My life in Chiapas Alejandro Medina V.

After 11 years of ministerial life in one of the biggest cities in the world, as Mexico City, first as a church pastor and after as an editor of the Mexican Publishing House, I decided accept an invitation to serve the Lord in Tuxtla Gutirrez, Chiapas, in southern Mexico, as a church pastor. First, it was a big change. Mexico is very different. Probably there are different kinds of this country. I was born in northern Mexico; I worked in central Mexico and now live in southern. Of course, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is very different around the country. In northern Mexico the SDA church grows slowly and with a poor leadership between the members. When I was a kid there were two temples in Baja California Sur, where I lived. The next Adventist community was Ensenada, Baja California, about 800 kms from my house, near of the border with the USA. In the industrial states there are few Adventist people and a church that is fighting for survive in the big Mexican cities. I worked in Mexico City with a special church. There were about 50 churches in the city, but many of the members were immigrants of the southern Mexico and formed subcultures in the city, including their religion. The church is in Mexico City but has very few people with the mentality and customs of one of the most important cities in Latin America. In December of 2005 I came to Tuxtla Gutirrez, Chiapas. It is a little city. But I was surprised when I knew that Chiapas has four conferences into the state! I came to the Central Chiapas Conference. Then I was informed that Tuxtla Gutirrez had about 100 churches! What is this? What kind of work the Adventist people is doing here?-I asked myself. But that is only the beginning. The conference assigned me 18 congregations. Well I thought- I will organize my work here. I have three middle congregations and the rest little and very little. But all are growing and working. I meet with the leaders of the principal church and assigned assessors to the little congregations. Everybody began to work. Every church was working in evangelism and attending the ecclesiastical problems, only the most difficult. The leadership was extraordinarily good. The people are educated in leadership. The pastor is like a manager or coordinator that leads the church, but people do the work. Probably, I was living the best time in my ministerial life. In Chiapas the SDA church preach with all it has: boys, kids, women and men. Recently I celebrated a Youth Camp Meeting of my District: I had about 200 boys and girls! It was extraordinary! When I was a teenager that was the number of assistants in a camp meeting of a northern Mexican conference! Chiapas is a very special territory for the SDA church. It has another kind of conditions to work. For example, the government is a churchs friend, a very different situation than in rest of the country. I think that we need to learn a very important lesson: leadership is the key point of the church. People need to be educated in leadership; they need to experience the power of the Word of God by themselves! And thats occurs when you give them an opportunity to serve the Lord.