Our ministry at Youthfront Mexico Missions centers on a small village in northeast Mexico called Croc. We partner with a local church, Templo Torre Fuerte, in sharing the redeeming life of Jesus Christ with the people of Croc.

Each week during the summer months, youth groups from numerous denominations all over the Midwest come down to serve and learn with us in Croc.

We believe that the life Jesus offers us touches all aspects of our lives, physically, mentally, and most importantly, spiritually. Our ministries are rooted in this as well from home construction to leading VBS to playing with small children to visiting our neighbors and chatting in their homes. We want to see people come to know Christ and know the freedom of life in him.

Missions Philosophy

Our mission: to share the redeeming life of Jesus Christ with the people of Croc. Very nice, isn’t it? Very nicely packaged, boring, stock missions statement. Well, life is the key word here. Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the full. People have their different definitions on what that means. Some understand Jesus’ gift of life as a promise that will only be culminated beyond this life. Others see the gospel as primarily transforming our lives on this earth. We don’t really know if you can package it as an either/or. We believe that the life of Jesus saturates and redeems all of life—physically, mentally, spiritually, and everywhere in between. And our ministry follows suit.
Why do we do it this way? Well, why did God redeem his people the way he did? Why did he send his Son to walk the streets of this planet only to be rejected and murdered? It seems that there could have been an easier way. Through the cross, God identified with his people by becoming like us. God knows what it’s like to feel the weight of the world, to feel the pangs of hunger, the biting stings of mockery, the loneliness of abandonment, the cold shivers of homelessness. God chose to put himself on this earth, to look at us face to face, to come alongside of us in our times of need to say, “Follow me. Learn from me. In me, there is life”.

So we ask ourselves, “Can’t there be an easier way? Can’t we just send some money down or hand them a book or something?” But in Christ, we realize that if we want to share life with people, it means that we have to identify with them, even if it doesn’t happen to be convenient or painless. We have to enter into their world and their pain, living life by God’s Spirit. The students that serve with us are an incarnation of Christ who share his life by hugging small children, by sharing a meal in a person’s home, by laughing and dancing, by passing a bucket of concrete, by treating each other with respect, by singing together, and praying together, by listening to others stories before rushing off to make their own; by inviting others to follow Jesus, inviting them to live a full life in his community of believers, and inviting them to bring life to a dying and decaying world.

Missions to us is simply loving God and loving others and choosing to dirty ourselves in the muck and mire of others’ lives and sharing life in Jesus with them.

Location & Facilities

So don’t even think about trying to find Croc on a map, it’s not there, you’re not going to find it. Croc is actually a colonia (neighborhood or district) of the town of Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon. Croc lies a short 30 minutes away from the sprawling metropolis of Monterrey of 6 million + in northeast Mexico. This small village of roughly 3,000 people is a dry, dusty place where many impoverished people reside. Croc is a monochromatic mosaic of mostly unfinished, concrete block houses and shacks of tin and tar paper strung along dusty, dirt roads with a few houses splashed with loudly-colored paint.