My name is Brandon Long. I have been a missionary in Mexico since 2013, and have been living full-time and pastoring a church plant in Northern Mexico since the latter part of 2014. By God’s grace, I have been able to see the word of God work in people’s lives, bringing them to Christ and causing them to grow in grace and knowledge. The Lord provided me with a wonderful Christian help-meet and adoptive daughter last year, and we are blessed to serve the Lord together in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

Reynosa is a difficult city. Perhaps the most difficult city to live in in Mexico. A quick glance at any news outlet will give you an idea of the chaos that we endure: Cartel violence has crushed our economy, and the citizens have learned to live among the violence the best we can. Apart from the violent atmosphere, our infrastructure is mostly pitiful. We have weekly power outages, water shortages, the climate is extremely hot, and nothing really grows here other than the twisted and gnarled mesquite trees. The challenging climate and the drought are similar to the spiritual climate of our city: lacking vital nourishment and clouds saturated with water. Sadly, with over a million people, there are few sound churches, and hardly anybody dares to venture in the cartel capital of the north. Pentecostalism, Roman Catholicism, and massive Word of Faith Charismatic influence have shaped the religious landscape.

When I arrived to Reynosa, the norm (which has not changed) was violence. Violence in the news. Violence in social media. Violence on the streets. Gunshots at night. Areas of the city blocked off by burning buses. Dead bodies on the side of the highway and cars riddled with bullet holes were not an uncommon site. We have grown accustomed to seeing the State and Federal forces, the soldiers and guardsmen, and even the criminal organizations themselves driving with machine guns mounted to their vehicles. The city is unruly, and chaotic, and the average citizen is helpless. The best we can hope for is to go out and come back home safely, to lock our doors, and to live inside. Business is impossible without corruption or being complicit in crime, as ALL businesses in Reynosa, without exception, pay quotas to the cartels for “protection.”

Add to the stress of this place not being able to get around reliably with your family to visit the brethren, to pick them up for church, breaking down on the side of the road on the most dangerous stretches of highways. This has been the norm for us for years. I do not deny that the Lord has taught me much patience through ongoing struggles with vehicles, but we find ourselves limited in our outreach and ability to minister, as well as unable to visit family and friends, and this has proved challenging for our ministry. Not for personal comfort, but from a genuine need for a new vehicle, we reach out to the church of God to consider our need for this place of labor for the Kingdom, and ask you to consider giving towards this need.

Our prayer is that, through God´s people´s generosity which has sustained us here for so long, that we will be able to get a newer vehicle to be able to do more here.

Our church website is www.gracia1689.mx