Matamoros, Mexico (The Gateway) Mission Bases Home
Turning the corner into The Gateway you'd have a hard time believing
you were just ten minutes from Texas and the typical American comforts
of home. And yet somehow, at the end of a little dirt road surrounded
on all sides by okra fields, rises a series of stuccoed, warehouse-looking
buildings which for thousands represent one of the most transforming
experiences of their lives.
 Since
1994, The Gateway has been home base for short-term mission teams
serving the poor in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico. Matamoros,
a city of almost a million, borders Brownsville, Texas on the Gulf
Coast. Thousands come to the border from the interior of Mexico
with hopes of crossing into the US to find work. Those who make
it across, many illegally, leave behind families who live day to
day waiting for their loved ones to send money. Many are left broken
hearted and without basic food and shelter. This is a community
that desperately needs the love of Jesus and the hope of the Gospel.
The Gateway office serves as Adventures In Missions' home base for
partnership with pastors of local churches. Together with these
pastors project set-up staff identify needs in the community and
help equip the local churches to provide discipleship for new believers.
 The
Gateway is also home to Adventures In Missions' Mission
Training Institute. This school for aspiring pastors and
missionaries is raising up Mexican ministers who will be sent into
all of Mexico as ambassadors of the gospel.
In the past five years, thousands of Christian youth, adults and
college students have come to the border on mission projects to
build houses for the poor, build churches and participate in evangelistic
ministries like Door-to-Door evangelism, prayer, medical clinics,
Vacation Bible School and sports evangelism. The Gateway provides
the ideal setting for youth groups and groups experiencing missions
for the first time. The dorms are air conditioned to help bear the
Mexican heat. Project participants are challenged by experiencing
true cross-cultural ministry in the city but return to the base
for meals and times of debrief and worship. 
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