From Monte Hebrón to the world: The growth of Mexican missions

The international reach of Monte Hebrón developed through a succession of people and congregations: students who became pastors, church workers who prepared for another country, and churches that learned to support missionaries themselves. Juan José and Alma Martínez, Samuel and Alicia Esquivel, Alfredo and Teresa Uc, Joaquín and Gloria Vázquez, and other families connected the ministry in Mexico with fields far beyond it. [1, 4, 5, 8, 11]

The movement involved more than sending graduates abroad. Deputation brought missionary candidates into Mexican congregations to present their work and raise support. Missions conferences encouraged churches to give, pray, and consider sending workers. Eventually, churches pastored by Monte Hebrón graduates were sending missionaries of their own. [11, 15]

Church workers prepare for other countries

In August 2004, Juan Martínez and his wife, Alma, were preparing to go to China. Both were institute graduates and had worked on the Monte Hebrón staff for eight years. Alma had been saved and had grown up in the church. Their departure would take experienced workers from familiar responsibilities into a new setting; Monte Hebrón was their sending church. [1]

Samuel Esquivel and his wife, Alicia, were also raising support, with Israel as their intended field. By the March 2005 conference, Juan José Martínez, Samuel Esquivel, and Fidel Leija, whose field was Cuba, were presenting their missionary work before the congregation and visiting delegates. The conference combined Fires of Evangelism with Faith Promise Missions, placing personal evangelism and international outreach within the same gathering. [1, 2]

Among the speakers and participants helping shape that conference were Michael Cox, Elmer Fernández, Ezequiel Salazar, Kevin Wynne, Víctor Álvarez, and Arturo Muñoz. The missionary presentations gave the gathering named people and destinations to pray for and support. [2]

Samuel and Alicia Esquivel: From preparation to Israel

Samuel graduated from the institute in May 2004; Alicia had graduated in 1990. On April 22, 2007, Monte Hebrón ordained and commissioned Samuel for missionary service. Their preparation had included three years of deputation, visits to 383 churches, and 131,250 miles of travel. Samuel and Alicia, with their sons Israel and Isaac, were scheduled to leave Mexico City on April 30. [4]

By May 2011, the ministry they had established in Israel included a self-supporting congregation averaging fifty people, both Jews and Gentiles. That congregation supported twenty-five missionaries in fourteen countries and a children’s home in Burma. It also operated a Bible institute with eight students preparing to return to their countries and establish churches. [7]

The work had therefore moved beyond the original journey from Mexico. A congregation on the field was supporting other missionaries and training additional workers. Samuel subsequently helped encourage missions within Mexico as well: by February 2014, he had organized missions schools in strategic cities, and Tommy had taught or preached in four of those meetings since January 2013. Their purpose was to introduce pastors to world missions and help them develop missionary programs in their churches. [7, 9]

Juan José and Alma Martínez: China and plans for Taiwan

The Martínez family’s work developed through changing circumstances. Their early preparation for China followed years of service at Monte Hebrón. By May 2011, they were returning to China to resume a ministry begun four years earlier. [1, 7]

By August 2017, Juan José and his family were preparing for a new field in Taiwan. After four years in the People’s Republic of China, remaining there had become extremely difficult. Their earlier work had produced converts who continued to follow Christ. The family was scheduled to leave Chicago O’Hare for Taipei on August 31, 2017, to begin missionary service there. [14]

The Taiwan departure was still a forthcoming event in that August account. It marked the next intended stage of the family’s service after their work in mainland China. [14]

More graduates consider international fields

The range of intended destinations broadened during the following years. These accounts preserve different stages of preparation, rather than a single roster of missionaries already established abroad:

• Joaquín Vázquez made a survey trip to Nicaragua in September 2006. By January 2010, Joaquín and Gloria Vázquez, both institute graduates and members of the church, were preparing to leave for Nicaragua in the coming weeks. [3, 5]
• Juan Loredo was beginning deputation for Costa Rica in September 2006. Jaime Jiménez, another graduate, had also announced plans for Costa Rica. [3]
• Jonathan Garza was on deputation for Ukraine in September 2006. [3]
• Neftalí López and his wife were preparing for Haiti in January 2010. [5]
• Santiago Soto, a member of the 2010 graduating class, had been called to missionary work in Portugal. Fellow graduate José Bravata was considering China as a possible field. [6]
• Elinaí Fombona began deputation for Argentina in late 2013, with a survey trip planned for the following January. [8]
• Pedro Pérez was preparing for Spain when he took part in missions conferences described in December 2014. Alfredo Uc and Samuel Esquivel were also featured in those meetings. [10]
• Andrés Luna, his wife Lupita, and their daughter Marisol were planning a survey trip to Brazil in the fall of 2017. Monte Hebrón was paying the full cost through its faith-promise missions program. Andrés had been saved and baptized in the church as a teenager. [14]

