Mike Philips in Reynosa, Mexico

Reynosa, Mexico

February 21-28, 2009

Harmony Bible Church of Danville, Iowa sponsored a family mission trip. The purpose of the trip was two fold.

First, our team worked with an awesome organization called Isaiah 55, a deaf ministries organization that also supports other ministries. Through Isaiah 55, our team worked on construction of a housing complex in Reynosa for a ministry group called 24/7. 24/7 ministers to those who live in a designated area in Reynosa where prostitution and drug use is legal.

The second purpose of the mission trip was to find a need for clean water in Mexico’s interior region. Five of us took a van and had an adventure. Our group consisted of Dr. Jose Reyna, Bill Price, Pat Peterson, my 14-year-old son, Landon, and I.

We left Monday morning and drove to CD Victoria, where we had a couple of different contacts to meet with. First, we met with missionaries Jerry and Carla Mansee and they recommended a missionary in Juamave. Next we met with our other contact, which turned out to be a group of pastors. The Lord was with us and protected us during this meeting. Not knowing Bill Price understood Spanish, one of them wanted the unit exclusively for his church, and one of the others suggested that the chlorine could be sold! That night we prayed as a group for the Lord to show us who should receive the units and felt led to go to the missionary in Juamave.

We drove south to Juamave where missionary, Mark Dover, lives. Mark and his uncle have built over 270 churches in remote Mexico over the past 15 years through their ministry called Living Springs Mission. Mark is ready and willing to have mission groups to come to Living Springs Mission and this would be a tremendous location for an inexpensive family mission trip to be based out of! Mark took us to three villages in the mountains. On the way to one of the villages, we saw a woman getting her family’s water out of a pond with three donkeys standing at the edge, all sharing the same dirty water. In the villages, we also used dirty water to make chlorine. At each village we were able to train their pastor and leave behind a water unit to impact hundreds of lives both physically and spiritually!

We returned to Reynosa and Isaiah 55. On Friday, we took our 31 member mission team and installed our last water unit at Pillar of Hope Orphanage, which is just south of Reynosa. This orphanage is faith funded and always short on money. The children from our church raised the money for this unit. Pillar of Hope directors, Sarah Gutierrez and Paulien Naber, asked for all of us to gather together. With tears in their eyes, they told us that for two years they and the children had been praying for a miracle like this! At church this last Sunday, I told the kids that their water unit was placed at the Pillar of Hope orphanage, and they told me that this month’s children’s church theme is HOPE! Wow! This really helped the word hope come to life for our children. Praise God for His presence and help on our trip. It was life changing, especially for the younger ones who were along.

One blessing for me personally is to train the person on the unit and then tie in bible verses. I ask the person that I am training to read their own Bible, and as they read, you can see the words come alive. Then, at some point, they understand that this device is about the Living Water! What a great tool John has invented to spread the

Word with. Here are the verses I use in order:

1. Matthew 25:35-40

2. 2 Peter 3:5

3. Ephesians 5:25-26

4. 1 John 5:5-8

5. John 4:7-14

6. Jeremiah 2:13

7. 2 Kings 2:19-22

8. Matthew 10:42 (God's Blessing)

In His Service – Mike Philips