An unprecedented Work and Witness team arrived in Chiapas, Mexico in February to serve alongside their brothers and sisters from the El Recreo Church of the Nazarene in the South Sierra District. The team was made up of 24 members, half of them from the Costa Rica North District and half from the Chicago Central District. Those two districts have worked together in a six year partnership, and the next step in that partnership was to work together to serve in a third location.
El Recreo is located high in the mountains surrounded in all directions by coffee fields and drop-off cliffs. For three years after the coffee harvest the faithful church members would dedicate some of their earnings to advance the building project. They had built a spacious structure – walls and a roof with lovely arched windows spaces overlooking the green mountains – but were still lacking a floor.
The multi-cultural Work and Witness team arrived to help this dedicated church move through the last major phase of construction. Together, brothers and sisters from three different countries labored to pour a concrete floor.
The church and team members also did a variety of outreach events, including door to door evangelism, children’s ministry and a large youth event that saw many youth come to know the Lord.
Flor Trejos Morera, a member of the team from the Costa Rica North District, noted during evening devotions, “I love these people. I love them like the people I go to church with every week at home.” The sense of unity within the family of God across language and cultural barriers was powerful during the time together.
Source: Anne Bryant Sickle, Mexico W&W