The names represent distinct families and decisions: an exploratory visit, a period of raising support, a stated calling, or preparation to depart. Together, they show how international service was becoming a recurring possibility for people trained in and around the ministry. [3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14]

Alfredo and Teresa Uc: Deputation within Mexico

Alfredo and Teresa Uc announced their plans for Thailand in 2013. Both were institute graduates. Before beginning deputation, Alfredo had taught an adult Sunday School class and overseen Mount Hebrón Publications, producing Spanish-language ministry materials. His preparation for another country followed substantial service within the local church. [8]

By July 2015, Alfredo had completed a two-week survey trip to Thailand. He and Teresa, with their two infant daughters, planned to leave for the field the following summer. Alfredo had presented their ministry in more than 150 Mexican churches; up to that point, all his deputation had taken place within Mexico. [11]

Those visits also became opportunities to encourage pastors to begin missions programs. Raising support for one family helped introduce other congregations to the responsibility of supporting workers beyond their own communities. [11]

Mexican congregations send and support missionaries

The churches connected with Monte Hebrón were autonomous congregations. Graduates who started churches were not operating branches under a central hierarchy. Tommy offered guidance when requested, and Monte Hebrón helped some new works financially through its missions program, especially in their early stages. [11]

That distinction matters in following the network of people. In 2017, Isaac Martínez and his wife were preparing for Argentina, sent by the church pastored by institute graduate Félix Monterrosa. They attended Monte Hebrón’s missions conference, but their sending congregation was another church. A graduate’s ministry had become a source of further missionary service. [15]

Noé Montelongo’s church in Escobedo provides another example of expanding missionary support. Noé had been saved at age nine in a Bible club held by Monte Hebrón. Gerald Branch had begun the Escobedo congregation as a mission out of the church. Noé later trained at the institute directed by Luis Ramos; by autumn 2017, the congregation he pastored supported more than fifty missionaries. [15]

The same network included pastors whose work centered in Mexico. Eduardo Cruz had been saved and baptized in the church of institute graduate Ricardo Maldonado. Eduardo and his wife graduated in 1999, and he later became pastor of the La Fama church founded by Danny Reeves. Other graduates included Juan Pablo Rodríguez, who had served with Eliud Corona before starting a church in San Miguel de Allende, and Pablo Flores, a 1971 graduate who had started and pastored three churches. These congregations and workers formed part of the wider church-building setting in which missionary giving and sending developed. [8, 15]

Prayer, giving, and the annual conference

At Monte Hebrón, missionary support involved regular prayer as well as financial commitments. In November 2015, the church supported sixty-three missionaries. Its eleven geographical divisions each received a list of missionaries and prayed together after Wednesday services, ensuring that every supported missionary was mentioned. Members were also encouraged to pray daily for those on their lists. [12]

That year’s missions conference brought a faith-promise commitment of 17,720 Mexican pesos per week. Twelve people—eight young people and two married couples—surrendered for missionary service. International dinner displays represented fields including China, Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, Iraq, El Salvador, the United States, Cambodia, and Colombia, as well as Mexican states. [12]

At Samuel Esquivel’s suggestion, Jonathan prepared a contrasting display for Somalia, using a video and prayer cards without a named missionary. Its purpose was to direct attention toward an underserved country. One young man expressed a calling to Somalia during the conference; the account records that decision, rather than a subsequent departure. [12]

The November 10–13, 2016 conference produced an annual faith-promise commitment of 750,000 pesos, enabling the church to support missionaries who had been on its waiting list. In November 2017, with Jonathan as pastor, the church reported supporting sixty missionaries and anticipated adding five more following increased commitments. These were snapshots of support at different dates. [13, 15]

Another generation prepares to go

The Ashcraft family’s own missionary service also continued across generations. Henry and Tammie González had served in El Salvador for more than twenty years by January 2018. Their son Daniel González had graduated from Hyles-Anderson College in 2017 and was engaged to Megan Juarez. [16]

Daniel and Megan planned to marry in March 2018, spend a year working at her home church, Baily’s Grove Baptist Church in Asheboro, North Carolina, under Pastor Jon Shook, and then begin deputation to join Henry’s work in El Salvador. Those plans placed a further generation within a story already involving church members, students, teachers, pastors, and sending congregations in several countries. [16]

Through families such as the Esquivels, Martínezes, Ucs, Vázquezes, Lunas, and Gonzálezes—and through the congregations supporting them—the ministry’s international reach grew through specific relationships and repeated acts of preparation, giving, and service. [1, 4, 5, 11, 14–16]