Helping Monce Find Christ
By Joey Fong

Mexico Outreach is an annual week-long mission to Mexico over Easter break. The team sent from Chinese Grace Bible Church (CGBC) partners with Azusa Pacific University and churches in Mexico. Our main ministry is a vacation Bible program, but we also branch out to men’s, women’s, and youth ministries when the team can support it.

Joey works on a piñata.

This past year I had the opportunity to help a girl named Monserrat, or Monce. I was called to help translate a conversation between Daisy, a Christian on our team, and Monce. We learned that Monce wanted to become a Christian, so with limited Spanish we asked more questions. We pulled out a tract to explain about salvation. We prayed. And we welcomed a new sister-in-Christ.

This story is amazing because it had to be God working. It happened the very first day we were at this new site. None of our teams had ever been to this site, and Monce just came up wanting to become a Christian. Through the week Monce came to the program, talked with Daisy, helped us explain Bible stories and shared her testimony.

Monce (left) and Daisy

This story shows God’s sovereignty. Daisy started talking with Monce and felt God leading her to take a certain line of questioning. I took Spanish in high school and college and have experience ministering in both Mexico and Ecuador, but I still lack a lot of Bible vocabulary. I struggled with some words, but God provided.

All we had to do was go and be willing to let God work. So often I think I get in the way, trying to do a lot on my own. It’s good to take a step back and give God the control so that He can do His work.

Would you let God work through you and in your life?

Lessons I Learned About God
By Elliot Tom

Praise God for His sovereign nature and divine holiness. Mexico Outreach was surely a blessing. Our trip wasn’t about bringing glory to the various teams, or about how “successful” we were. It wasn’t about the number of kids that “we” converted to know Christ, but it was all about Him. It was about God’s grace and mercy. It was about how God would work through us in order to bring glory to His name.

Making the decision to go to Mexico in 2016 wasn’t easy for me. Realistically, I wasn’t even supposed to be on the trip. However, while attending Urbana (missions conference) this past year, I felt that God was speaking to me and telling me to put behind all my fears and to trust in Him. Luckily for me, although the date to sign up for Mexico had already passed, Cliff and Lily Chan, advisors for the Mexico Outreach Team, were at the missions conference. Graciously they consented to allow me to go to Mexico this year, and the rest is history.

Elliot and his buddy Elias

Although Mexico wasn’t quite as impactful for me as it was for some of the other team members, God used this short-term trip to open my eyes to reveal to me His holiness and mercy. To know and see that the God we praised in Sacramento was the same God that the people in Mexico worshiped was amazing. I learned that regardless of language barrier or cultural differences, all people redeemed by God’s grace are His children! I realized that this is God! He is truly amazing, and it is only through His graciousness that He has opened my eyes to the realities of His gospel.

In spite of sickness and travel time, God worked through this mission trip to reveal Himself to me. He has revealed that mission outreach doesn’t stop after Mexico! He has revealed that even though the Mexico Outreach 2016 is over and I’m no longer constantly surrounded by an encouraging Christian body, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”

Now as I’m continuing through life and finishing up my last year of high school, I realize this: The ministry trip I went on is over, but “missions in Mexico” has not stopped for me, and it won’t stop until I’m standing before our glorious God in heaven. Now, as my mission continues, I know I can put to rest all my trials and worries because of the joy of someday hearing God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

For as long as he can remember, Joey Fong has been attending CGBC and has been involved with the Mexico Outreach Team since high school. He graduated from college with a major in mathematics and a minor in Spanish. Joey currently serves as a sponsor of CGBC’s junior high youth group TIGS, and formerly as the church janitor. In his spare time he enjoys Legos and reading.

Elliot Tom also grew up at CGBC and is currently a senior at John F. Kennedy High School. In his spare time he enjoys listening to music.