WHO WE ARE
Josef and Lina Urban are missionaries in Mexico. They have lived in Mexico since October 2007, laboring to glorify God, to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to see the lost come to a saving knowledge of Christ, and to see the Lord’s people strengthened in the faith and established in sound doctrine, that Christ may given the pre-eminence in all things.
MY JOURNEY TO MEXICO (Josef)
At the age of 18, the Lord reached down and saved me. (Read my testimony here.) It was about a year after my conversion that the desire began to burn within me to tell the lost about Jesus. I began to take the Gospel into the streets, handing out tracts, witnessing to various people in the inner city, and eventually open air preaching at parks, bus stops, and other outdoor events. Soon, the Lord led me to team up with other street ministries in the US, and I would take trips to preach the Gospel in the inner cities of various places in the country. This began a blessed time of street preaching and inner city ministry which I will never forget.
It wasn’t long until the Lord led me to unite with some other believers in the Detroit, MI area. By the sovereign and miraculous leading of God, we began to do outreaches to the ghettos of inner city Detroit. Our initial main place of ministry was a run-down park toward the center of the city that was a hotbed for gangs, drugs, violence, and hundreds of homeless people. We would cook up some hot food and call them all together, and they would stand in a line for the food. Then we would preach the Gospel to them. Then, after sending them through the line, we would walk around and talk to them personally, sharing Christ with them, praying for them, ministering to their needs, etc. We held countless open air meetings right in the middle of Detroit’s inner city.
We would spend hours in this park talking to people about Jesus, sometimes up to 6 or 8 hours a day. The Lord blessed this ministry so tremendously that this became our focus and main ministry to reach out to the homeless and inner city folk. We proceeded to reach out to them every Saturday and Sunday, and during the week as well. It was the highlight of my week to go to inner city Detroit and spend the weekend ministering to hurting, dying souls. God was so gracious in this.
This ministry opened up other doors for us in the inner city, and we eventually obtained a weekly preaching spot in the Detroit Rescue Mission, and also reached out regularly at another place in the inner city that was notorious for it’s extremely bad reputation for everything wicked. But there were hundreds of precious drug-addicts, sinners and homeless people who needed Jesus! We would set up our post in the name of the Lord of Hosts and preach the Gospel, proclaiming a Savior that delivers from sin, from addiction, from bondage, and has all power to save to the uttermost all who come to God through Him. The Lord miraculously protected us at times, and confirmed His Word with signs following.
The Lord blessed this ministry, and some of these homeless men and women came to repentance. Many would be delivered from drugs and other bondages, sometimes even instantly when they cried out to the Lord to save them. We began to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was strong at times. Some healings were taking place. The Lord was confirming His Word. There are many wonderful testimonies I could share about some of the glorious things the Lord did at this time. But the most glorious of all was the fact that a few genuinely appeared to be converted, and that God did a wonderful work of grace in my own soul during this time and prepared me for a walk of faith into full-time ministry. This inner city ministry in Detroit lasted for about 2 years.
Eventually, it opened the door for a (very) brief conference ministry around the US. It was during this time that I met and married my wife, Lina. The first time we really met was when we preached together to a drunkard on the streets of Pittsburg, PA during a certain outreach, and this drunkard came to an apparent repentance and cried out to the Lord to save him while on his knees right on the streets. Glory be to God. What a wonderful way to meet your spouse, through God’s confirmation of bringing a sinner to repentance! About 5 months after this, we were married.
It was during our honeymoon, as we were staying at a hotel across the border into Mexico, that I had some sort of “vision” from the Lord about preaching in Mexico, and a strong inward voice compelling me to go. But not being one to blindly follow dreams and visions, I continued to pray about it constantly for the next 6 months, seeking the Lord as to His perfect will and timing. Soon, the Lord released us in the Spirit to go, released me from ministry in Detroit so strongly that I could not stay without being in sin, and we packed up our tiny little car with all our belongings and drove cross-country to southern California to make preparations to move to Mexico.
We had a little less than $2000 to get us there and help us make preparations to begin supporting ourselves to minister. However, we were robbed of all the money just before leaving. And on top of this, our little car broke down and would cost more to fix than what it was worth! We were stuck in southern California. But within a couple days, both of us found a job that paid extremely good, and were able to raise enough money in 2 months to buy us a different vehicle and move to Mexico and support us for the next number of months! So after I took a 2-week trip to London, England to preach to the Muslims during Ramadan, we made the move into Mexico and began to preach the Gospel. This was in October 2007, and we have lived and ministered in Mexico ever since, and by the grace of God have seen some truly wonderful things.
