Medical Missions
NAYARIT, MÉXICO
Humanitarian Aid and Outreach July 4th-21st
Thank you very much for the prayers and support that have made Echo’s biggest mission trip thus far possible! God brought our team of 30 people to 13 cities and remote villages in the state of Nayarit, Mexico and we give God ALL the glory for the miracles and ways He provided for our 21 day trip.
Our Goal: The purpose of this trip was to both equip and check up on local churches we had previously established relationships with. After speaking with each local pastor and learning how Covid-19 had impacted each church, we wanted to do whatever was needed to encourage and help them get back on their feet. We not only checked up on them spiritually by equipping church members through classes on discipleship, leadership, and teaching, but we also addressed them physically as we brought free medical and dental care to their communities.
Our Plan: Our objective in partnering with local churches was to bring both the gospel and humanitarian aid to 10 cities in 20 days. During the trip, we were informed of other churches that had needs we could help meet. Though they were in areas we had not originally planned on visiting, we were able to add three churches to our itinerary. God is so faithful to provide opportunities to help others when we are willing to serve and obey Him!
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. ISAIAH 55:8-9
Our Team: The very diverse and well-equipped team on this trip was a beautiful testimony of the body of Christ working together in unity. Our medical team consisted of doctors, dentists, nurses, a nutritionist, a physical therapist, and psychologists giving Biblical counseling. We also had instructors teaching and discipling local church members, a group of team members giving free haircuts during medical clinics, and many individuals assisting with children's programs.
Though we had a few Americans in our group, 95% of the team members were from Mexico. Creating a team of primarily Mexicans helped make our vision of training and raising a new generation of local leaders and missionaries a reality. As the trip progressed and each team member invested into their relationships with God, everyone grew spiritually and is on fire for the Lord! We have been so encouraged to see each person walk away from this trip motivated to continue the work that has been started. Please continue to pray for the local church and the people on the team who want to share Jesus in their communities!
A Day to Day Look at the Trip: Each morning began with group devotions and worship followed by individual Bible study and small group discussion. Immediately after breakfast, we traveled to a location, and split into teams. While one team set up the medical clinic, the rest went door to door sharing the gospel and inviting everyone to come to our first event: our humanitarian aid program. After hosting our medical clinics for three to four hours, we would break for lunch and then go out into the community again to invite everyone to come to our evening plaza event.
We had a lot of late nights and early mornings as we constantly prepared for the next day in a new city. The team was very flexible as we would change our daily game plan often to meet the needs of the church.
Humanitarian Aid Program: Nearly every day, we would set up our humanitarian program consisting of several stations: medical, dental, physical therapy, psychological help and haircuts. While providing all of these services, team members would converse with and pray for the adults in the waiting area while the children attended our gospel-centered children’s programs that would sometimes last up to two to three hours! We were very blessed with a wonderful team that would pray for and share the gospel with everyone that would listen!
Plaza Events: Our evening plaza events began with the team going door to door and inviting the community. We strove to provide a program that presented the gospel with excellence so we had a captivating and exciting presentation with a clear gospel message. One of our team members who is a clown did comedy sketches with audience participation and our entire team participated in skits throughout the program. After a time of worship, the kids would go to Bible club while a team member would preach to the adults. We always ended each event with an invitation for response and team members would go throughout the crowd praying for each person in attendance.
Testimonies: First and foremost, glory to God for the simple fact that He protected the entire team as we traveled from city to city. Our small caravan of cars often crossed over mountains and through rivers, but we serve a God of consistency who is the same yesterday, today, and will be forever and HE faithfully delivered us to each location! God also healed many people miraculously!
An elderly woman dealing with insomnia for nearly seven months after the death of her husband came to our medical clinic. We shared the promises of God in Scripture and prayed for her and that night she was able to sleep normally!
While doing a medical clinic at a men's rehabilitation center, a man with a stone stuck in his ear came to get it removed. Though we had tried to wash it out for half an hour and the doctor attempted to remove it using surgical instruments, we started telling him we probably couldn’t get it out because it was lodged into the wall of his ear canal and wouldn’t come loose. Before sending him away, we stopped and prayed for God to do a miracle. The doctor tried to remove it once more after praying and the stone came out almost immediately!
In the mountains of Colorado de la Mora, a man who was a sorcerer went to our clinic to be treated for his knee pain. After receiving corticosteroid injections in his knees, he felt much better and was surprisingly receptive to the gospel and willing to be prayed for. This is a reminder of how God loves to soften people’s hearts through acts of kindness.
When we went to La Quemada, the doctors made a house visit to a sick lady and prayed for her. They soon found out that she and her family were Christians and the doctor visit soon turned into a very encouraging Bible study! In tears, they told us that we were sent from God at the moment they needed it the most. It was very wonderful to see that their visit encouraged them so much and in the end, we also were very encouraged.
Numbers:
We reached the following 13 cities and villages: Apozolco, La Quemada, San Andrés, Guevara, Tequila, Amatlán, Ixtlán del Río, Jomulco, Colorado de la Mora, Tuxpan, Rosamorada, Tepic and La Puerta de la Lima.
Our medical staff had 840 patients registered for medical care, but realistically, they treated between 900-1,000 patients.
The dental team saw 255 patients for cleanings, cavity fillings and a lot of extractions.
The team giving hair cuts had their hands full! They took care of approximately 1,200
people!
Anywhere from 50-100 people attended our plaza events each night. Therefore,
approximately 1,800 people total attended our events.
We do not have the exact numbers, but we estimate that nearly 1,300 people heard
the gospel during our door to door outreach.
Our prayer team sat with each medical and dental patient sharing the gospel and
praying for them. In total, approximately 1,200 people received prayer and a one-on-
one conversation about the gospel during our humanitarian aid program.
All of this was accomplished with a surprisingly small budget of about $5,000USD or
$1.16 per person reached which in total was 4,300!
How You Can Pray: Please lift up the local churches and their leaders as they continue the work that was started on this trip! Each church we left is very motivated and our prayer is that God would grow them in number and in spiritual depth. We plan to return to some of these locations in January 2022 so please pray for the seeds that were planted to grow and produce fruit!