Service and Learning Team possibilities

Come visit us! It is our goal to receive and organize one or two Service and Learning Teams per year.

Service and Learning Teams are teams from Christian Reformed Churches that come to the field for a week or more to learn about Mexico, learn about God's work and our ministry there, and participate in what God is doing, by their prayer and service. Dave and the team coordinate suitable dates, the team organizes its own air travel, and Dave organizes hotel and transportation. We ask teams doing construction to bring $3,000 to help the local church purchase construction materials. The local Mexican church provides people to work alongside the team, and organizes the midday meal for the team. Every team we have organized has bonded with the local church so much that most everybody is teary-eyed as farewells are spoken.

For Mexico City teams we also try to plan a cultural day in which Dave takes the team to see either historic downtown Mexico City or the Teotihuacan pyramids.The teams we have organized have primarily been construction teams, but we can accomodate other types of teams (evangelistic teams, prayer teams, etc). We have a number of requests from Mexican churches for teams to come for a week and help them with construction needs for their church buildings.

Contact us at the following address for more information: dgifford (at) crcna (dot) org

Requests from our Mexican partner churches

  • Ridgewood service and learning team, 2006
  • Bethel mission in Totolco. Bethel is a small mission is on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City. Evangelist Teresa Ramirez and her family oversee this mission. They warmly received a team from Ridgewood CRC (Jenison, MI) in 2005, but the mission wants to finish a second level of classrooms for the children who attend.

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  • Jesus el Salvador Church / The Reformed Theological Seminary of Mexico. JES church, which houses their denomination's seminary, is located in the Ajusco neighborhood of Mexico City. The seminary has in years past received a number of teams from Shawnee Park CRC (Grand Rapids, MI), but the last team came in 2004 and now the seminary would like to build a new floor, which would be a parsonage for a future seminary rector.

  • Cordero de Dios church in Cancun
  • Cordero de Dios Church, Cancún, Quintana Roo. Pastor Luis Aké has asked me for a team to help in widening the sanctuary by tearing down the wall between the sanctuary and the parsonage, and getting the widened sanctuary in shape for services. Because we live nowhere near Cancún, there would need to be a discussion regarding the logistics and financial aspect of our participation or that of another CRWM missionary.

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  • El Divino Jesus Church, Komchen, Yucatan. Lay worker Luis Cohuo Santos recently asked me if we could find a team to come to their church to help with construction. His interest is more in the encouragement and motivation that his church would get from receiving a team than about help with money or manpower. Because we live nowhere near Komchen (which is near Mérida), there would need to be a discussion regarding the logistics and financial aspect of our participation or that of another CRWM missionary.