April 18, 2008

A Holy Week

Friends,

As coordinators for Presbyterian Border Ministry’s Proyecto Amistad, Roberto Medina and I help churches in the United States and Mexico connect with each other. Holy Week is a time when some of these churches work and fellowship together. I spent this Holy Week—the week we celebrate the amazing transformation from death to life of Jesus Christ—with one of these church partnerships.

Palm Sunday procession during worship service at Presbyterian church in Coahuila.

For the fourth year in a row, the mission team from a church in Texas worked with their partner church located in the state of Coahuila. Each day, after activities with the local church members doing church construction and vacation Bible school, different families would host all of us for dinner in the evenings. After dinner, as we sat around the table and talked, our hosts would tell their stories of the transformations that they had experienced in their lives since they began following Jesus Christ. Some spoke of prior problems with alcohol and drugs, family neglect, separation from their spouse, problems with violence or, in one case, of being jailed in the United States for having entered the country illegally.

During these times of crisis and hardship, these folks turned to Jesus Christ and were changed. We heard stories of spouses returning to one another, fathers turning away from alcohol and drugs, and children being brought into the church and reminded by their parents of the life the family had left behind. They give full credit to God and freely tell others in their community of the transformations they have experienced.

One husband painted his favorite Scripture on the front of the family’s home and placed another verse across the top of the windshield of his pickup. Another family puts Christian tracts by their front door and gives them to visitors. One father, who played music only in nightclubs, is now forming a praise band. In one household a 3-year-old loves to lead the family during devotionals. She stands on a chair and orders family members to sing or pray at the appropriate times. There is joy and dependence on God that is evident in these homes. Their neighbors know they have become “Cristianos.”

Working together. A group from a Presbyterian church in Texas has come every Holy Week for the last four years to work with their partners in Coahuila, Mexico.

One of the benefits that come from working together as Presbyterians from the United States and Mexico is that we share with each other our testimonies and become better at letting others know we have become “Cristianos.” Our stories of the change God has made in our lives and the relationships we form with one another inspire and encourage each of us. Spending a week or so each year with our partners offers only limited time to help with material things, but the spiritual encouragement we can give one another during this short time can remain with us throughout the year. This time together with our friends in Coahuila helps me refocus on communicating Christ’s transformation from death to life and all the transformations that makes possible in people’s lives. The week with our friends in Mexico was truly a Holy Week.

Changed by Christ,

Chris McReynolds
U.S. Coordinator for Proyecto Amistad

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 256

If you would like to support the work of Proyecto Amistad, we welcome your prayers and financial support. Contact Chris or Roberto at proyectoamistad@gmail.com and request the Amistad Prayer Update.

To contribute to my support, designate contributions to “Chris McReynolds E75766" and send to

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Or click the "give" button below to give online.

To contribute to Proyecto Amistad, designate contributions “Proyecto Amistad E863716" and send to

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Or click the "give" button below to give online.