Help a Young, Thriving Church in Mexico Find a Home!

During the pandemic, Pastor Eliel Osorio and his wife Jessica started a new church, Hospital de la Fe Church located in the heart of Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Services began as live-streams from the Osorio’s backyard with six people in attendance. Now the church has grown into a thriving congregation of over 100. Focused on reaching the next generation for Christ, the congregation is reaching out via prayer walks and regular distributions of food, as well as using social media to broadcast services and weekly Bible studies with more than 3,000 followers. The church has bounced around multiple rentals but recently found a property to purchase for a permanent home.

Todd Luke — October 2023 Update

Thank you for your prayers and continued support! In 2023, we built twenty-eight family-owned cisterns — seven in the village of Castilla Brito, eight in Tres Huastecas, twelve in Cristobal Colon, and one cistern in Xpujil. We have now built 667 cisterns that capture, store, and dispense more than 7,000,000 gallons of rainwater per year. That’s over 12,000 gallons per family-owned cistern.

Mission teams from Colorado, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina grabbed buckets, wheelbarrows, and shovels to significantly lighten the load for our local partners.

Todd Luke — March 2023 Update

In January and February, our little partnership built seven cisterns for seven young families in the village of Castilla Brito. That’s where our cistern ministry began back in 2002. Not surprisingly, we share a bit of history with our newest cistern owners. Most of them grew up drinking rainwater from cisterns we built with their parents a long time ago. Those kids grew up, got married, had kids, and built their own homes. Like their parents before them, they need a year-round water source to keep their families healthy.

Mexico Partnership — November 2022 Update

In October 2021, a team from The Outreach Foundation journeyed to Mexico City to meet and form a partnership with the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (INPM). The Presbyterian church is alive and thriving south of the border with 6,000 churches and over three million members. The focus of our partnership with the INPM is to support church plants. Executive Director Mark Mueller and I recently returned to México to visit these church plants, accompanied by the INPM leadership team.

San Pablo Presbyterian Theological Seminary — August 2022 Update

San Pablo Presbyterian Theological Seminary trains theology students from 20 Mexican states, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Chile, and Columbia. Many students are fluent in Mayan which is a predominant language in southern Mexico and Guatemala.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, San Pablo continues training leaders and pastors to fulfill the Great Commission, Rev. Amós Cahuich Yam, rector, recently sent highlights from the August 2021 to June 2022 school year:

Don and Martha Wehmeyer — July 2022 Update

Dear friends,

It is good to write to Outreach Foundation supporters. Martha and I have been blessed by your ministry for over 30 years!

Hopefully, we are near the end of the COVID pandemic. The whole country of Mexico is most anxious that it be so. The burden it has placed on the church and society has been enormous.

Todd Luke — July 2022 Update

Thank you for the prayers, gifts, and hands-on participation that have made 2022 a very good year.

Cisterns Built in 2022
March
Four cisterns in the Village of Felipe Angeles. It was our first time building there. We worked side by side with fantastic families who love the Lord and will not hesitate to break a sweat and get their hands dirty.

May
Four cisterns in the town of Xpujil for four families who live beyond the reach of the town’s water works system that only distributes water about once a week (if that).

Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary - March 2022 Update

Deep in the lush tropical landscape of the Mexican Gulf state of Tabasco is the campus of Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Sureste, founded in 1985 and a long-time Outreach partner, is committed to equipping the next generation of pastors and servant leaders for the Presbyterian church in the southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas where the church is growing rapidly. Most students are studying to complete a bachelor’s degree in theology. Outreach partners provide partial scholarships for many of the students studying for this degree.

Todd Luke - December 2021 Update

“Lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great”

Many water projects build or deliver the infrastructure and then give it to the poor. Our cistern ministry takes a different approach. In Mexico, projects that give away materials and infrastructure tend to have an overall negative impact. In search of better outcomes, we trust skin-in-the-game partnerships between families, neighbors, and communities to solve the clean water problem in our region.

Todd Luke - September 2021 Update

Dear friends,

The 2021 cistern building season is over. We thank God for working through our American and Mexican partners to bring year-round rainwater access to hundreds of families in our neck of the subtropical jungle. Thank you for your prayers, time, and support of all kinds. In 2022, we will build cisterns with as many new families as the generosity of our American partners will allow. $2,200 for one family-owned rainwater catchment tank which can collect, store, and distribute up to 15,000 gallons a year for decades is a solid, long-term investment. As a testament to that, I share with you the following:

36 Cisterns Built in 2021 – 609 Cisterns Built Since 2002

Thirty-six family-owned cisterns were built this year: 8 in Carmen Dos, 8 in Unidad y Trabajo, 8 in Caña Brava, and 12 in Quiché Las Pailas. That brings our grand total to 609. Our Mexican cistern-building partners continue to lead the way.

Global Workers, Missionaries, Latin AmericaThe Outreach FoundationSeptember 10, 2021Todd Luke, Todd and Maria Luke, Mexico

San Pablo Presbyterian Theological Seminary - August 2021 Update

Despite the COVID-19, pandemic, we continue training leaders and pastors to fulfill the Great Commission.

