The Only CRCNA Congregation Outside the U.S. and Canada

Here and there, bullet holes pock the outside walls of Mission of Faith International, a Christian Reformed Church in North America congregation in northern Mexico near the U.S. border.

Doing ministry amid violent gang and drug activity along the U.S./Mexico border, the church works hard to serve and connect with the people of the city of Reynosa. In 2018 the Council of Delegates of the CRCNA — which governs the denomination when synod is not in session —  accepted Mission of Faith as a CRCNA congregation, making it the only congregation of the denomination that is located outside of the United States and Canada.

In 2019 the church formally joined the denomination. Even though the denomination’s roots go back to the Netherlands, the CRCNA offers much that they have been looking for, said Manuel Sosa, pastor of the church with his wife, Sandra. Both were recently ordained as commissioned pastors in the CRCNA.

“Being a part of the CRC is a great privilege that God has given us, in which I highlight fellowship and zeal for the holy things and the sound doctrine,” said Sosa.

Mission of Faith International is part of a multisite arrangement, including a church in McAllen, Tex., just across the border from Reynosa, and another in Conroe, Tex., about 380 miles north in the Houston area.

Church leaders in Texas say that the Reynosa congregation, in becoming part of the CRC, is an outgrowth of an active church-planting process begun when Jerry Holleman served as the cofounding pastor in 1979 of New Life CRC in Spring, Texas. Since then, several of the more than 20 CRCs in Texas have been planted or sprung into being largely because of the activity of existing congregations.

A few CRC congregations in Texas have a history dating back several decades, but many trace their roots to the growth of church plants that began in the 1980s. Around that time, Classis Rocky Mountain, the regional body to which many of the Texas congregations belong, became active in starting churches in parts of Texas.

“I credit Classis Rocky Mountain with promoting the growth and giving churches the sense of freedom and readiness to open up to new ideas and new ways of doing things,” said Holleman, who left the Spring church in the 1990s to work for what was then Christian Reformed Home Missions and is now Resonate Global Mission, which has supported many of the church plants.

“Classis always brought in pastors who were adventurers, those who represented a range of ethnic groups and supported them in their willingness to take on fresh challenges,” said Holleman.

Reaching across the Border

Most recently this group of Texas churches took on the task and challenge of bringing the church in Mexico into the denomination, said Holleman.

Holleman gives credit to Andy Sytsma, a son of missionaries and the current pastor of New Life CRC, with helping to spearhead growth in church plants and ministries within Hispanic and Filipino and Nigerian communities in Texas. 

Although some of this growth came as part of a strategic plan, much of it stems from relationships churches and pastors have forged with one another, said Sytsma.

For instance, Sytsma connected with Pablo Gaggero, a church planter who came from California to begin a church in Texas. Gaggero is friends with Diego Hiriart, who started the church several years ago in Reynosa.

“Pablo and Diego and their wives are church planters. They believe God has called them to begin new churches,” said Sytsma. “Once they plant a church, they often move on.”

In early 2013, Gaggero planted a church on the campus of New Life CRC. He is now training other church planters and at the same time planting another church in Splendora, Tex., north of Houston.

Considering all of these CRC church plants, Gaggero said, “I think these are the result of a vision of growth and expansion on the part of congregations across Texas.”

At the same time, he said, he hopes to see more support from the CRC as a denomination for Hispanic ministries and “the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us. . . . This would bring not just growth but also a spiritual renewal in many areas of our communities.”

Facing the Issues

Challenging many churches in Texas, especially church plants, is the reality that many Hispanic church members are undocumented, said Jimmy Jackson, who for many years worked along the border and is familiar with issues making it sometimes hard to grow churches in a predictable way.

“Some of the people, if they don’t have [immigration] orders, don’t have a qualified/eligible petitioner to adjust their status,” said Jackson. “These undocumented are very hard workers but may not earn a lot of money.”

Jackson attends Mission of Faith International in Conroe, Tex., where Diego and Camila Hiriart are pastors. “They are a very dedicated husband/wife team as our pastoral leaders. . . . Our small membership is growing slowly but surely.”

Right now, because of COVID-19, Diego and Camila Hiriart use the internet to keep spreading the word. “Our in-church services were on Sunday and Thursday; now the pastors use the internet to keep spreading God’s message on the same days.  They regularly send texts with verses to read, and they also check up on congregants with phone calls,” said Jackson.

Going to Reynosa

Diego Hiriart and his wife met while attending a seminary in Argentina. They determined that the Lord wanted them to work for him in some  way. “Our passion was to serve God,” said Diego. “Our wish was to be useful, and we didn’t care what position that would be.”

Eventually they came to see they were being called to work in Reynosa. Moving north, Hiriart said, they arrived without much money. So he washed dishes to make a living.

When few people showed up to attend church in the early days, he put out a sign in the drug-riddled community, offering God’s help to people who wanted to come to Mission of Faith to build better lives.

At first things started with a trickle of members. They met in homes and later in storefronts before eventually moving, as numbers grew, into the current church building.

It was hard going, Hiriart said, but they were on a mission of faith, begun and supported by God in a city close to the U.S. border, where chaos reigns for many reasons and the work of God among the people is desperately needed.

“Our church grew from a few members to 160 members,” said Diego. “We are so grateful that last year the Dutch church accepted us.”

Supporting the Church in Reynosa

Mark Hilbelink,  pastor of Sunrise CRC in Austin and stated clerk of Classis Rocky Mountain, has been a strong backer of the Hiriarts and their ministry.

Churches in Texas for years had wanted to begin ministries to serve Hispanic people. But they were waiting for leaders to arise, said Hilbelink.

When Gaggero and Hiriart arrived, the classis stepped in to help them plant Hispanic congregations. After Sosa became the pastor in Reynosa about three years ago, they started the process of helping them to affiliate with the CRCNA, said Hilbelink.

Hilbelink added that Mission of Faith “is about the only place members of the church go. Otherwise the city is too violent to move around.”

When he has been to the church in Reynosa, said Hilbelink, he has seen tanks and soldiers in the streets. In addition, there is a strong police presence — and yet drug cartels are the ones in charge. Lining the roads are burned-out vehicles; stopping to talk with people is not a good idea.

“Mission of Faith is a storefront church in the middle of a lawless city,” said Hilbelink.

Currently, he added, the classis is working to obtain a visa for Manuel Sosa and his wife so that they can move across the border to live in McAllen, where they can help to serve the CRC congregation there as well as cross the border to work in Reynosa.

“Manuel would like to move because they have two kids and it is very dangerous,” said Hibelink. “Geographically the two churches are very close, even though it can take a long time to cross the border.”

Living Out the Mission

Despite a history plagued with kidnappings of church members, murder in the community, and the struggle to assist people who come to Reynosa on their way to seek refuge in the U.S., Mission of Faith has been consistently offering the message of the gospel for nearly 20 years

Even during the separation of people because of the current COVID-19 virus, the message goes out.  

“We have created a mission community, using digital platforms for our meetings, and I highlight the life and participation of the whole church, each of us meeting at home with their family,” said Manuel Sosa.

Facing more than the virus in Reynosa, they remain stalwart in their faith amid the cartels and the needs of refugees.

“Every year we see new people receiving salvation, being baptized, and ordering their steps,” he said, “because, as it says in Acts 4:20, ‘we cannot stop announcing what we have seen and heard.’”