ARP Synods of Mexico By Ben Glaser I
n his book Mexico and Our Mis- sion former ARP missionary James Dale recounts the early days of our work south of the border. As he speaks of the initial interest in the missionary enterprise, he has this to say:
without the fuel of facts. Only when the spiritually minded catch ‘the vision of the Regions Beyond so white to the harvest, and is ready to burn out for Christ and the heathen world. Those of us who are not and have not been missionaries go on these not always know what to expect. For myself, I had never been to what I call real Mexico. As a U.S. Marine sta- tioned in San Diego, I had made the required jaunt to the other side, but that is not a witness to the life of our brothers and sisters in the land of the lady of Guadalupe. It can be strange as well to think of a nation consid- ered to be one of the largest and most devout Roman Catholic countries on the planet as a heathen world. Howev- er, I’m not sure that is not also a good way to describe our own homeland. We can forget that a lot of what we - fectly applicable to South and North Carolina as it is to San Lois Potosi and Tamaulipas. I open this conversation about our Inter-Church Relations Committee trip to Mexico with these words to put into context some of the things we witnessed, and to begin the discussion about how the Iglesia Presbiteriana Asociada Reformada de Mexico and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church up here can help one another grow in Christ, and in the strength of the gospel towards the future success of both of our de- nominations. Time for some background. In 2019 the ICRC committee of Synod
was tasked by the General Synod to renew our relations with the ARP Synods of Mexico (IPAR) and Pakistan. In God’s blessed providence in December of 2023 I received an email from Rev. Isaac Daniel Meraz Hernández, who is my counter- part in IPAR inviting us to send a delegation to their February 2024 Synod meet- ing. We were very glad to go, and to have heard from them. However, there was one part of that invitation that gave us pause. They were asking us to come and give witness to the formation of a new Synod, Castillo Fuerte or Mighty Fortress, with the original Synod maintaining the name Eben-Ezer. We did not know ex- actly what this meant, and what we may be walking into. News of seeming di- vision made us believe that trouble may be afoot. As your Synod moderator (or el presidente to Mexico City together in Atlanta we prayed that the Lord would use this trip our purpose clear. Yet, as Rev. Scott Moore, a long-time World Witness missionary to Mexico, beat us to the country by a half-a-day, our fears were somewhat allayed, even if we were still a bit leery of what exactly was taking place. As the four of us met at the airport in Tampico there was much joy in the initial meeting. We were honored to have an elder of the La Santisima Trinidad congregation, Mr. Ri- cardo Melendez, take us from place-to-place, often at his own personal expense. preparation for the next day’s trip to Valles. No trip anywhere goes without a morning of pureed black beans, huevos rancheros, and tortillas was an excellent portend of what was to come. I’ve been asked several times since I have been back as to what I miss about being there, and that has to be near the top of the list, even if grits and livermush would be a good addition to it. As we traveled on the road to Synod the next morning we were met with
and as we rose into the mountains, of which Valles sits in the approach, much like Denver does to the Rockies, the city shown brightly. We went immediately to the site of the gathering, the El Divino Redentor, or Church of the Divine Re- deemer, an IPAR congregation pastored by Rev. Rodolfo del Ángel del Ángel. As someone who is not a Spanish speaker I do want to give thanks to Rev.’s Moore and Brickey for ably guiding Rev. Patrick and I through the meetings, and life in general during our stay. We would have been inestimably lost with- - gether in Christ that even if our inability to listen intently was manifested in the of God that we did together with our IPAR brothers and sisters throughout the meeting of their Synod. The singing of the Lord’s Songs, Cantos Biblicos, gave us a common tongue to praise the name of our common Savior. There is some- thing to be said about the way that the Psalter is beyond culture in a way hymns sometimes are bound to time and place. To be sure we sang plenty of tunes and songs of praise familiar to the American ear. Yet, Psalm 105:2 provides a witness end of the Babel division even in the days before the Second Coming. Not to jump ahead too much, but the experience that the four of us shared as we waited to come home on Monday, February 12th, was the way that the trip helped each of us to see more clearly not only our own callings to gospel
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