Worldwide Prayer Meeting
The Fine Arts Palace aka Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City
Mexico Territory
Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise His name;
proclaim His salvation day after day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Psalm 96:1-3
Prayer
O Almighty Creator, You have given us our body and soul, eyes, ears, and all our members -
Bless our feet, may they bring good news.
Bless our legs, may they carry on in times of suffering.
Bless our backs, may they bear the burdens of others by Your strength.
Bless our arms, may they hold the lonely.
Bless our hands, may they do good work.
Bless our necks, may they turn their heads to the needy.
Bless our mouths, may they speak encouragement.
Bless our eyes, may they see beauty.
Bless our ears, may they hear truth.
Bless our minds, may they gain wisdom.
And bless our hearts, may we love You - and all that You have made - in the right order.
Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever. Amen
- Unknown
This video shows highlights of a youth councils in the Mexico Territory from a few years ago. Even if you don’t understand the language, it’s fun to watch.
Background of the Mexico Territory
The advanced Aztec Empire in central Mexico was destroyed by the Spanish conquest and imported diseases like smallpox in the early 16th Century. Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821 but in the 19th Century lost much of its northern territory in a series of conflicts with the United States. The 1910-1917 Revolution established a federal democracy with one party rule until 2000 when an opposition candidate finally won the presidency.
Mexico has a free-market economy fueled by oil, industry, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has opened trade as never before. Further reforms are still needed as are upgrades to infrastructure because large numbers of the population still are plagued by poverty.
The complicated relationship with the United States is a constant concern. Immigration, corruption as well as the drug trade are concerns for both nations, but long-term effective solutions have been elusive.
Freedom of conscience and the practice of religion is guaranteed. Constitutional changes in 1992 have made it easier for religious minorities to operate. Although the Catholic Church does not have an official favored status, it exerts considerable cultural influence. In recent years, the number of evangelicals has been growing at an encouraging rate and freedom of ministry continues. With over 95% of the population claiming affiliation with Christianity, there is no other significant rival in Mexico.
The Salvation Army: In 1934, a group known as the Salvation Patrol was established by Alejandro Guzmán. In October 1937, he was presented with a flag by General Evangeline Booth at the USA Southern Territory congress in Atlanta, Georgia. The Salvation Patrol then became absorbed into The Salvation Army, operating under the supervision of divisional headquarters in Dallas, Texas, later becoming part of the Latin America North Territory. On September 1, 1998 it was made a command and on October 1, 2001, it became a territory.
Facts, Stats and Leadership of the
Mexico Territory
- Total population to fish and disciple: 131,135, 337
- 123 officers, 5 cadets, 83 employees
- 54 retired officers
- 47 corps, 1 outpost
- 1,220 senior soldiers
- 903 adherents
- 478 junior soldiers
Leadership
Lt. Colonel Agripina Góchez - Territorial Commander
Lt. Colonel Gerardo Góchez - Territorial Leader for Officer Development
Lt. Colonel Leonardo Fernandez - Chief Secretary
Lt. Colonel Evangelina Fernandez - Territorial Secretary for Women's Ministries
Prayer Requests for
the Mexico Territory
As a territory, we are thanking God for:
The cadets who entered the training school - 8 cadets in the ‘Champions of the Mission’ session and 7 cadets of the ‘Covenant Keepers’ session. Their achievements are a testament to their faith and to the glory of our God. We thank God and ask for more workers for the Lord's vineyard.
Please pray for:
Mexico to increase its membership following the “Hope” Strategic Plan. While 280 adult soldiers, 205 Adherents, 41 junior soldiers and 283 Home League members enlisted during 2023, we have yet to reach our growth indicators, and our challenge is to keep growing the Army in this beautiful country.
A holiness revival to keep growing after Mexico´s Territorial Holiness Seminar which was held in May 2024.
More evangelistic expressions, with the challenge in mind to celebrate one open-air meeting per corps, per month.
Expansion of the mission, with the opening of four new works before the end of the Strategic Plan in 2026.
USA Southern Territory
Prayer Requests
- The family of DeLois Barnhouse, mother of Major Michael Barnhouse and grandmother of Major Jamie Satterlee and Captain Ashley Robinett, who was recently Promoted to Glory
- Major Bethany Hawks, CRD Secretary, Community Relations & Development
- Kroc Corps Community Centers
- Shirley Reynolds, Assistant Risk Management Director, Risk Management
- Tianna Roberts, Mailroom/Administrative Clerk, Finance
- Clara Puerta-Navarro, Territorial HCM Director, Human Resources
- Captain Kelsey Bridges, Director of Curriculum, Evangeline Booth College
- Major Lorraina Crawford, Divisional Candidates’ Secretary, Potomac Division
- Colonel Sue-Ellen Betts, Secretary for Personnel, NHQ
- Lt. Colonels Ronnie & Sharon Raymer, officers, soldiers, employees, and volunteers of the North & South Carolina Division
- Summer Camp
- Anonymous prayer request for all those in educational institutions, and for those who carry out acts of violence against the students, faculties and staff; prayer for military personnel, past and present who have put and are putting their lives on the line for others
Something to Consider
Wanderers on Our Knees
Envoy Henry F. Milans, Order of the Founder
I don’t believe I’m very far wrong when I declare that one of the hardest duties the Christian has to perform is to pray sincerely. I mean, to pray so that the heavens open and the Father is seen with His ear turned to catch every word of our petition.
