The question "Is it safe to do ministry in Mexico?" is a complex question. The words safe and ministry have a lot of tension between them. Add "youth" in front of the word ministry - connect that to the word safe and perhaps the question becomes less complex... maybe.
Recently, the US State Department has sounded the alarm with frequency about the danger of travel to Mexico. This warning is related to the violence occurring between drug cartels and the Mexican police and military in certain parts of the country. These warnings are coming just before Spring Breaks when tens of thousands of US college students travel to Mexico.
Because we have a full-time ministry presence in Mexico for many years and will host
several hundred students coming for mission trips in the next several months, we’ve gotten many responses from churches and parents about the concern of violence in Mexico and specifically about the safety of their students participating in our ministry in the village of Croc.
Kurt Rietema, our director of Youthfront Mexico writes to the parents of student participants, "Obviously going outside of your own country and into a different cultural context involves some inherent risk that cannot be avoided. Yet we feel that we have taken all of the precautionary measures necessary to minimize that risk. Our concern at Youthfront for the physical safety of your students is the same as yours and we would never place them in situations we felt would compromise their physical safety. Yet we also pray that you share our concern and passion for the spiritual formation of our students. The consumerist, individualistic culture that our students are immersed in every day may not compromise their physical safety, yet it does do violence to their souls. We feel that the experiences, the conversations, and the people they meet in Croc is one of the best environments there is to nurture them in the way of Jesus."
At the same time, Kurt also has this to say to youth workers and leaders, "We have a responsibility as leaders to ask the bigger questions about the co-mingling of Jesus and personal safety. Jesus seemed to be far from safe. Safety has superceded being faithful in our society and for some it has become akin to God. Don’t get me wrong, we’d never do something to compromise the safety of our students, but trying to eliminate danger from every area of our lives will lead to paralysis and missional impotence. What we’re trying to do with our students in Mexico is subvert that very same mentality that has turned the North American church in on itself. As leaders we have a responsibility to lead that charge."
These are the difficult and challenging issues that youth workers must deal with in the church today. It isn't easy being a youth worker who desires to form students in the Way of Jesus. God bless all of you who are trying to be faithful to this call.
If you want to read Kurt's full response download document Download YF response to travel warnings
Ray Zuercher who takes his students to Croc Mexico had this very interesting perspective on this issue. Read Here.
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