Reynosa (Mexico): "Smuggling Souls" on the Border Town

The Rio Grande Valley church is located in the southern most tip of Texas (USA). Just accross the national border is the city of Reynosa, Mexico. In 2009 two bold disciples, Horacio and Sandra Zavala, made the decision to evangelize this city. Despite many trials and tribulations, the faith of this married couple has born fruit many times over and on Sunday, October 7th, the church had the joy of baptizing their the their fifth convert. Horcio recently shared with HotNews some of his thoughts concerning the on-going journey of reaching out to Reynosa:

"Reynosa is a 1.5 million people border city located on the Mexican northeast; it neighbors the United States with its south Texas region. Here the two countries are separated by the Rio Bravo, (as we Mexicans call it), or Rio Grande, (as our neighboring Americans call it). The river is famous, (or rather infamous), for all the human smuggling that takes place daily. Many pay a “coyote” to cross from Mexico illegally into the U.S. Some pay as high as $2,000 dollars just to cross; they do so at a high cost, and the risk of their lives in search of the “American dream”, indeed some of them leave all behind in hopes of a better life."

“A great wave of violence erupted just around that time as the government decided to confront head on all drug cartel operations, Sandra and I had various sleepless nights taking refuge in our bedroom, as bullets, and hand grenades flew by, sometimes our house would literally shake. We were seriously questioning the purpose of living in Reynosa, then God began to humble us showing his purpose as in 2010 Lucy Perez who once had to drive through a military blockade just to get to a bible study was added to the faith, soon her husband Ramiro Perez followed, so by the end of 2010 the city of Reynosa had 4 disciples."

"This past Sunday October 7^th, Victor Torres, co-worker of Ramiro; after studying the bible for most of the year, and inspired by the news of the first Rio Grande baptism in 2011; also decided to count the cost, leave it all behind, and risk it all for a better life and purpose; went down to the river and got baptized by Ramiro in the name of Christ. The brothers in the Church already joke with the idea that we are sort of "smuggling souls."

  As the Reynosa church continues to grow and smuggle more souls for Jesus, please pray for safety and for them to find many more open hearts.