Hispanics are Giving Up the American Dream — for Missions

Vicki Reyes • Aug 29, 2019

Art Reyes' parents worked hard to give him the American Dream. They were shocked when Art told them he was moving back to Mexico —

as a missionary. Photo courtesy of Vicki Reyes.



“Why? I worked so hard to bring you to the USA so you could have a future! Now, you are taking your family back to Mexico? Why?”


The Lord is using Hispanic American missionaries to share the Gospel in Spanish-speaking countries. Already familiar with the language and the collective Hispanic culture, these missionaries can usually jump into ministry without years of language school or cultural faux pas. 


But for the missionary’s family — especially parents — doing ministry in Latin America can feel like ungratefulness.


Almost half of adult Hispanics in the U.S. are first generation immigrants. Many worked hard to bring their kids to America and give them a better life. When those kids grow up to become missionaries, it costs their parents their dreams.


Additionally, these new missionaries will likely struggle to raise financial support because the concept is foreign to many Hispanic communities. One survey revealed that 71 percent of the support received by Hispanic missionaries came from non-Hispanic donors.


Despite the hardships and personal heartache, though there are Hispanic Americans who are answering the call to minister in Spanish-speaking countries. My husband is one of them.


A Disrupted Plan for Citizenship

Much to the disappointment of Art’s parents, Art and Vicki Reyes left the United States to become missionaries in Art’s country of birth. Photo courtesy of Vicki Reyes.


My husband, Art, was born in Mexico — which was not “the plan.” 


Although his family lived in Mexico, Art’s father worked in the U.S., returning each evening to his family. Because of his work visa, he could legally take his wife to a U.S. hospital when she was ready to give birth. As a result, Art’s five older siblings were all American citizens. 


However, on the day Art was born, there was a long line of traffic at the border. His parents had no choice but to return to a Mexican clinic. They had no idea how this kink in their plan would influence Art as an adult. 


The family moved to the U.S. when Art was 10. Years later, when Art was in high school, a friend invited him to a Baptist Church where he eventually received Christ. 


Art’s father wasn’t happy about this unexpected turn of events. However, when Art finished his studies in clinical dietetics, his parents thought their American dream was still coming true! 


While they dreamed of stability, though, God was building another dream in Art’s heart. 


Building a Different Kind of Dream


While living and working in Chicago, Art started evangelizing to other Hispanics and teaching Bible studies in Spanish. He also began to think about returning to Mexico.

“I had never heard the Gospel when I was living in Mexico, and I wanted to give the people there a chance to hear it, too,” Art says. 


When Art announced that he was planning to abandon his career to pursue missions, his father was naturally upset and confused. 


“Why? I worked so hard to bring you to the USA so you could have a future!

Now, you are taking your family back to Mexico? Why?” Art’s father asked. 


Since he was not a Christ-follower yet, Art’s father did not understand. However, during the next year, we had opportunities to share the Gospel with my father-in-law. He received Christ a few months before his death in 1998.

God uses Art’s Mexican heritage to help Art build relationships with local people. For almost 27 years, Art and his wife have planted churches and led people to Christ! Photo courtesy of Vicki Reyes.


Four years later, our little family left for Mexico as TEAM missionaries with the blessing of Art’s mother, who had been saved shortly after Art came to Christ.   


For almost 27 years, we have joyfully planted churches in Art’s home country, Mexico. And now, we get to welcome more Hispanic American missionaries to the field.


Serving God in Gratitude


Recently, a young man named Javier served with us as a TEAM short-term missionary. 


Javier was born in Jalisco, Mexico, but his family migrated to the U.S. when he was 3 years old. Javier’s mother, especially, wanted her children to have an American education and a bright future. 


As a young adult, Javier enrolled in the U.S. Air Force Academy. He says, “I wanted to give back to this wonderful country that had given so much to me and my family!”


During that time, a friend invited Javier to a local church where Javier received Christ. Just before his graduation from the academy in 2016, Javier began to examine his heart.


“I realized that God had done so much in my life and I knew that I wanted to serve Him in some way,” Javier says. “The next weekend, there was a mission conference at my church where I heard that TEAM had short term opportunities. I knew that, upon graduating from the academy, I would have 60 days off, so I felt led to look into it.”


Ready for Ministry from Day 1

That summer, Javier flew to Los Cabos to serve on the VBS staff of our first church. The Mexican believers and the children welcomed him with open hearts! 


“I loved interacting with all of my Mexican hermanos [siblings in Christ] and kids! I felt so blessed to be down there and have the opportunity to serve in some capacity,” Javier says. 

Like Art, Javier was born in Mexico but grew up in the U.S. And like Art, he followed God’s call to serve as a missionary in Latin America. Photo courtesy of Vicki Reyes.


Because he was already fluent in Spanish and culturally sensitive, Javier easily jumped into ministry. That week, a group of unruly boys were frustrating their teacher and distracting their class during the program. 


Javier took the boys out of one of the VBS sessions to share his testimony. They were enthralled! The next day, they begged the VBS director, “When are we going to meet with Javier?” 


Javier met with them for the rest of the week, giving them good Christian advice we hope they will always remember. As for Javier, his time with TEAM convinced him that he has a future in missions.


An Open Door for Hispanic Missionaries

This summer, we plan to host another Hispanic American short-term missionary to help with our VBS. Additionally, we encourage visiting U.S. church teams to invite their Spanish-speaking members to help translate and bridge the cultural barriers for their American churches. It is a little taste of Heaven as we serve side-by-side!


Please pray for the Lord to raise up more Hispanic missionaries, remembering the unique obstacles they face — and the amazing work God can do through them!

Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
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