PUEBLA, Mexico – Jason Walters wants his church to carry out the Great Commission by identifying its Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth.
The student pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis has taken mission teams to the United Kingdom and the Dominican Republic, and his church already partners with other churches in Iowa and West Africa.
But when Walters and senior pastor Daniel Carr heard about the vision being cast by 60 churches in the Puebla/Tlaxcala region of Mexico, they sensed God leading them to explore a partnership there.
So Walters recently boarded a plane in St. Louis with Rick Hedger, director of missional evangelism/discipleship for the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), and together they took a vision trip to Mexico.
While there for a week, Walters met with dozens of pastors, church leaders, and laypersons to discover their needs for helping the Puebla/Tlaxcala Regional Baptist Convention achieve its goal of 10,000 baptisms and 100 new church starts by 2020.
At a meeting one cool morning in the mountains north of the city of Puebla, Walters told church leaders of Iglesia Bautista Cristo El Salvador Del Mundo (Christ the Savior of the World Baptist Church), “I am here to see how God would have me and my church serve alongside you for the glory of God.”
Walters is evaluating the needs and goals of each participating church in Puebla/Tlaxcala so that he may bring more than 20 students and adults in July. Their focus will be on student ministry and church planting.
Wherever God directs them, Walters and his team of volunteers will help reach thousands for Christ who live in a region characterized by nominal Catholicism or no religion at all.
“We are at God’s disposal,” said Walters. “Where He sends us, we’ll go.”