Last weekend here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 140 ministry leaders and a few public officials were electrified to hear the testimony of Pastor Poncho Murguia. We also took him to Santa Fe, the oldest capital in the USA to speak on the plaza for the Fall Gathering of Churches where he also spoke. Poncho after leading a large and successful mega church for years was instructed by the Lord to “leave everything” and to go a city park in his native Juarez, Mexico in order to fast and pray for three weeks over the city. During that process, he learned from the first time to really love and understand his city and then to “adopt” the city. Eventually 4000 other believers in Jesus joined him in a movement of transformational prayer and action that has changed Juarez from “the murder capital of the world” with violence 25 times as much as any on other city on earth to one of the safest of Mexico’s cities.

At the height of the violence that swept the city which had become the site of a prolonged turf battle between drug cartels, 20-30 people were being assassinated by “sicarios”, hit men paid an average of $50 to kill anyone. They killed a young man just as he was being married to his fiancée in a church and freely machine-gunned peace-loving people who were having dinner in restaurants. There were also an average of 10-15 kidnappings per day and if loved ones did not pay the ransom that was demanded, their family member would have his ears or fingers amputated first and if there was still no payment, he or she would be killed and buried under the floor of the “safehouse” that served as their prison.

Twenty percent or 300,000 people left the city; 30% of the businesses closed. The cartels made lists of police officers and systematically assassinated them one by one to terrorize and exact concessions. The smell of blood filled the streets. Such overwhelming violence that the police and even the army could not control finally drove the pastors of the city’s churches together in prayer. They humbled themselves before the Lord, taking responsibility for the situation since they had been occupying themselves with their own congregations and “building their own kingdoms” without a real love and concern for the whole city. As they underwent this process together, God demonstrated His presence and the crime rate fell by 93% within 18 months. Even the United Nations cannot understand how this happened! Other wonderful transformations happened and as they “adopted” the “sicarios”, many of these vicious hit men came to Christ and were discipled to serve Him back in their own towns across Mexico. Gloria a Dios!

Poncho challenged us concerning our own state of New Mexico, which has a spike in violent crime and other social problems that the government and police are not being effective in fixing. How much do we ministry leaders really love the world? The church he said is just the instrument of God’s love for the world (John 3:16), not an end in itself. He told us that we spend too much time studying the Bible when God wants us to “be the Bible” to our needy city.

I think that all of us were impacted deeply by Poncho’s testimony and want to apply what we learned here in New Mexico. We as a group came up with several good follow-on steps that we plan to implement, reaching out to other ministry leaders and churches as we go to see such a transformational movement happen here. It will start with prayer, getting on God’s wavelength together, and then obeying Him to adopt not only the public officials and police but also other people groups and institutions of our society. The example of Juarez and the efforts of Poncho and the other believers there demonstrate vividly and dramatically that the Lord can transform even the most hopeless of situations, whether in cities or nations. 

The attached video about the transformation of Juarez should encourage us all to begin a similar process where we live. The TransformOurWorld.org website has other videos and resources that can practically help us. Above all, get together with a few other brothers and sisters in Christ to begin adopting your hometown in ongoing prayer and those appropriate, loving actions God leads you to undertake together. You will be amazed at what happens!

Video link to Juarez transformation video:

https://transformourworld.org/2016/07/29/the-miracle-of-ciudad-juarez/ 

John Robb

IPC Chairman