Our first ministry in Mexico was totally unintentional. We I had gone to a beach resort on a fishing trip. The day we had reservations forthe deep-sea fishing boat, we woke up to very poor weather conditions and very choppy seas–just perfect for seasickness, which we all got! I spent most of my time throwing up. I wasn’t a very good fisherman, but we did a fairly good job of fishing for men. I was wearing a T-shirt from Nicaragua that said, “Jesus is my best friend,” in Spanish. Well, while I was hanging over the gunnels of the boat throwing up into the sea, the captain read my shirt and asked if I knew what it said. When I told him that I did, he replied that he didn’t think that Jesus was his best friend. He said that he didn’t want to go back to the Catholic Church because of all that was happening with the Catholic priests these days. He wondered if he should go to the Mormon Church. I, of course, told him, “No,” to that idea. Between bouts of throwing up over the edge ofthe boat, we talked a lot the rest of the day. He prayed the sinner’s prayer and asked us to write it down so be could pray it again later and also share it with his family. I got him to give me his address so I could send him some literature to read. Later that next day, we stopped in a drug store for sunburn lotion because our son had gotten a really bad burn on the boat. Noticing an open Bible on the pharmacist’s counter, I asked the girl ifshe were reading it. When we discovered that she was a Spirit-filled Christian, I got the address of a church to send to the boat captain so thathe didn’t have to try the Mormon Church!
2007
Peggy was the first to go to Mexico on an official mission when she was invited to be part of a team of ladies who wee going down to hold special meeting in the country. She says that Mexico proved to be quite the “divine appointment” place for her. Every night her spoke at churches that were open and responsive. At the altar calls, all of the seats were empty as they saw the people come forward. God truly had Peggy bring the message that they needed to hear. She added that there is nothing more rewarding than to see God’s children hungry and seeing God feed them. At one meeting the praise and worship leader and his wife were really touched by God. As we were driving home, Peggy kept hearing a car behind hers honking the horn. Finally, they came to a stoplight, and the driver of the honking car jumped out and came to her window. It was the praise and worship leader. He asked me to open the window, and the next thing she knew he quickly gave me a handful of money. Talk about “blessings chasing you down.” In the churches, as she met people who started talking with her, the Lord would gave her words and anointing to pray for them. How awesome is our God! As they say in Mexico, “Gracias (thank you) and vaya con Dios (God be with you)!”
2008
Peggy and Delron were asked to take a team of thirty-one students from Charis Bible College to Mexico for a week of door-to-door evangelism and tent ministry. Peggy and Delron’s job was to coach the students as they ministered since many of them had never done anything like this before. It was so fulfilling to see these once-shy students as they matured from the first of the week with faltering attempts to lead someone to the Lord to confident ministry by the end of the week. The result of the mission was that the team recorded a hundred twenty-four salvations and about half that many baptisms in the Holy Spirit. They also saw a number of miraculous healings with blind eyes opening and people getting up out of wheel chairs or walking without their walkers.
2009
Again this year, Delron he and Peggy were asked to direct another a team of thirty-three students from the school across the border to get an introduction to missions. The weeklong encounter was packed with a variety of cross-cultural and evangelical experiences. Due to the size of the group, we divided into two teams that worked in different areas of the community but held identical programs at the two locations.
The week began as the students ministered in local churches. It was the first time that any of the students had worked with interpreters as they shared their testimonies or preached, yet each team saw great results as the people responded to their invitations for salvation, healing, or prayer for other needs. Each morning, the students worked in small teams with local interpreters to canvas the areas in a home-to-home visitation, inviting the residents of the communities to the evangelistic tent meetings that would be held that evening. Again, the personal one-on-one at the people’s doorsteps and the whole tent-evangelism program were a new experience for most of them; however, each day was highlighted with numerous salvations, healings, and baptisms in the Holy Spirit.
Rather than writing our own testimony of what happened on this mission to Mexico, we’d like to share with you a report that the missionary we worked with published after our visit: “Well we just wrapped up a week of working with a missions group that came from Colorado to help us do a couple of outreaches here in Victoria. We had such a great time working with this group. They came with a heart to really minister to the people — and it showed. It was truly amazing what God did through their time here. On the last night of one of the crusades we had many notable miracles take place. One of the first was of an elderly lady who had not been able to walk in a year. The group prayed for her and she eventually starting walking on her own. Another testimony is of a boy who had an infection in his ear that affected his eyesight. We prayed for him and the pain in the ear left and his sight improved. Another who had nerve pain from his hip down to the back of his knee was completely healed. Still another miracle took place when a young man sitting out in the crowd was healed of pain and numbness that was in his foot after having been run over by a fire truck. Many of those healed had a look of astonishment on their faces. When the first person had testified of her healing to the crowd, people’s faith began to increase and then miracles started taking place left and right. A few days after the group left, I met a nurse at the hospital who asked me to pray for a young child in her family who had fractured its skull in a fall. I began to share with her some of the testimonies of healing from the crusade the group just had. The nurse said that she had heard about this crusade where all the miracles had taken place from someone who had been healed in one of the evening services. I was amazed at how quickly the news had spread, since the town has over a quarter million people.”
2015
Go to a Spanish country to produce an English-medium Bible college curriculum? Yes, that was the request that Bobby Crow, veteran missionary to Mexico, presented to Delron and Peggy. Because his video Spanish-language courses had been so successful around the world, requests were coming in from places like India, the Philippines, and Kenya wanting the same material in English. Delron was assigned the New Testament Survey course while Peggy was to record the Living a Victorious Christian life course, which would be distributed to church-based Bible schools in several nations — including as many as four hundred locations in the Philippines alone — as well as to the general public who will be able to download the material from the internet.
Delron also had the opportunity to preach at The Word of Life Church in Ciudad Victoria where many responded to the altar call. Among those who responded to the invitation was one particular young policeman who had recently been in a very serious accident. His brother asked some of the elders from the church to visit him in the hospital where he hung between life and death. After his miraculous recovery, the young man and his whole family attended the church service to give thanks to God for saving his life even though he did lose one of his legs to the accident. After hearing the message about how Jesus came to free us from sin and guarantee entrance into heaven, he had his brother push the wheelchair to the front of the church so he could be born again.