisure hotspot.

Although both states have a strong established church, we must pray for growth and new converts as the percentage of evangelicals still averages around 8%.

Let’s Pray:

• for the people groups found within these states – to be delivered from paganistic or empty religious traditions
• for the church leadership to have continued vision and wisdom in evangelism and church planting strategies
• for pastors to be encouraged in their faith through a fresh anointing
  for revival among God’s people
• for salvation of the lost
• for a diminishing of drug trafficking and murder in the border cities

Missionaries’ Needs:

• Dave Cave – healing from cancer
• Nick Pino – healing from cancer
• Ruth Pino – continued strength and recovery from hip surgery
• Carolyn Huneycutt – healing of infection that resulted from dental procedure
• Bonita Thomas – broken leg is not healing properly