Preface
In 2015 Abraham Hwang, Sarah Hwang and Raul Munoz contributed this article and photos. This is an excerpt from the Raul Munoz's lecture during Mexico Night. The original in Spanish is translated into English by Karina Baustista.Main
While M. Jose Ahn worked as a diplomat of the embassy, he alone served many sheep. Then he buildt the ministry in Mexico by inviting new missionaries. Then M. Abraham and Sarah Hwang came, leaving behind their secured jobs, children, including their youngest son of 8 months. From the beginning of the mission, M. Sarah decided to go fishing and have one to one bible studies only in the day, and do her chores in the night. She served God’s flock by practically living in campus all day. She continued to do so after she brought her children from Korea. When M. Sarah was working in another city she still went for bible study with her sheep. During such hard struggles many sheep came and left. In 1986 one sheep named Edith remained faithful and grew like Abraham of the ministry. She suffered many abuses from her stepparents. Abraham’s family helped her and took her to live with them. During 1:1 bible study she accepted Jesus as her true husband based on John 4:26 “Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” She then began to have 20 one to one bible studies each week. Her life was changed. She raised many leaders through her influence. Shepherd Gustavo and shepherdess Amalia were sheep of M. Jose Anh when they were in Mexico. Later they returned to the United States and left their two fruits: M. Efrain now in Peru and Sh. Gonzalo now in Guadalajara.
The family of shepherd Rodolfo was almost torn apart because of his adultery. However he was converted through one bible study with M. Abraham and grew as a father of prayer. He served the ministry in many ways and in his time he went out to pioneer. Little by little the UBF center was filled with God’s flock. M. Abraham then began to teach and discipline them the importance of tithe. If they did not tithe they wouldn’t be chosen as leaders or messengers. This caused some to leave, but his challenge planted the manger spirit and faith among remnants. He also taught the importance of praying early in the morning. Starting from 5 o’ clock in the morning he visited each leader in their homes and brought them in his car to pray at the university center.
While the ministry was growing by quality and quantity through the Holy Spirit, the persecution arose. The neighbors of the apartment accused us of using the apartment as a church and said some of us could rob them. They demanded us to leave and gave us the final date. We agreed so, which solved the conflict with the neighbors. But another terrible thing happened. M. Abraham wanted to sell the apartment that he had bought. At that time he put the title of the apartment under a Mexican Shepherd name who later left the church. Abraham brought the contract to him for his signature. But he refused to sign it, claiming that the apartment was his. Abraham told him that it was unfair. To the contrary he sued Abraham, which caused Abraham to go to jail. But thanks to God for M. Samuel Lee who intervened and helped him to be released. After this event, M. Abraham sacrificed all his savings from work and bought a house for a new center. We praise God who protected his sacrificial servant and his precious ministry.
In 1995 Missionary David and Esther Hong came. They collaborated beautifully and faithfully, in raising disciples . In 2006 M. Pablo lee gave his life for worldly mission by marrying shepherdess Angelica. Then M. Andres and Maria Park came and faithfully collaborated with them. They have now established 22 house churches. Each family is like a mustard seed that can produces many abundant fruits. Each week there are about 180 one to one bible studies and about 150 people attend the Sunday worship services. Since the space of the center is small, we divided it into two services. Also each week we serve the students from the National Autonomous University on Fridays at 7pm through bible study cafe. At this time there are many parties, dancing and drinking alcohol. Defying such party culture, we have our spiritual party and invite students at the school entrance when they are done with night classes. We have group bible study on the university campus 5 days a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With these two activities we work hard to bring new students to bible study. Through the Easter Bible Conference, all of us in Mexico City chapters and the nearby states work hard to produce fruits. During the Christmas worship service, we make every effort to serve and worship God in the main message, praise songs, worship dance, drama, and food. In 2015 God blessed us by filling the auditorium with 437 people. We are constantly battling to evangelize in UNAM and we pray to send pioneer in all campuses of Mexico and all Latin America.
Mother Barry visited Mexico during the 2002 Easter conference. She gave us a direction for Latin Americans to be missionaries in Latin America instead of waiting for Korean missionaries to go. Latin Americans obeyed this direction. The Korean missionaries also went out to pioneer other poorer countries. At first there were 9 countries that were pioneered and now the number has increased to 19 countries. This means that there are now 10 new countries in which 3 of those were pioneered by Mexican missionaries. From the chapter of Guadalajara M. Jorge Antonio went to Dominican Republic in 2006. The family of Efrain and Eugenia was the first to obey this new direction from the Mexico City chapter. In 2002 they left to Peru, also known as a poor country.
M. Efrain grew up from a broken family and suffered under the power of lust and death. He was freed by condemnation through John 8:11 “Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declare. “go now and leave your life of sin.”. He got a good job in the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education as a computer programmer. Then a secretary in his workplace began to seduce him every day and he almost committed adultery. However, he decided to die as a missionary instead of dying in his sin. He quit his job and left for Peru as a missionary. When his family arrived in the airport they took a taxi to the University of San Marco and found the cheapest place to plant a new church. In 2015 they established the first marriage by faith between shepherdess Caty and Shepherd Jorge.
In 2006 missionaries Isidro and Edith, the pillars of faith in Mexico, went to El Salvador. In the past missionary Isidro had an affair with his friend’s wife. He was so despaired because of this sin that he wished to flee. Then he studied the bible with Edith and was changed through John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” When graduation seemed impossible he held on to Jesus and was able to graduate from the Mexico University of Technology. He received a lot of blessing when he got married with Edith, the ancestor of faith in Mexico. Then M. Isidro left Mexico with his family and pioneered in El Salvador. He stayed in a private housing that is close to the National University. The next day he went praying to school and on campus he found a flyer that was hiring for an engineer and wrote the phone number of the company. After he wrote it down, a school official came and placed a list of grades on top of the flyer. This is how God made him the only one to apply for the job. The company president was moved when he heard his testimony of coming to El Salvador to preach the gospel. So he hired him. This solved his visa problem through the job. As of today, they have established two marriages by faith in El Salvador.
From our ministries in Mexico 19 missionaries have been sent out to the places such as Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, United States and Canada. Some went through marriage. Some went as a student. Some took their sheep. Truly God has mercy on Mexico and wants it to be a source of blessing for Latin America. Something that has caught the attention of Korean missionaries is that the Mexican flag has an eagle devouring a serpent. This is God’s vision to greatly use Mexico as part of his salvation plan. Above all, God has blessed the missionaries that had left for the poorest countries in Latin America. God has resolved their problem of visa and finance in other poorer countries than Mexico. Also with our offerings we bought bible centers for El Salvador and Peru. Now there are 4 more countries waiting for us to send missionaries. The places are Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, each with a population of more than one million people. For this, we pray eagerly to pioneer these countries. I pray that God may send Mexicans to these countries in his right time.