A short excursion to Tuxtla
Journey to Tuxtla
On Saturday evening, I made my way from Mexico City to Tuxtla, a town in the south of Mexico. The bus drove all night, 13 hours in total. I used the time in the evening to continue writing my article about Mexico City. It wasn’t that easy, though, because I was already pretty tired and there was a movie playing on the loudspeakers on the bus, which occasionally distracted me a little. I managed to sleep quite well that night, but I was woken up at 6am for a passport check, presumably at the border with the state of Chiapas.
A few hours later, around 9am, I arrived in Tuxtla by bus. My plan for the morning was to attend a church service and make contacts there. Ray, the father of a Mexican woman in my home church and my only contact in the city so far, offered to pick me up at 10 am and take me to a church near him. In the meantime, I made my way from the bus terminal to a nearby park. There I met some scouts, which of course made me very happy. Until then, I thought that there were no Christian scouts in Mexico, as at least my scout association, the Royal Rangers, didn’t have a group in Mexico. The scouts were from an Adventist church in Tuxtla. I talked to them a bit and ended up swapping my scarf with a young scout.
Ray then picked me up at the park and we drove to his house, where we had breakfast and a good chat. I particularly liked the perfectly ripe and exceptionally tasty fruit, such as mangoes, bananas and nanches. Afterwards, Ray took me to the church service, where
Afterwards, I spoke briefly with the pastor and the head of the evangelization team. As I was planning to travel on to San Cristóbal de las Casas on Thursday, we agreed to go evangelizing together beforehand if possible. After the service, a brother from the church took me to Ray and Ray finally took me to my accommodation. Still quite tired from the bus ride, I bought myself something to eat and then allowed myself a short afternoon nap. Afterwards, I finished the article about Mexico City.
Monday
I used the morning to call my family and plan the rest of my trip. Around midday, I took the bus to the city center. Once there, I immediately noticed a few differences to Mexico City. Firstly, the extreme heat at around 38°C, which is very exhausting in the long run. Secondly, the differences in the stores and stalls on the street. In Mexico City, there are numerous stalls offering food such as tacos, quesadillas and tortas. In Tuxtla, you can buy similar food, although this tends to be in larger restaurants. On the street, however, it is mainly fruit that is sold, and at prices that you can only dream of in Germany. For example, I bought four really big and fresh mangoes for the equivalent of $1.80.
When I arrived in the city center, I met a man called Pablo who was reading aloud from his Bible. This made me curious and so I sat down next to him on the bench. When he paused briefly to turn to another passage in the Bible, I took the opportunity to start a conversation. He told me about his experiences with a cartel whose members persecuted and mistreated him while at the same time pretending to be Christians. However, it was also a bit tough to talk to him, as he was a bit long-winded and kept coming back to a similar point. Meanwhile, José, a missionary from Guatemala, became aware of us and joined in the conversation. Together we tried to encourage him and give him a biblical perspective on his situation. Because I ended up offering to heal Pablo’s injured legs by laying hands on him (which he unfortunately refused), José wanted to continue talking to me afterwards.
José told me that he had only just prayed to meet someone who had faith in the word of God, which promises us supernatural miracles. So that’s how God had brought us together - in a city with half a million inhabitants and on my very first visit to the city center. I had actually only intended to see the city center.
After we had a good conversation, we decided to go into town and evangelize together. We came across a man whose hands had been amputated by narcos. So we asked if we could pray for him and proclaimed healing through Jesus Christ over his body. We were then approached by Obed, a man who had been watching us and was surprised by our faith. We invited him to make Jesus his Lord, but he could not believe that Jesus could forgive his sins because he had killed several people in the past. So we tried to convince him that Jesus really died for all sins. In the end, we were both able to pray for him and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit as never before. During the prayer, Obed almost fell over backwards so that I had to hold him by the shoulder with both arms. He began to shout: “I feel a fire! It’s burning in my heart!“. Even after the prayer, he didn’t stop talking about his experience. Even an hour after the prayer, he was still enthusiastically testifying to the immense power of the Holy Spirit, which had completely set his heart free. Because he decided to follow Jesus after this experience, Obed took us to a Christian bookstore where we bought him a Bible and showed him a few important Bible passages. After Obed left for home, we went to the center to evangelize for a few minutes before heading home ourselves.
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning, I decided to visit the Zoomat, the zoo in Tuxtla, which was just a few minutes’ walk from my apartment. The special thing about the Zoomat is that it only has native species from Chiapas. These include many species that I, at least as a European, had never seen before, e.g. crocodiles, turtles, snakes, birds and lizards. Unfortunately, the otters were not to be seen that day, but the visit was still very worthwhile and I was able to take lots of nice photos with my camera.
After visiting the zoo, I arranged to meet José again for evangelism at the center. This time I experienced God’s guidance in a special way. Through numerous “coincidences”, I got to know a homeless man called David (it would be too long for this post to tell the full story, but I’m happy to tell it on request). He had studied the Bible and realized that the images and statues that Catholics worship are not of God. That’s why I wanted to invite him directly to José’s church, where there are no statues, but unfortunately he declined the invitation. He wanted to put on better clothes and sober up before coming to the service. Although I tried several times to make it clear to him that it makes no difference to God how he comes to church, I couldn’t convince him. But I was firmly convinced that God had spoken into his life through this encounter.
So I went to the service at José’s church on my own. It is a small, family-run church that takes the word of God very seriously and where numerous miracles have already taken place. José and another brother from Venezuela are both being trained as disciples by the pastor in this church. It is really impressive how big the difference is between spiritual growth through true discipleship. Many brothers who have been going to church every Sunday for decades have not yet reached the spiritual maturity that José achieved within a few months. That evening, José was also allowed to preach and the words went straight to my heart. You could feel how the Holy Spirit worked in the service that evening.
After the service, I was invited to a dinner with the congregation, where I had some good conversations, especially with the pastor. Afterwards, I took an Uber to my apartment and, as it was already very late, went to sleep soon afterwards.
Wednesday
On Wednesday I met up with José again to evangelize. We had many good encounters. We were able to lead some people to Jesus, encourage some brothers and pray for some illnesses. There were again interesting “coincidences” where we were able to meet people at exactly the right time in their lives.
In the afternoon we used the time to strengthen each other in our faith and to interpret the Bible even more clearly to each other. We were both able to learn many new things. In the evening, we met with Leo from the large church I had visited on Sunday to do some evangelizing before attending a worship service. In this service, the focus was on praise and prayer. I was also prayed for, as I would be leaving the city the next day. I also received a gift from the congregation, including two nice T-shirts with a Christian print. I also really enjoyed the short sermon about the power of faith.
At the end, two brothers and sisters put me in touch with a church in San Cristóbal that they had recently worked with. With them, I was able to organize a nice place to stay in the city.
Thursday
On Thursday I got up early to have breakfast and pack. Before I took the bus to San Cristóbal at 11:35, I met up with Leo and José briefly to evangelize and say goodbye to them. I would have loved to stay longer in Tuxtla because of them, as I have grown very fond of both brothers and it was a great blessing to be able to evangelize with them. I hope to be able to return to Tuxtla soon.