CRC Congregation Reaches out to Mayans in Mexico

Inocencia had been bleeding on and off for many days before the medical missionary team from Sunshine Community Church in Grand Rapids arrived in the Mexican community of Xocenpich last year.

A Mayan Indian, Inocencia was pale, weak and hardly able to lift herself from her hammock when they first encountered her, recalls Beth Hutchings, a nurse and one the leaders of Sunshine’s extensive medical and evangelistic outreach effort – an effort bolstered by support from Christian Reformed World Missions missionaries on the ground in Mexico.

After a quick but thorough examination, the surgical team from Michigan determined that Inocencia needed to have a hysterectomy in order to stop the life-threatening bleeding. Leading the team was Dr. Adam Blickley, an obstetrician/gynecologist who attends Sunshine. He and his team work in a small medical facility called Clinica Bethesda.

“Our team was able to perform Inocencia’s hysterectomy and put her on the road to recovery,” says Hutchings in a letter she sent late last year seeking support for her church’s short-term mission outreach.

Spurred on by the encouragement of CRWM, Sunshine members have been making the trip for the last four years in partnership with CRWM missionaries John and Shirley Wind. Sunshine members leave again at the end of the month to provide medical care, friendship and Christian discipleship to the people -- as well as veterinary care to some of the animals -- living in and around the Mayan village located on the Yucatan Peninsula.

“Our vision is to reach out to the people of Xocenpich and surrounding areas, to show the love of Christ, give him the glory, and build up his kingdom,” says Hutchings.

Lois Craven, director of donor relations for CRWM, says that Sunshine’s commitment to the people of Mexico is an example of how one healthy CRC church can join with the denomination, if even informally, to make a big difference in the lives of people. “They have worked with long-term missionaries who know the culture and needs, and can help facilitate the project,” says Craven.

Including this year’s mission, more than 80 Sunshine members have made the trip to Mexico. For the last two years, the church has split the members into two teams: one that arrives first in Xocenpich and does surgery for several days and the other that conducts a children’s ministry in a nearby community called San Francisco.

“The amazing thing about this project is how it has grown to include the whole church at Sunshine. Everyone knows about and supports this project,” says Joyce Kronemeyer, a nurse anesthetist who helps to coordinate the program.

With photos of past trips spread out in front of them in one of Sunshine’s prayer rooms, Hutchings, Kronemeyer and Wendy Bronkema, leader of the team that works in San Francisco, this week recalled and told stories of the people with whom they have worked.

There was Norma, a woman who was unable to have children. They met Norma in 2005, did an ultra sound and determined that there was no physical reason why she could not conceive. After their visit, Norma learned she was pregnant. When the team saw her in 2006, they realized that her baby needed to be re-positioned inside the womb in order to make the birth easier and safer. Last year, Norma was happy to show members of the team her healthy child.

The three women from Sunshine also sorted through photos showing some of the children in San Francisco. Along with their parents, the children were very wary of the people from Sunshine when they first began to travel to the community to do mission work.  But the children and their parents have warmed up considerably because the group from the United States keeps coming back year after year.

“It has been very satisfying being able to help the children know who Jesus is,” says Bronkema. “We teach them who Jesus is, but we are also able to be Jesus to these children.”

The idea for the mission project goes back several years to when the Winds, whose efforts Sunshine supports, spoke to the congregation about mission work and suggested to Hutchings that the church might consider doing a short-term project in Mexico.

Sunshine members who make the trips feel blessed by their work, but say there is no way that they could do it successfully without the support of the CRWM missionaries. The Winds help coordinate everything from finding vehicles to obtaining translators to providing follow-up spiritual care and education to the Mayan people of this area when the people from Sunshine leave.

“They (John and Shirley Wind) are like the glue, the foundation for what we are able to do,” says Hutchings.