It's Not Over Till It's Over

By Paul Hardy

When you have to return from a foreign field, it is easy to believe that you are done with, finished, kaput. Suzie and I have spent all of our adult lives in missionary service. Just weeks after getting married, we attended ABWE's Candidate Class. I vowed to the Lord that I would spend my life reaching those who had never heard the gospel. That was my call, my joy.

After seven years in Mexico City, however, I developed chronic asthma as a result of the altitude and smog in the world's largest city. Greenpeace declared Mexico City the most contaminated place on the planet. My lungs finally refused to take in any more pollution. We had to leave the place we so deeply love. The people for whom we had given our lives and service would be put to the test. Would the fruit God had given us really last? We are thankful to report that the Metropolitan Baptist Church is alive and well. Attendance is stable, the future is hopeful.

We questioned, "What does the Lord want us to do next?" Our daughter, Melissa, asked, "Daddy, will this mean that we aren't missionaries anymore?" Teary-eyed, I answered, "Sweetheart, we'll always be missionaries." The Lord isn't through with you until HE is through with you!

We arrived in the US in July 1997 and began looking into possibilities. As we investigated, we discovered that the United States will soon be 25% Hispanic. The number of Spanish-speaking Americans will surpass the Black population. Then it came to me. If I cannot return to Mexico, maybe God is bringing Mexicans to me! And not only Mexicans, but Puerto Ricans, Spaniards and other Spanish-speaking nationalities. More than 22,000 Hispanics live in the Tidewater area of the US Atlantic Coast.

We began a Hispanic Bible study in the Colonial Baptist Church of Virginia Beach under the supervision of Pastors Dan Davey and Brian Trainer. This church already had many Hispanic contacts and was ready for such a venture. In 1989 we had taken part in a missions conference at this fine church and grew to love a Puerto Rican couple named Hector and Lucy Montes-Marchi. Hector was in the Navy at the time, but Suzie and I were convinced the Lord was calling them to missionary service. Hector promised me, "Pablo, when my boys finish school, we'll become missionaries." Years passed and Hector's two boys are now adults. I asked Hector, "Do you remember that promise you made to the Lord and to me years ago?" He replied that he and his wife were ready to serve the Lord.

Hector has retired from the Navy and serves as the outreach leader for our ministry. We have an average attendance of 20 on Wednesday evenings, unless we have a pot luck dinner; then as many as 65 attend. Our strategy for this new work is that most of the ministry is done by people within the group. Hector makes the calls and prepares special events. We are also preparing Bible teachers through discipleship ministries, and I meet weekly with several men to prepare them to teach.

As we consider founding a church, we have several opportunities:

• I am allowed to write a column for a local Spanish newspaper.
• Bible studies in a Mexican restaurants are a possibility.
• We found a Chinese restaurant employing Hispanics. The owners want me to do "human resource development." It's a sure thing that if these people get saved, they'll become better workers!
• We plan to hold a couples' retreat as a ministry to believers and an outreach to the unsaved. Guess where we'll advertise? In the local Spanish newspaper, of course.

Whether we are on the foreign mission field or in North America, the same principles apply: aggressive evangelism, discipleship programs, working through local leadership. These have been our format for ministry and these principles work anywhere in the world.

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