While the team from Word of Life was here, we did two events in two neighbourhoods to provide hearing aids and reading glasses to people in need. Various people had signed up ahead of time, many with notes from their doctors.
In the video below, you’ll see a few clips from both programs. The first was in the community of Los Heroes. The church in Jesús MarÃa has had an impact in this community for a long time, and we would love to see this develop into a new church plant. You can see pastor Ismael explaining that we ‘re not with any political party, but that we’re with a Christian church.
At each program, God’s Word was shared, both by local people and through the ministry of the visiting team. Many received literature and a Gospel of John (Gospel booklet thanks to the Pocket Testament League).
The second event was in the neighbourhood of Geovillas Ixtapaluca 2000. Some from the church in Las Palmas have been reaching out to a new group of people in this area.
Shari was helping people get set up with their hearing aids, and is always encouraged to see eyes light up as someone begins to hear for the first time in years!
These programs are part of long term works to reach out to new people in new areas with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a look – and consider joining us!
Today Camino Global officially unites with Avant Ministries, to create one mission with missionaries in 50+ countries. The work of both continues under the name Avant Ministries.
There’s a lot to talk about, but essentially our ministry will continue – making disciples and planting churches in one of the less reached areas of this hemisphere – central Mexico.
The main practical questions right now may be financial questions – but you can see all updated information on our donations page. If you currently receive our newsletter, we emailed you (if you didn’t get the email, let us know!), and will be sending you some snail mail, which you should receive in about three weeks.
But let me give you a little background and history – and since it’s Canada Day, I’ll focus on some early Canadian connections which you may find interesting.
Avant Early History
Henry Grattan Guinness
Some fascinating things were happening in the mid-1800s. For example, a new preaching evangelist appeared on the scene in Ireland, named Henry Grattan Guinness. Yes, it’s that family – the Guinness family – think beer (the founder of the Guinness empire was a committed Christian, but that’s another story!).
Guinness visited Canada in the late 1850s, and a Canadian in southern Ontario was converted under his ministry – Albert Benjamin Simpson. Bear with me – these threads will soon come together.
Guinness was a friend of James Hudson Taylor, and very passionate about missions (Guinness’ daughter later married Taylor’s son). Simpson, a teenager at his conversion, soon caught the passion as well, in the decades ahead organizing important missions ventures.
Fast-forward thirty years later. Two Canadian women in Costa Rica are praying that God would send missionaries – a prayer soon to be answered by the founding of the Central America Mission in 1890 and the sending of the first missionaries in 1891 (see Canadians, Coffee, and CAM). The C.A.M. would eventually become CAM International and then Camino Global.
Just before the founding of Camino, Guinness’ doctor suggested he go abroad for his health, bringing him back to the USA. In 1889 he inspired a group from the YMCA in Kansas to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Among them was YMCA secretary George S. Fisher.
Several YMCA members volunteered, and missionaries went out the following year to Africa, and others over the next few years. The early missionaries went out under the mission organization that Simpson had founded.
Early World’s Gospel Union logo
And so unlike Camino, there was a group in Kansas sending missionaries before they had a formal organization – but that organization would be formed 2 years after Camino – in 1882. It was called the World’s Gospel Union, later becoming the Gospel Missionary Union (GMU) – and later Avant Ministries. Like Camino, Avant was influenced by a group of people promoting foreign missions that included J. Hudson Taylor.
Fisher led Avant in the early years – his purpose was to “promote Bible study, consecrated Christian living, sound doctrine, and the preaching of the Gospel where Christ is not named”.
The early founders of Avant included R. A. Torrey, C. I. Scofield (an original founder of Camino), and Luther Rees (also an original founder of Camino – and also important in the founding of Wycliffe Bible Translators – but that’s another story!). But another one of the early founders was Canadian William Holmes Howland.
Howland was the leader of what would become the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (founded by fellow Canadian A. B. Simpson), but he had just left a remarkable career as the mayor of Toronto (see Toronto the Good). Sadly, Howland died of pneumonia only a year after Avant was founded. He was only 49.
More Recent History
In 2018, Avant approached Camino Global with the idea of uniting the two missions together. The hope was that we would be “better together” as a combined organization, which would have about 500 missionaries in 50+ countries. In November 2018, the boards of both missions agreed to the proposal.
The missions unite today, under the name Avant Ministries (in Canada Avant Ministries Canada).
There is still much work to be done in the offices and fields of Avant as the two missions come together. A lot has been done on general vision and on legal and financial matters, but that’s only the beginning. We would appreciate your prayers as we move forward together, continuing the work that began in 1890.
The missions force of the new mission is made up of about 27% “Millenials”, and 36% “Gen-Xers”, with the other 37% “Boomers” and older. But the work needs to grow, as churches work to send out new missionaries around the world, preaching Christ where He is not known.
Missionaries currently serve in Africa, Asia, North, Central and South America, and Europe.
And so the work continues – for the glory of Christ. Who knows where He will lead, and what He will accomplish around the world! As the early logo above says – “Speed the Word over land and sea!” Lord Jesus, may it be!
If one wanted to get an abortion in our area of Mexico, one would simply take public transport a few minutes into the federal district, where there are clinics who will abort the baby up to a certain age.
In most of the country, abortion is much more limited legally. And, of course, this raises all kinds of discussions, such as “What about abortion in the case of rape?”“What if the mother can’t care for the baby?” and so on.