I could not even begin to testify of God’s faithfulness in all things since stepping out in faith and obeying the Great Commission. From miraculous financial provision to miraculous demonstration of the Gospel, God has truly glorified His name and I am utterly humbled to be a tiny, tiny, part of what He’s doing in the world.
“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.” -Psalms 115:1
The Call to Mexico
In late March, 2007, my wife and I had just married and decided to come to Rosarito, Mexico (near Tijuana) for our honeymoon. One night, seemingly out of nowhere, the Lord crushed me with a burden for the Mexican people. As I was laying down, all of a sudden I had what seemed to be a vision, though it wasn't an "open vision", but nevertheless, it was very clear. In it I saw a giant idol. It was supposed to be a statue of Jesus. I was familiar with what I saw because this very idol was right across the way from where we were staying. So, I saw a giant statue of what was a graven image of Jesus Christ (which I understood to be a false Jesus when I saw it) with his arms reached out wide over a large series of towns and villages.
These houses and towns flashed before me as I saw in the spirit that they were under the dominion of a demonic power which promoted "another Jesus" and a false gospel. I continued to watch as villages and towns flashed before me like lightning, then I saw all kinds of Mexican people. I saw faces of hungry souls, starving for spiritual truth. Their eyes were full of desperation. They were hurting, they were oppressed, they were confused, and some were in earnest about hearing truth. I was immediately overwhelmed with a heartbreaking burden and began to weep, praying to the Lord from the depths of my heart that He would send someone to preach the Gospel and that He would save these desperately lost souls. My heart rose up from within me, and I began to pray, "Lord, here am I! I'll go! Send me!" It was then that I believe the Spirit of God spoke to me with a still, small, but clear voice and sent me, followed by an overwhelming rush of peace live a river of living water. Since that time, not wanting to be led solely by visions or experiences, we continually sought the Lord's will during the course of the next 6 months, and we believe it has been evident that He has strongly confirmed our move to Mexico and released us to go with His blessing.
The Need:
In a third-world country like Mexico, poverty is rampant everywhere and needs abound on all sides. But although there are countless physical needs that could be met, our primary concern isn't on improving the people's physical standard of living in this world -our great concern is the salvation of their souls! I could tell you all about how many are so poor and oppressed, stories of abandoned or neglected children, stories of tragic violence and ruined lives from drugs, and much more, but I won't do that. Instead, let's get our eyes off the physical and temporal, and put our eyes on the invisible and eternal.
Most of the people of Mexico are bound by sin and in bondage to the Devil. Like all of mankind by nature, they are monsters of iniquity that have offended a holy God. Their sin has seperated them from God and provoked His anger and His righteous wrath. They have no hope apart from Christ. They are blind to the things of God and dead in their sins, unable to save themselves. Apart from salvation through faith in Christ, they will perish eternally in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Their land is darkened by demonic oppression, idolatry, violence, lust, and a host of other wicked sins. Yet, no doubt, God has an elect from their midst, a people who He has chosen to believe in Christ and be saved. Some of these precious people who are in slavery to the Devil are God's chosen ones, and God hath ordained them unto eternal life, yet, we don't know which ones they are. As we speak they are serving the evil one. Yet, when the Gospel is preached, and Christ is lifted up in thier midst, God will, by His Spirit, effectually call them to salvation and open their blinded eyes that they may see His Son and be saved! They will repent and believe the Gospel, and Jesus will set them free from their sin and bondage and give them eternal life and victory over the evil one! The need is as great as the sin that needs destroyed, and as great as the grace that eagerly waits to abound.
Though you may look at your world-prayer map and see that it says Mexico is an already evangelized nation (except for some of the state of Chiapas), the fact is that there are still many unreached peoples who have never had a true, faithful Gospel witness. These maps are simply WRONG! In the heart of Mexico, Catholicism still reigns as religious king over the majority, and witchcraft/voodoo is often mixed in with it as well. Though these people may know of the name of Jesus, they don't know the true Jesus of the Bible, the Son of God, who died to save them and rose to give them new life. If they have heard any Gospel, it is often based upon the traditions of men and not the power of God; promoted by doctrines of demons rather than the Apostolic faith of the New Testament.
The Mission:
The mission is not ours, but the Lord's. And it's not just a mission, it's the Great Commission. His Word sums it up best. Jesus said:
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." -Mark 16:15 "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." -Luke 24:47-48
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." -Matthew 28:18-20