Fear. A hindrance to a True Multi-Cultural Ministry

I remember when I was in High School my high school multi cultural ministry went on a mission trip to Tijuana Mexico to work at an orphanage. The goal was to help begin a construction project for an existing orphanage that had outgrown their facility. I remember being terrified! Seriously, growing up my dad would periodically want to travel to Mexico to visit his family and he would want to take me and my sister, but my mom wouldn’t let him because she was afraid that they wouldn’t let us back in the states. I mean when I was younger I looked like a little Mexican kid. You could see my dad in me and my sister. So when I was in High School and my mom let me go on this mission trip with my church, my mind had been conditioned to believe, I might not come back! This might be the end of my world! As crazy of an experience as these trips have been in my life, as uncomfortable as they were, God allowed me to be a part of something that was so much bigger than myself. He wanted me to be and I have grown to understand just how much He stretches and teaches us when we are willing to leave our comfort zone. To be finally step out as a ‘stranger” in a multi-cultural world

Obviously, the Mexican government let me back into the states. What we began to do in 1998 was to move 90 young kids from an orphanage in Tijuana that really could only house 30. I mean these kids were sleeping 3 to a twin sized bed. The beds were stacked three on top of each other in a bunk bed style. the orphanage was an old house that had been converted and built upon until the only room 90 kids had to safely play in was an area outside of their house the size of a half basketball court. God has been so good in my life, giving me the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than myself that in 2006 I took my last trip to this orphanage as a construction worker. Now as a youth pastor, on a yearly basis taking 20 plus kids into Rosarito Mexico, where we had moved the orphanage to, the campus we were building opened and now 120 orphans had clean water, safe room situations, soccer fields to play on an 7 acres of land to expand through. I think of that an wonder what if I stayed In my comfort zone. What if I didn’t allow God to work through me? I wouldn’t have experienced what he would have wanted me to. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see his heart in the world.

I don’t just use this example to promote multi-cultural ministry, cross youth ministry between Anglos and Hispanics, but I’ll take it if it will get your attention. All cultures need the love of Christ and not just those who are in poverty, but also the ones in your own back yard. Take the time and effort to involve and love and include all cultures in your youth ministry. It might be difficult, but it is biblical and the right thing to do