ATLANTA – Dan and Jolene Tucker, recently commissioned as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, are no strangers to their mission field.

Through a relationship between their home church of San Jacinto Baptist in Deer Park, Texas, and Iglesia Bautista Bethel (IBB) church in Tuxpan, the Tuckers have been taking annual mission trips to this beautiful tropical town on the Gulf of Mexico since 1994. Though they never envisioned permanently relocating to Mexico, after much prayer, Dan accepted the call to become pastor of IBB last year. This March, the couple packed their belongings into a 6-by-12 trailer, drove across the border into Mexico, and moved into their new home – an apartment above the church.

Now, their days are so full with plans for church building renovations, improvements to the children’s and youth ministries, and outreach projects (not to mention sermon writing, sermon translation and Spanish lessons), that the Tuckers hardly have time to feel homesick.

“Having strong ties and relationships with the people here has made our transition easy,” said Jolene. “Tuxpan has been our second home for quite a while.”

Long and slender, about nine miles long and two miles wide, the small country town of Tuxpan is known to be tranquil and peaceful by Mexican standards. Lacking the crime of Mexico’s larger cities, Tuxpan is a family-oriented community, with many children and teenagers.

According to Dan, the people of Tuxpan are thirsting for God’s word, and IBB’s congregation of about 100 people has a heart hungering for missions. The church’s motto is “transforming lives.” After years of learning from and serving side-by-side with American teams from San Jacinto Baptist, the members of IBB now desire to get to work in the world discipling others. “They are ready to be goers and givers,” said Jolene.

The church recently approved a five-year plan that would plant three new churches and start a school for children.

“It’s a little bit overwhelming,” Dan admitted. “We need pastors for the mission churches, and suitable plots of land for the church buildings. We also have teaching needs, as far as bringing teachers in for the school and creating the curriculum. We cannot do it ourselves, but we can do it with the people God sends.”

As roughly 50 percent of Mexico’s population is composed of children under the age of 18, the Tuckers plan many activities and outings for Tuxpan’s young people. In April, they held a Bible study and served cake to children on Children’s Day (Día del Niño). In May, Jolene took 10 youth on a three-day, out-of-town retreat, and the Tuckers planned a day of Bible study and chaperoned fun on the beach for mission children who rarely get to go to the beach. Then in June, they assisted IBB’s youth praise team in planning a community-wide concert with games, music and preaching by a guest speaker.

During two weeks in July, IBB held four vacation Bible schools. In the first week, 220 children attended programs held at three different locations in Veracruz, and 90 percent of the attendees were non-church members. “More than one parent said to us, ‘What else can we send our children to?’” said Jolene.

One of the VBS locations was in a small community where there had been no Bible school for three years.

“At the end of the week, they pressured us, ‘When are you coming back?’” said Dan. “The adults would come to the VBS and sit in the back. The first night, we had 40 children; the next, we had 72 children and 30 adults. The response was overwhelming. We told them we’d come back and do a backyard Bible club for the kids and a worship service for the adults on the first Saturday of every month.”

The Tuckers have also discovered the people’s eagerness to learn English.

“Everywhere we go in town, people ask us about English classes. It is connected with economics. If you know English, you are much more marketable,” Dan said. “We have heard that a worker can increase his pay by 30 percent if he can speak English.”

IBB started English as a Second Language classes in the spring, mostly with church members as students, but hope to turn the course into an outreach vehicle.

With so much going on, the Tuckers welcome church mission groups, families and individuals who want to minister alongside them in Tuxpan – whether Tuxpan is their destination, or a stop along the way to somewhere else.

“What’s really cool about us being here is that anybody can come participate in ministry with us anytime,” said Dan. “We are open year-round to hosting people for a variety of missions opportunities, including medical work, construction work, and teaching. Now that we’re here full time, we’re better able to connect people in the United States with our group here, and plug people in to whatever their passions are.”

“It’s not touristy, and it’s not glamorous, but we’ve got a pretty river and beach, and it’s close enough to the United States that people can come,” said Jolene. “The relationships that are formed here – it’s unexplainable. Everyone who comes says, ‘Man, I’m coming back!’ Christian growth is happening all over Mexico, as well as in the Tuxpan teams and American teams. Lives are being changed on both sides of the border.”

To learn about opportunities to serve in Tuxpan, contact Chris Boltin at (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.