Updates & News
Security Update
Summer, 2010
Recent events in Juarez and changes in US State Department travel advisories make it very important that we help you fully understand how the security situation has changed.
Three people associated with the United States Consulate General in Juarez, Mexico, including a U.S. citizen employee, her U.S. citizen husband employed by the El Paso Sheriff's Department, and the husband of a Mexican citizen (consulate) employee, were murdered March 14, 2010. According to the media, it is possible they were targeted.
The US State Department has changed the level of travel advisory from “travel alert” (which it has been for several years) to “travel warning”. This warning places Mexico in the same category as Kenya, Haiti, Columbia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Nigeria and the Philippines among others. The next level up available to the US State Department is a closing of the border. Mexico has not fallen into this category for many years. The last time the US took such action was a short border closure in 1985 associated with the kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.
Please consult the US State Department website for a more detailed explanation.
We encourage you to carefully review these new circumstances. As a ministry, we want you to be fully aware of the situation in Mexico. We will continue to travel to the Colonias. We continue to monitor the situation closely.
Our mission team center and our building sites are on the west side of Juarez in the more rural colonias of Kilometers 27 through 33. The team center has a perimeter security wall and guards are on duty 24/7. We continue to avoid the city of Juarez and make daylight border crossings. A Missions Ministries staff member always travels with the team. All team members travel together by bus or convoy style in vans with group size 10 to 40 per vehicle. International communication tools are available and an emergency evacuation plan is in place if needed.
There are no “safe” missions. Risk is inherent to mission and is always to be balanced with wisdom. We intend to continue our missions to Mexico knowing that our friends there need us, now perhaps more than ever. God has given us much and to whom much is given much is required. Our opportunity is to trust Him and by faith carry on the work He has given us to do. God works with us corporately and as individuals. Our prayer is that as individuals we would respond uniquely in obedience to God’s direction.
(Last updated 6/15/10)
