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Matamoros, Mexico: The Gateway
Turning the corner onto AIM's Gateway grounds, you'd have a hard time believing
you were just ten minutes from Texas and the typical American comforts of home.
And yet somehow, at the end of a little dirt road surrounded on all sides by okra
fields, rises a series of stuccoed, warehouse-looking buildings which for thousands
represent one of the most transforming experiences of their lives.
Since 1994, The Gateway has been home base for short-term mission teams serving
the poor in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico. Matamoros, a city of almost
a million, borders Brownsville, Texas on the Gulf Coast. Thousands come to the
border from the interior of Mexico with hopes of crossing into the US to find
work. Those who make it across, many illegally, leave behind families who live
day to day waiting for their loved ones to send money. Many are left broken
hearted and without basic food and shelter. This is a community that desperately
needs the love of Jesus and the hope of the Gospel.
AIM's office at The Gateway serves as a center for partnership with pastors of
local churches. Together with these pastors project set-up staff identify needs
in the community and help equip the local churches to provide discipleship for
new believers. The Gateway is also home to AIM's Mission Training Institute.
This school for aspiring pastors and missionaries is raising up Mexican ministers
who will be sent into all of Mexico as ambassadors of the gospel.
In the past five years, thousands of Christian youth, adults and college
students have come to the border on mission projects to build houses for
the poor, build churches and participate in evangelistic ministries like
door-to-door evangelism, prayer, medical clinics, Vacation Bible School
and sports evangelism. The Gateway provides the ideal setting for youth
groups and groups experiencing missions for the first time. The dorms are
air conditioned to help bear the Mexican heat. Project participants are
challenged by experiencing true cross-cultural ministry in the city but
return to the base for meals and times of debrief and worship.
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© 2012 Adventures In Missions
6000 Wellspring Trail -- Gainesville, GA 30506
Toll free: 1-800-881-2461 or from GA: 770-983-1060
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