Guadalajara - February 2022
In February, I had the opportunity to visit Guadalajara, Mexico and spend time with our partners at Iglesia Radiantè. Pastor Edgar and his family have become close friends of mine so I always love it when we can spend time together!
Edgar and Erika Gomez planted Radiant Church in Guadalajara, Mexico in February 2019. They celebrated their 3 year anniversary last month.
I flew in early Saturday morning and spent the day with the Gomez family eating some of the best food in Mexico. Sunday morning starts early at 6:30am when their Team Radiant shows up to the hotel to set up church! It’s a huge process that they do every single week. At 9:30 the leaders and volunteers all gather for nearly an hour of worship and prayer. Church starts at 11 am.
I had the honor of preaching about the Great Commission and the mission of the Church. That was so awesome!
After the service, Pastor Edgar gave an altar call and new believers were added to the family of God! There were new people that came full of questions, desperate to experience the power of God. We had a great time of fellowship and then packed everything up again.
We packed into the van with other church leaders and headed to lunch on our way out to the second location of Radiant Church in TlaQuepaQue. This is a community on the outside of town where outreach teams from Radiant Guadalajara would go and minister. We sent a short-term missions team from Radiant in Kalamazoo there for some service projects in 2019. Now just a couple years later there is a growing Radiant Church meeting in the small school where our team did their service project!
After setting up we started the service at 5pm. Once again, I had the honor of preaching about the Great Commission. After the service we had a time of fellowship and snacks- we even had a little birthday party! We made a quick stop for tacos and got back home around 11pm. Arriving at home, the Gomez kids said “That’s how you do a Sunday!” That’s a long Sunday!
Monday I had the opportunity to spend time with the leadership team. Pretty much 9:30 am to 10:30pm. They are an amazing group of men and women, we had a great time together!
I spent all day Tuesday with Pastor Edgar. We talk often on the phone, but there’s nothing like the real thing. In the evening I was invited to play soccer on the Radiant Soccer Team. I don’t play soccer! But, when in Mexico… We played our first game at 9:30pm and a second binus game at 10:30 pm. We got beaten pretty badly, but all the guys had a great time. This is becoming a pretty awesome outreach opportunity for the church! We got home after midnight, sore and tired. After a couple of hours of sleep, it was time for Edgar to bring me to the airport.
It is such a blessing to be able to encourage our partners in the field like this!
Did you know there’s a Radiant Church in Mexico???
In February 2019 Pastor Edgar and Erika Gomez planted Iglesia Radiantè in Guadalajara Mexico. They made it through the difficulty of covid/online church and have been back to in person gatherings for about 4 months now. Last month they celebrated their 3 year anniversary as a Church!
Our Missions Pastor Joel Doorlag was able to visit with them last month and even had the honor to preach about the Great Commission during the weekend services!
While he was there he was able to spend time with the Gomez family who have become close friends. He also had the opportunity to spend a full day with the leadership team.
Radiant Church in Guadalajara is an incredible part of our Church family. God is drawing new people weekly to experience the love and the power of God!
