A couple of years ago, I wrote about an old high school friend who serves as a missionary/church planter/orphanage director in the North Mexico city of Matamoros. We reconnected on Facebook, and have been corresponding ever since. Tony and his family have been there for a number of years, laboring under difficult circumstances to reach people for Christ and improve the lives of the people in that city. They have sacrificed so much in the name of the Gospel, and they count it all joy.
Back in high school, Tony's nickname was "Mumbley" by his friends. He was shy and quiet, didn't talk much, but when he did, he had this deep, low voice and southern drawl. And he always has a smile on his face. Hard not to like him. I never would have pictured Tony as a preacher/teacher, and a missionary in a foreign land.
But Tony is my hero.
Over the past 4 years, around 30,000 people have died in Mexico in the drug wars between the cartels, the Mexican police & military, and innocent civilians. It truly is a war zone down there, along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Whether you are for or against amnesty for illegal immigrants here in the U.S., it hard for us to imagine the hellish nightmare and fear people live under down there every day. Little wonder so many want to flee across the border.
Tony lives and serves right in the middle of all this in Matamoros. He sees not only poverty, disease, and despair daily, but he also witnesses the crime, the death, the destruction of the drug war. Mexico is a country suffering a slow, painful death, and Tony is right there, reaching out to those in need, touching one heart at a time with the love of Christ. He sometimes sends out messages to us back here in the States, simply asking, "pray for peace in Mexico" and "pray hearts will turn to Christ, the only hope for Mexico."
Sometimes when I reflect on the fears we face back home here, I think of the uncertain economy, rising prices, rising taxes, job loss, healthcare issues, and so on. All very real concerns, no doubt. Then I'll get a message from Tony, and I'm reminded of how he, his family, and those they minister among fear for their lives, daily. Sobering thought.
And so I pray for my friend, serving Christ by serving "the least of these", in a war-torn border town called Matamoros. May God protect him, provide for him, multiply his work, and richly reward him one day.