We Were Impacted as a Seminary by COVID-19

· Although just three members of our personnel were affected by the coronavirus and are now well, some friends and pastors around us died.

· We had to change some things about the way we train our students. The most important change was to establish online courses. We will continue providing courses online until the COVID situation improves.

· In the midst of this situation, in October 2020, we suffered the onslaught of a tropical storm. There was extensive damage to our facilities. So far, we have repaired six classrooms and two bedrooms. Unfortunately, we have not been able to repaint the buildings of our facility due to high humidity levels.

Don and Martha Wehmeyer - June 2021 Update

Dear friends,

Martha and I are now fully vaccinated and starting to move around more. Martha has been in Wichita Falls and Dallas to help with the grandchildren and will be bringing Guillen and Sahia down here with Valerie. The other two will follow when their school year gets out.

The little church I am pastoring in Sitpatch is doing well. We have both in-person and online services although there is the possibility that in-person church will be closed again as the number of COVID cases is going up in Merid

COVID-19 Appeal Mexico

We recently received the following COVID Appeal update from our partners in Tabasco, Mexico. The Rev. José Juan Garcia Hernandez, rector of Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary, recently shared this information . The first two photos are Sureste professors who had COVID. The remaining photos include seminarians affected by flooding.

Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary - April 2021 Update

Dear friends,

My name is Francelia. I am married to Christopher McReynolds. We live in Del Rio, Texas located five minutes from the border city of Cd. Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. I was born in Mexico City in 1977 but moved to Villahermosa, Tabasco in 1985. There, at age 21 while I was still in college, the Lord saved me at an evangelistic campaign on March 28, 1998. I then started my walk in the Presbyterian Church.

I am amazed by God’s grace, thankful for where I am, and thankful for The Outreach Foundation for playing such an important part in the story – God’s story. Here is how I was called to do what I am doing today, thanks to sponsors like The Outreach Foundation.

Todd Luke - February 2021 Update

Mexico

Dear friends,

Our partners in Mexico are very busy even though we do not plan to send American mission groups to build cisterns this year. Victor, Raul, and Isaias are leading a team that will work with at least twenty-two families to build twenty-two family-owned cisterns during the next couple of months. Generous financial support from our American church and family partners makes this possible. We hope to build up to forty cisterns in 2021, but that number depends on the response we receive from our American partners.

We are also doing something new and exciting. In addition to the many support tasks he already performs to support the cistern process, our associate in Xpujil, Felipe Torres now leads a small crew that visits each of our cistern partners who have repaid at least $2,000 pesos of their cistern materials loan. The purpose of the house call is to:

Todd Luke - December 2020 Update

Dear friends,

Maria and I traveled to Xpujil in October. I returned to the Chicago area a week later. Maria will continue to work there until December 10. She has plenty to do. I will be back in Xpujil to meet with all our cistern owner partners after Thanksgiving. A snapshot of the week follows below. But first, I will share a portion of a thought that kept coming to mind during my first visit to Xpujil since the pandemic began.

Work

All over the Calakmul region, entire families work so hard, trying to survive. By God’s grace, humans can work and bring in the harvest. He cares for his creation, in part, through human labor. After God created the heavens, our planet, and humans in his own image; he gave us the task to fill the earth, subdue it, wisely govern its creatures, cultivate the soil, and care for it. Work is not a necessary evil. It’s a valuable part of God’s health plan for us and all of creation. As we consider how to help the poor, the weak, the widow, the orphan, the alien, the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner, the old, and the sick—we do well to be mindful of work’s sacred origin. Whether we go to Xpujil in person or contribute a portion of the fruit of our labor so that others can work together for God’s sake to build cisterns, God uses work to bring health to individuals, families, and communities. As we labor, it is altogether reasonable to constantly thank and praise God for the opportunity to do so. For as great as work can be, God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary - July 2020 Update

“Equipping the Saints” at a Distance

Dear friends,

It is a joy to share with you a note we received from Rev. José Juan Hernandez, rector of the Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Tabasco, Mexico, about the ongoing ministry of forming future church leaders for a growing church with more than two million members.

Dear friends at The Outreach Foundation,

Please receive a very affectionate greeting, hoping that God's grace will continue to protect you for your continued participation in God's work.

Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary remains committed to teaching and training seminarians to be church pastors whose lives and ministries are built on the foundation of God's Word.

San Pablo Presbyterian Theological Seminary - July 2020 Update

Dear brothers and sisters,

At this time of year, we would typically be completing another cycle of seminary activities. But COVID-19 changed those plans. We started our semester the first week of February but sent students and employees home on March 17 following the government's mandates.

We are waiting for instruction from the government on when we will be able to reopen. Before resuming classes, we will have to disinfect everything, including all classrooms, and public spaces. We will also need to expand the classrooms to ensure that everyone is at least six feet apart. All students and teachers will have to wash their hands with antibacterial gel and wear face masks, and we will have to take everyone's temperature each time they enter the seminary. We will create a single entrance for everyone and use a sanitary filter with chlorine to clean everyone’s shoes. If anyone shows symptoms of fever, we will need to isolate them and notify the authorities.

Partner Updates

Mexico