This is a contrast to Canada, where the law – or lack of – seems almost medieval. In spite of the incredible scientific advances of our age, the law seems to take the antiquated perspective that if you can’t see it with your eyes, it probably isn’t human.
Among various groups promoting abortion in Canada is Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights (Action Canada), which defines abortion quite simply on its website: “An abortion is the ending of a pregnancy”.
Of course abortion ends a pregnancy. But how? That’s the question.
And I’m afraid that that question gets obscured sometimes by the many arguments both for and against abortion.
With all our knowledge of DNA, all our ultrasounds, all our sophisticated research into human development, one thing has become entirely clear – a new, human life begins at conception.
That doesn’t change depending on how “safe” an abortion may be for a woman, or whether or not she should have a “choice”, or how the pregnancy occurred, or how healthy the baby is, or how rare or common abortion is, or whether or not a doctor mistakenly thinks that the unborn baby has a disease that it doesn’t actually have, or how “fulfilling” the life of the person may be. It doesn’t change depending on whether the baby has been born, or is still in the womb. The real question is, is the baby a person?
And that question raises the question of just how legal abortion really is in Canada, or Mexico, or wherever. And just how contradictory our laws may be.
A strange situation like this arose in Canada in the late 1920s. Women already had the vote (although some minority groups were still not allowed to vote). However, when push came to shove, some claimed that women could not be appointed to the senate, because they were not “qualified persons”, as the law stated they must be. And guess what? In the end, the important word was not “qualified”. It was “persons”.
The wording of the law clearly included no barrier to a woman being a senator. And yet the fight went to the highest court in Canada, which graciously bestowed on women – person-hood.
Except, of course, the court did nothing of the kind. Women were already persons – the first woman on earth was a person, and they’ve been persons ever since. Any legal barrier based on the word “person” was ridiculous. In this case, there was nothing wrong with the law at all – but there was something wrong with many who practised law.
And so we play with words and try to make abortion sound like some kind of medical procedure. Take out the word “kill” or “murder”, and avoid the word “person” or even “baby”. But that doesn’t change the reality. At what age may a person be killed? Under what circumstances? What if they are of a certain race, or were conceived under certain circumstances – should they then be killed?
We should be careful arguing about things that really don’t matter, if a person is really a person.
Here in Mexico, teen pregnancy is a common community concern. Our hearts break for the young women who are in very difficult circumstances, with no one to turn to for help.
Maybe someone reading this would care enough to come to Mexico, to live in a community here, and to make it one of their main ministries to serve these young women as a servant of Christ. Might it be you?
This week a group from Camp Bighorn‘s Journey program will be here in Ixtapaluca for the third year. They arrive tomorrow.
You can pray for them as they travel tomorrow. We pick them up at the airport first thing in the morning, and they’ll get to know Ixtapaluca a bit throughout the rest of the day.
Rod has organized an interesting and unique schedule for the team! Throughout the next seven days they will be enjoying many eclectic and challenging activities, learning how to navigate in one of the largest cities in the world in another language and culture. Then, next Tuesday, we’ll send them off to Puebla to continue their central Mexico adventure.
Here’s the group from last year, getting their first street tacos of the trip!
This is an important post, so please take a few moments to read carefully.
You may or may not have received communication from Camino Global, or Avant – but here’s the news. The two mission agencies are uniting to become one mission.
First, the practical information. Regarding our ministry, our relationship with Camino, and donations, nothing has changed (and may not be changing over the next few weeks or even months). So you don’t need to worry about changing where/how you donate – donation information is always up to date here.
Second, what actually is happening? As I mentioned before, Avant and Camino Global will be joining together. The name of the mission will be Avant Ministries. However, “Camino Global” will retain its “brand” for the time being as a Spanish focused ministry within the mission. So you will continue to see both names.
Camino’s three offices will be affected in different ways. The Guatemala office will remain where it is. Eventually, both the US office and the Canadian office will move to where Avant’s current offices are (Kansas City and Winnipeg).
There are a number of reasons for the change, and there’s no reason to get into all the details here. However, the leadership of both missions hope that we will be “better together”.
If all goes as planned, the “new” mission will have over 500 missionaries in 50 countries. Camino of course has a strong presence in Spanish speaking countries.
The missions have put up a website to answer some of your basic questions (click the graphic to go there):
How will this affect our ministry? This news is very fresh, and it will take months – in some cases, years – before everything is worked out. We have no immediate plans for major changes. Both Camino Global and Avant are committed to making disciples for Jesus Christ, and in many ways they are very similar organizations. However, every missionary with Camino will need to make their own decision whether or not they will continue under Avant.
Our desire is to serve the Lord in this corner of Mexico City, where so few understand the gospel. Please pray that God will guide us, and especially the other missionaries in Mexico, as we work through these changes in the weeks to come.
We will continue to communicate with you (especially those who receive our newsletter and email update), but we all need to be patient.
Rod Fry recently posted a video at Mexico Matters I thought you would enjoy. As you know, we had a visit this month from the Journey team from Camp Bighorn. This is a recent video but it features pictures from last year’s team.
So now that you’ve got all that straight, here it is!
You may or may not have received communication from Camino Global, or Avant – but here’s the news. The two mission agencies are uniting to become one mission.