Mexico Prayer Guide

One of my friends asked me to give him my thoughts as to what Mexico needs prayer for.  I thought I should share.  If you want a more scientific guide, I'd suggest Operation World, although they're not very merciful with Catholics.

Mexico is majority Catholic, but there is much syncretism and "cultural" Catholicism. Large Baptist and Charistmatic churches. Lots of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Prayer Requests:

Unity among believing Catholics, Evangelicals, and Charismatics.  There is a very sad lack of communication.

A consistent and strong gospel message from the church: Some things I've noticed: "Christians can wear worldly clothing and listen to rock music, so they're cooler than Catholics." Many "saints days" are large community-wide drunken parties.

2012 Election--in 2000 Vicente Fox and PAN broke 70 years of one-party rule. Hard to say what or who is best for the country at this point.

Corruption: From commonplace petty police corruption (the correct answer is "What's your name? Can I talk to your supervisor?) to ongoing corruption in the upper echelons of government, Mexico needs a change in morals.

Secularism/Materialism: As Mexico has achieved its place in the global "Middle Class," a lot of consumerism has kicked in, as evidenced by a recent proliferation of foreign companies like Wal-Mart (both things are related to NAFTA).

Leadership: Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country, and produces about the same amount of movies, music and ideas as the other Spanish-speaking countries combined. The church is similarly a leader and influence. Mexico City itself, the self-proclaimed "City of the Vanguard" is bigger than any US city and is a place where post-modernism flourishes in art and ideas. Many artists try to use their work for good.

Have-nots: There are still unreached and often desperately poor groups of people in the remote regions of Mexico (Oaxaca is one example I'm aware of). Mexico also has large slums, and fear keeps most outsiders from getting involved.  Children are often left to their own devices and undervalued.

Missions:  Receiving. Mexico probably receives more foreign (mostly American) missionaries than any other country in the world. This has borne much fruit, both in Missionaries who later go on elsewhere, and in Pastors and churches and humanitarian efforts in Mexico. Pray that continued efforts would be effective, respectful, healthy, and reciprocal.

Missions: Sending and Support. Mexico has the potential to be one of the greatest sending nations in the world, and it already is sending many missionaries. There are numerous formal and informal seminaries and missions schools, in fact, attending something like this is a norm at the church I attend. Despite the lack of money in pastoring and missions, I've encountered a great many Mexicans who make ministry and outreach a part of their daily lives, whether it's giving out tracts in toll booths, or regular children's outreaches, or medical missions.   The most inspiring to me was Sarai, who when she didn't show up for an event on day, told me the next day she had been working.  I was confused because she didn't have a job.  She explained "working for God.  I was praying and felt like I should go visit these people yesterday morning."