Missions
La Purisima, Mexico
June 7, 2010
It is with great sadness that we have come to the decision to cancel our annual trip to La Purisima, Mexico. As a church we are called to serve locally and internationally, bringing glory to Christ and in the process of being shaped into the very image of our Savior. At the same time we are called to shepherd those God has brought into our church body, seeking God's will for both the individual and the whole.
One of the challenges any church faces is how to balance the call to serve with the charge to nurture and protect those that make up Christ's body. On the one hand, if a church only looks to serve where there is no risk involved, service stops before it starts. On the other hand, to claim faith over all and simply go trusting He will protect in all circumstances is to discredit the very facilities he has provided us to descern and serve.
As a church we have developed a risk assessment plan that includes a series of tools that help us prayerfully identify when a short-term mission trip is deemed too risky to pursue. This assessment balances our mission to serve against a series of metrics including state department warnings, the Center for Disease Control advisories and a variety of other agency indexes that measure risk abroad. One critical metric is the analysis of Merge Ministries since they facilitate hundreds of trips annually into Mexico, have a number of short and long-term missionaries on the ground and live in the very areas we serve.
Last week I received a call from Merge Ministries presdient, Dale Lusk. Dale informed me that travel throughout Northern Mexico has become too unstable to safely guide teams through this region. While La Purisima itself is isolated from the drug cartel and military clashes that are increasingly plaguing parts of Mexico, the travel to get there this year would be too risky given the car-jacking, blockading of highways and clashes with military forces that materially affect all avenues of travel to La Purisima.
The decision to not take a team to La Purisima this year does not in any way mean that we will not continue to serve the people of this village. We have grown to have deep and loving relationships with many of the church and community leaders and a number of families that support us with a home away from home. We will be prayerfully considering how our 'support' for the village will look this year and will keep you informed. Also, we eagerly look forward to the time when we can again visit our brothers and sisters in La PUrisima. I suspect our next trip will be filled with even more thanksgiving than normal given our inability to safely journey there this year.
Thanks again for you support. Please pray for peace and stability to return to Mexico so we can once again visit our brothers and sisters in Christ!
Jeff Golden
Youth Pastor
Kuza 
Founded in 2001, KUZA works with existing nonprofit organizations in Uganda to select needy students for sponsorship. Our program is comprehensive, providing clothing, books, supplies, medical care, tuition, room & board and mentoring from caring adults. By placing children in boarding schools, we remove them from dangerous, unhealthy living conditions. Several times a year the students come together for retreats & conferences. These are times of encouragement and support as the students share ideas, learn about health and safety, and hear from caring, Christian mentors about how to be men and women of outstanding character. Older students in the program nurture and reach out to the younger students, and together we are working to create the "KUZA family".
visit www.kuzaprogram.org for more information
contact Sara Reamy at sara@kuzaprogram.org
