Dave Grieshaber and the rest of his volunteer team almost didn’t get to go on their mission trip to Acuña, Mexico.
It wasn’t just some chance of fate how it all worked out, and it certainly wasn’t luck. By God’s design, another mission team was unable to make the trip. So in summer 2015, the team of twenty-six missionaries from the Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens answered God’s call and headed down to Mexico.
Despite the July heat that often neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit, Team Webster had ambitious plans for their week: to build safe, new houses for two families who were in desperate need, and to share the Gospel in a language the families could actually understand. The families had been chosen by their pastors as being especially worthy of new homes and donated Gospel-based books. Poverty in Mexico often reaches levels of pure desperation—a bucket as a bathroom, a box as a toy, a three-wall lean-to as a home, even when the temperatures plunge into the 30s during the winter.
“All are reminded that these homes are gifts from God,” said the Team Webster group leaders Doris Wille, Peter Wille, and Zech Teasdale. “Our role is to be the hands and feet of Jesus and build a home, sharing God’s love with the family.” The volunteers and families could clearly see God at work in Acuña, because for the mother of one of the two families, her new home was an answer to a 16-year-old prayer!
In addition to sharing God’s love through their actions, the faithful missionaries also wanted to share it through His Word. That’s where Concordia Gospel Outreach came in.
CGO provided 250 Spanish Arch® Books, Bible Treasure books, and coloring books that speak of God’s forgiveness, love, and salvation. Books that remind of God’s promise to give us an eternal home in heaven, where Jesus says He prepares a room for each of us.
“They will have books in their own language that are all about Jesus,” said Teasdale. “They truly have been positively impacted for life in the name of Christ!”
As the families share with others the miracle that God provided in the form of new homes, they will also have the opportunity to share His Gospel with their words, their actions, and these books. God will use the two families and their churches to spread His saving Word to even the far reaches of Acuña, just like He used Team Webster’s missionaries to deliver His care, and how He used CGO to deliver His Word.
And how He used you and your generous support to help make it all happen.
We need your help to continue the mission. Concordia Gospel Outreach is able to send the Gospel all over the world because of the generous support of our donors. Every donation goes toward sharing the Gospel with someone who might never know Jesus. We encourage you to partner with us in this important work.
