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Page 2 of 5 Native Missionaries rise up from the Children's HomeA new generation of native missionaries, have come from those who grew up and graduated from the children's home. Jose and Clara Compean, grew up in the mission, later became sweethearts, were married and then studied business in the US. They later used the practical skills that they had learned in the children's home to open a pi?ata factory in Marin County, California. They were the first to introduce the pi?ata to the financial district of San Francisco. Later they moved back to Juarez and started another pi?ata factory for the older children of the mission and for other young people in the area. Today they have one of the largest outreach missions in northern Mexico for young people who have dropped out of the education and productivity cycle, Juventud Con Vision. They reach out to those that are from age sixteen to above twenty two, who need to be revitalized in their visions and dreams. They present to them the gospel, teach them spiritual values and principles, reintroduce them to the education they have missed and they also teach them to be entrepreneurs and give them opportunities to learn businesses and even to start their own businesses. These two mission outreach stations are tremendous examples of the Pauline concept of missions that practice the concept of "tent making," not only to assist in sustaining the missionary effort but more importantly to teach others the value of self support and entrepreneurial skills. Missionary work in third world countries is often reduced to what Hudson Taylor; the famous missionary to China in the 19th Century, said was "Rice Christian evangelism." If you gave them a little rice they would become "Christians." He revolutionized the missionary approach in his day by identifying with the native population in dress, language and lifestyle. He refused to give assistance where it was not absolutely needed, but rather he taught his converts the value of work and of personal responsibility. His testimony greatly influenced our own leadership style and commitment in Mexico. All we did in the beginning was to set the vision, lay the biblical foundations and put the dream in motion. God raised up others to follow and to embrace their unique role in His purposes for them. The reality is that the dream is bigger than we could have ever known. The dream has now become the dream of others who see it even bigger than we did—yet they also will never know just how big the dream really is! The question for us that we must answer at this point is this: What would have happened if we had buried our dream like the servant who received the one talent or he who received the one mina, and had never returned to Mexico? More importantly, the question for you that you must answer at this point is this: What will happen to your dream if you bury it?
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