Spring Break Registration

Our Spring Break 2007 registration site is now available. Visit www.mexicofocus.com to plan your trip during March!

More Confirmation

God continues to connect me with men and women who are on fire for Him in this city. The other night I visited a church that had sprouted from what I would call a Life Transformation Group (the same type of group that we plant on college campuses).

A young pastor and his wife had begun meeting with the owner of a gym who was hungry to know more about God. After the Gospel took seed in his life, the gym owner became a believer. He wanted others to know about His Savior, so they planted a church that now meets in the cardio studio at the gym. (Funny, that's where I wanted to meet with a Life Transformation Group I began at Gold's Gym when I was in Albuquerque.)

He invited me to come to the church to share more about Enfoque México. This guy gets it. He's doing it right now. He understands the vision of launching movements from small groups. He loves the vision and wants to join in whatever way he can. It turns out that this young pastor is also under the care of his uncle who is part of a much larger church out of Tampico. He plans on sharing the vision with his uncle and asking how they can form a formal partnership with us. His uncle also knows the senator that I am meeting with in January.

Our time was wonderfully rich. We spoke for over an hour sharing our passions with one another, and then we shared an incredibe time of intercessory prayer.

More and more I sense God's confirmation upon this ministry. I see more clearly how He has called me here to fit into His unfolding plan. Enfoque México will provide the glue that binds churches into a supernatural network that will enable us to reach every single university in Mexico City. I continually pray for this to happen, for God to grant wisdom, for Him to shed His light upon us that we might labor as the Body to see radical misssional movements launched all across this city.

Spring Break 2007

We're anticipating having several hundred students in Mexico City during the month of March to launch movements on the college campuses here. That's going to be an answer to prayer.

Each day I pray the Luke 10:2b prayer, along with others on my team. I ask the Lord to send laborers into the harvest. I believe that the end goal of this prayer for Mexico City will mean thousands of new believers planted on hundreds of universities reaching their campuses for Christ. But for now, I love hosting hundreds of believers from the states to launch movements here.

Would you like to join us? I'll extend the invitation to you. It doesn't matter what age you are. Come help change Mexico for Christ. Visit www.mexicofocus.com.

Cow Stomach Soup and Life Transformation

I went with a friend to church this morning in the northern part of the city. He is a trainer at my gym. He received Christ nearly ten years ago, and escaped from alcohol and drug addiction. However, he has struggled lately in his relationship with Christ.

We have agreed to meet together weekly to study the Scriptures and hold each other accountable. This week, we are reading through the Gospel of Luke. He came to my church last week, and I visited his this week.

After the service I went to his house for lunch. He lives in a very small apartment with his family of four. For lunch we had a soup with pancita. Pancita, as I came to find out, is cow's stomach. I had a hard time stomaching it after learning what it was. But I was so grateful for the generousity and hospitality of my friend. I hope his life and mine will impact many in my gym for Christ.

Teletón 2006

For the past ten years, Mexico has held a telethon to raise money for handicapped children. It's like the Jerry Lewis Telethon on steroids. The whole nation participates in this amazing event. Volunteers spent many months collecting money and promoting the telethon all over the country. On Friday and Saturday they held the actual event. Their goal: raise nearly $45,000,000.

Televisa, one of the world's largest media organizations, showed the event for two days straight. They showed videos of the children they had helped in the past. Their main thrust is providing clinics to help children all over the country. I did my best to hold back tears listening to the story of a family from Chiapis that had a crippled child. Teletón planned on building a clinic to help this child. Unfortunately help came too late, and he died before they finished construction.

The impact of this event was so strong. The nation was united like I'd never seen before. Coporations were donating millions. Actors and actresses were helping out. The top musicians in the country performed (Ricky Martin, Kumbia All Stars, RBD, Belinda, etc.). Even the president made an appearance.

And this event is only ten years old.

The host asked one of the children (who was mute) to write down in one word what Teletón meant to him. Here is what he wrote in all caps: ESPERANZA. That means HOPE.

The people of this country are desperate for hope. And they're ready to receive it and help give it. My dream is that soon Mexico Focus will have an even greater effect in spreading hope than this telethon.

People from my Past (Power of Presence)

In just the past month I have received four emails from people who were part of my life years ago, but who I haven't spoken with in as many years. All of them have said things that nearly made me weep...things like how Christ has become real to them now. Below is an excerpt from one of those guys:

I know that this is random. But this last month I was thinking about some of the things you said to me in college and I was probably thinking more about how excited you were about your faith and the way you felt and how you acted. I can honestly say I finally understand how you feel and why you viewed things the way you do. I feel as if I'm just beginning where you probably were many years ago. But I had to let you know that your actions go a long ways and you never know how many people you affect. Sometimes it is hard to see when your eyes are closed. God does amazing things when you open your heart.

That's the kind of stuff we all long to hear. It serves as a strong reminder that people watch us. When I show up somewhere, I bring the presence of Christ. Often times I feel I have little affect. But the Holy Spirit works, even when I can't see His hand.

One Away from Mexico's President

Today I met with a Senator here in Mexico. He is also the head of a church denomination in Mexico and helped lead Felipe Calderon (the new president) to Christ. He holds a Bible study with Calderon too. That puts me just one person away from the President of Mexico. I want to be careful what I write for political reasons. But this guy is the real deal.

We had a brief conversation, and he asked me to contact him tomorrow to set up a meeting to talk more about Enfoque México. He is definitely a strong candidate for an advisory board I'm putting together.

Mexico Focus Update

I made the mistake of not posting a blog after our Nov. 18th training time, which was amazing! We had 40 people there from different campuses all across the city. We trained them all to lauch movements that are committed to the Great Commission, the Great Commandment, and rapid multiplication.

The following letter explains why I haven't had a chance to blog lately. This consumed my past week.

Mexico City Update:

One year ago I was asked to lead the City Focus strategy to launch movements on the more than 400 university campuses in Mexico City. Over the past year we recruited a staff team to launch the Mexico Focus strategy, which we did in September with an amazing team of 13 staff and stinters. We are off to an unbelievable start. A week ago we trained 40 students to launch movements on their campuses, and today we are seeing movements launched on campuses around this city.

After serving on our staff for twenty years, being here in Mexico City is a dream come true. We are excited to host numerous Spring Break teams, and we believe in the coming semester we will see a breakthrough in Mexican students coming to Christ and launching movements.

From the beginning Mexico Focus has been an organization of empowerment. We have empowered local pastors, churches, professionals, and student leaders to lead without becoming dependant on any one staff person. My dream has been to build a network that allows spontaneous growth and reproduction. My plan is to lead the Mexico Focus strategy for three years, while bringing others alongside me to serve for a week, a semester, or a year, or more.

For the past three months of launching this ministry, Steve and Christine Van Diest have served on our leadership team. They have been amazing leaders and friends, and are responsible for building the infrastructure of this movement that I believe will change the face of Mexico. They have completed their objective of establishing a network of pastors, churches, and professionals who buy into the vision of empowering student leaders to launch movements. God has used them to do things that no one else could do.

This week a family emergency called the Van Diest’s to return to the United States. They are in Texas right now with Christine’s mother who has advanced cancer. Our whole team thinks the world of Steve and Christine and will deeply miss them. However, we sense God’s hand in bringing them here for a short time to construct the framework that will result in seeing movements launched on more than 400 campuses over the next two years.

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for the arrival of 500 – 1,000 Spring Break students and as we move forward with the vision of launching movements in every department of every campus in this city. And please pray for the Van Diest’s in their time of transition.

Yours,

Craig Johring

[on behalf of Joe Cross (co-director) and Jason Sorge (stint team leader)]