Sunday Morning Sunday School Class at Emanuel Baptist

Rick works as treasurer for the team.

Dinner after church at a local restaurant.

Pastor preaches with the assistance of an interpreter. This was the first time that Dr. Shumate has served as an interpreter in Spanish.

Fellowship after Church

Rejoicing over a new birth.

This was the evening service at Ebenezer Baptist.

Front of the church

After the morning service

This is the entire group from the Hispanic Ministry Institute that is studying Spanish in Mexico.

Here is a view from high atop Hermosillo. Look closely to see the rain that was coming toward us. We made it back to the vans just in time.

The HMI team from Calvary Baptist on the central plaza in Hermosillo.

Here are a few pictures from the team and our travel. I’ll try to add to these throughout the day.

Thank you for praying for us. We have arrived safely in Hermosillo at the Institute.

Thank you so much for praying for our team. All of our team members have arrived safely. Today, we are in classes with the MGMI staff and the team members from other churches who have joined us for this trip.

On Thursday, we arrived so early that we were able to use one of the vans to take a quick side trip to Sedona, Arizona. Most of our team members had never been to Sedona, so this was a special blessing to be able to praise the Lord for the beautiful scenery which He has made. We’ve included a couple of pictures in this blog.

Please pray for us tomorrow as we prepare for an early departure for our trip into Mexico.

The Hispanic Ministry Team from Calvary Baptist Church will be traveling to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico on July 3. This team is working with MGM International (http://mgmi.org/English/) through the Ebenezer Institute in Hermosillo, Mexico. Representatives from five other churches will join us for the Hispanic Ministry Institute. These sessions will concentrate on immersing the students in the Mexican culture in order to help them gain a better grasp on the language.

Team members will be studying Spanish, helping to evangelize the local area around Hermosillo and participating in local church services. Please pray for our team members as they travel to Mexico. The team will depart on Thursday, July 3 and return on Monday, July 14. They will be reporting about their trip on Sunday, July 20 at 6 p.m. Watch this section of the blog for regular updates from the Hispanic Ministry Team.

On Thursday, July 3, our Hispanic Ministry Team will depart for Phoenix, Arizona. After a day-long orientation with MGM International, we will travel to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico on Saturday, July 5. The main purposes for this trip are to immerse our team members in the Spanish language and culture as well as to help the local congregations around the Ebenezer Bible Institute in Hermosillo. Please pray for our team members as they study Spanish within the Mexican culture. We are praying that the Lord will use this trip to prepare us to minister to the Hispanic people here in Ohio. The team will return to Findlay on Monday, July 14.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MGM INTERNATIONAL

AND

THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

By Dr. Richard L. Mercado
from the MGMI History page

The man who was left for dead

The history of MGM International begins with the story of its founder, Leonardo S. Mercado. Leonardo’s father, Gumecindo Mercado, emigrated with his family from Mexico City to northern Arizona during the Mexican Revolution. The family was traveling by railway pushcart toward El Paso, Texas. During one rest stop, they stumbled on a man who had been left for dead alongside the railroad tracks. Gumecindo insisted they do what they could to help the wounded man, and, despite some objections that adding him to the pushcart would jeopardize the onward journey, they lifted him to the cart along with all their baggage and renewed their travel toward the United States. Sometime later they were suddenly ambushed by a marauding group of Pancho Villa’s bandits. Just as those raiders were deciding what valuables to take with them and how to dispose of their captives, the stranger who had been befriended by the Mercados spoke up. “¡No! ¡No les hagan daño!” “No, don’t harm these good people. I was lying helpless by the tracks many miles back. These strangers picked me up. They’ve saved my life. Now you spare them.” As it turned out, Pancho Villa’s henchmen knew the wounded man, and, for the sake of their friendship, the bandits rode off, leaving the Mercados and their new friend to resume their migration northward.

Spiritual Pilgrimage

Arriving finally at Williams, Arizona, the Mercado family settled into their new environment with young Leonardo serving as an altar boy in the Roman Catholic Church. In time, a young Anglo neighbor boy who befriended Leonardo began inviting him to visit his Methodist Sunday School. Despite Leonardo’s objections and insistence that he couldn’t go there, that neighbor pal kept on, week by week, persisting in inviting him. Finally Leonardo went, he heard the gospel of salvation, and he received Christ as his very own personal Savior. That was the beginning of the spiritual pilgrimage that would eventually lead him to the Spanish-American Theological Seminary of Los Angeles, California, where somewhere around 1923 or 1924 he became one of the school’s first graduates.

Early Ministry

While still a seminary student, one day Leonardo and his father were walking down one of the main streets of San Pedro when they heard the strains of a gospel song. Following the sound of the music, they arrived at an old-fashioned gospel street meeting and there was an earnest and attractive young lady playing the little portable organ. Leonardo whispered to his father, “Dad, I’m going to marry that young lady.” Read the rest of this entry »