If other Christians have my difficulties – and I believe they have – they experience seasons when they wouldn’t give a snap for the praying, they do which I can’t bring myself to believe God ever hears. That’s how I feel sometimes about my own prayers. Don’t you? I say, “for Jesus’ sake, Amen,” with a feeling that I ought to be ashamed for insulting my Maker with such a lifeless petition, and a hope that He didn’t hear me.
My severest task is to keep my praying from becoming – oh, just something that’s got to be done; and when I get into this humor about it, I know my payer – if I have any right to give it that precious designation – isn’t getting anywhere.
Oh, yes, I know it’s a sin not to pray. But something tells me it’s more clearly a sin to pray as some of us do, some of the time – when our talks to (not with) God are all jumbled up with thoughts of what we are anxious to do the instant “Amen” is uttered (more anxious, indeed, than we are to pray, if we confess the real truth). It’s been a losing struggle to keep our minds on what we were trying to say to Him.
Not until my heart looks forward anxiously to the moment when I’m to meet with God, as a privilege He vouchsafes to me in particular, do I go to Him gladly, expectantly, sure that He will give ear to the real causes of my spiritual failures as I know them and am ready to penitently confess them. Then prayer becomes a blessing that taps the fountainhead of my soul’s deepest resources, and lets loose a flood of happy, grateful tears, because my Father has talked me lovingly, forgivingly, and has bidden me go on in His strength.
I have a letter before me from a man whom I regarded for quarter of a century as the nearest approach to the perfect Christian character possible to a human being. He preached holiness, and I believe he lived it. I know he spent many hours in secret prayer – often half a night on his knees. And yet this really good man cries out: “Milans, the Throne is hidden from me today. I am cold, lifeless. I cannot pray, though I’ve gone to my closet several times to do so. God wasn’t there to warm my heart.”
His letter was not finished until the day following. Then he continued, “I was so weighed down by the Holy Spirit’s absence that I tossed in bed until two o’clock in the morning. Then I feel to my knees and poured out my soul to God and pleaded with Him to turn His face toward me and let me have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that would restore my peace with Him; and, blessed be God, the shower descended, my heart suddenly leaped as a deluge of tears burst forth and the joy of the Lord was restored to me. He spoke peace to my soul.”
Some of my perfunctory praying that I sense – or hope – God doesn’t hear, is done when I’m anxious to do something else. Some folks are late getting started and have to rush through morning worship. We can’t see God when our eyes are riveted on the clock and our hands are itching to do something else.
I heard a young preacher make a very eloquent prayer recently. But somehow it found me wishing he’d remembered me – or us – who were there with our heart’s disappointments and defeats. After the sermon I told him the prayer was “just about perfect for a college man.” His face brightened, he thanked me and then confided that he had written it for publication. He read it to us. Well, I don’t think God heard much of that one, do you?
I listed to the radio to a prominent pastor’s prayer last Sunday. I was wondering what God thought of what he was saying – if He heard him. And then, suddenly, the preacher realized the lifelessness of his petition, checked himself and cried: “God, forgive our meaningless praying!” and from that point on he melted my heart to tears and I’m sure his great audience was “with one accord,” and the Holy Spirit descended upon them all. God heard the latter half of that prayer, don’t you think?
In a prayer meeting recently, after all the “regulars” had prayed long and fervently, a timid little voice, scarcely audible, said nervously: “O dear Heavenly Father, I have sinned; maybe we all have. In Thy loving mercy, forgive and cleanse us again, for my Savior’s sake,” And I said, “Amen” with all my heart. That earnest little prayer brought down a blessing for all of us in that meeting.
I was one of a half dozen Christians who met the other evening to pray definitely for an aroused consciousness of our spiritual responsibility to the people of the community who needed Christ. I was uplifted by the earnest prayers that were uttered – until a woman turned a “fire extinguisher” on it all by saying to her husband just as we rose from our knees: “Dear, I’ve been thinking that we ought to go to town early in the morning and have it out with Mr. B. We’ve got to make him see that we are right.” I wonder if God counted her in as one of the “praying” band? What do you think? I hope my readers won’t set me down as a common scold. I’m not. I’m human and know it. I believe firmly that my spiritual difficulties are also yours; for we are nearly equal in most failings.
I tell myself that God doesn’t hear my prayer while my mind is everywhere except upon Him – where it surely ought to be when I approach Him intimately.
We who believe in God can overcome every straying thought if we learn to consider our talks with God the most important privilege, He grants us, and fight off the very human tendency to wander while on our knee.
I don’t want to think that the demands of sanctified Christianity are too much for us. I believe we can meet them. God, I feel, keeps me during these foggy periods from falling into sin that would mean only my spiritual undoing. I am saved from backsliding by His great love for me – not my fidelity to Him. It’s only another evidence of His tender mercy while I’m spiritually blinded.
Benediction
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Phil Laeger did a beautiful job with a new setting for Stanley Ditmer’s song, “I’m in His Hands.”