Church Planting in Mexico

An update from Carlos Contreras, lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and our key leader for Mexico...

Sunday August 20, 2023
This past Sunday was a historic day for our growing family of churches in Mexico. It had been over 10 years since we had sent out a team to plant a church, but on this Sunday in an unprecedented event we prayed and commissioned two men to plant two churches. Through God's initiation four years ago, he sovereignly sent us 2 men from different parts of the country to be discipled and trained in order to go back to their respective cities to plant churches.

As part of their training, both men went through and participated in all of the ministries of our church in Juárez. They also covered much theological study and preaching workshops as well as participation in a year-long Leadership Discipleship group.

Huajuapan, Oaxaca Church Plant

Israel Garcia with his wife Nohemi and two children.

The first of the two men is Israel García and his wife Nohemí. Israel was a leader in his home church in Huajuapan. They came to Juarez to explore a ministry opportunity and sought a Reformed church and so they found us. After their first year they felt a strong desire from the Lord to return home and plant a church with Sovereign Grace values. Israel is from the southern state of Oaxaca and they will be planting in Huajuapan which is the second largest city of that state. Israel is a computer programmer and works remotely from home, so he will be a bi-vocational pastor until the church can support him.

Omar and Norma Soto, and their boys.

Joining Israel will be Omar and Norma Soto and their boys. They came to us as part of a joint venture with our sister church Christ’s Covenant Church in Winona Lake, Indiana. They had sent out Omar several years ago to do missionary work in the state of Oaxaca and Omar was excited to be a part of a new church plant in that same state. Israel is grateful that they will be planting with the support of the Soto family.

Both families will be heading out Saturday August 26th on a 3-day road trip driving from the northernmost Mexican border to Oaxaca which is one of the most southern states.

Reynosa, Tamaulipas Church Plant

The second man that surprised us by coming is Marcelo Torres. Marcelo is an industrial engineer who was working with a Korean company that manufactures automated production lines. His work would frequently bring him into Juarez and he would visit our church on Sundays. He says that finding Sovereign Grace was exactly what he had been looking for. He heard about our Fieles Pastors Conference and decided to come with his wife. From that experience they decided to talk to us regarding the possibility of Sovereign Grace planting a church in their hometown of Reynosa. Since we didn’t have a plan or a pastor to send in the near future we asked him if he would be willing to come and be trained in order to be sent back for that purpose. By God’s providence, within 2 months he was asked to relocate by his company and so Marcelo, his wife Ruth and his 3 sons moved to Juarez.

Reynosa is a border town in the state of Tamaulipas. It is located across the river from McAllen, Texas. It is an industrial city and very similar to Juarez but it also shares the unfortunate designation of being one of the most violent cities in the world. Marcelo has already scheduled a first evangelistic meeting to start in his home on September 16. Marcelo loves his home state and has a vision to reach the whole state of Tamaulipas with future church plants.

Marcelo and Ruth Torres, and their 3 sons.

This past Sunday we had the joy of praying for all 3 families and entrusting them to the care, guidance and purpose of the Holy Spirit in the new venture for the Kingdom of God. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for these families and future new churches and thank all of you who are partnering with us to make these plants possible.