Montemorelos University Adventist church, located in what has traditionally been considered a "mission area," is now itself contributing significantly to the outreach work of the Adventist Church in other parts of the world.
A Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico, which has been trying for the past 15 years to raise sufficient funds to complete its own church building, has set a goal to collect $100,000 within one year for the Church’s Global Mission work in another poor area of the world. Already they have reached nearly one third of the goal.
Montemorelos University Adventist church, located in what has traditionally been considered a “mission area,” is now itself contributing significantly to the outreach work of the Adventist Church in other parts of the world, says Dr. Mike Ryan, Global Mission director for the world Church.
“Montemorelos University Adventist church has caught a vision for the huge needs of what is known as the 10-40 Window,” says Ryan. “This ‘window’ is an imaginary rectangle with its top edge 40 degrees north of the equator, and its bottom edge 10 degrees north—and stretching from West Africa into Asia. Sixty per cent of the world’s people live here, and they’re the poorest in the world. Few are Christians.”
“The church members in Mexico aren’t rich—the average wage for even a pastor is less than $700 a month,” says Pastor Amando Miranda, a Mexican national who chairs the Global Mission administrative committee. “And yet they’ve caught a wider vision for the needs of others.”
The university is also hoping that many of its graduates will go to countries within the 10-40 Window to use their professional skills to help people in need. Montemorelos University, which has 2,000 students, offers a wide range of courses including medicine, education, theology, dental technology, business administration, nursing, and nutrition.
“Our church is an educational focal point that prepares future Christian professionals,” says Pastor Omar Velazquez, senior pastor at Montemorelos. “As a pastor, I believe that the students should learn the importance of contributing to missions generously, with hearts that empathize to others’ needs.”
The 10-40 Window is listed as the highest priority of the Adventist Church’s Global Mission initiative. In the past ten years hundreds of new congregations have been established by local volunteers, known as Global Mission pioneers. They are trained in wholistic ministry to provide spiritual and physical care to people in places where there are no Adventist churches.
