Tupelo church helps spread word of mission opportunity in Mexico

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A Northeast Mississippi church is helping spread the word about a mission opportunity south of the border.

The Tupelo church has partnered with a children’s home in Mexico and recently, the director was in the area to give a progress report on the mission and the vision for the future.

Throughout most of the year, Dr. Saul Camacho and his wife, Maria, are helping oversee the Matamoros Children’s Home. The ministry takes care of more than 120 orphans and neglected and abused children.

For some time, the children’s home has partnered with Tupelo’s West Jackson Street Baptist Church, which sends mission teams, and financial support to the home.

“Our ministry is supported through churches like West Jackson, and other churches, so we need that kind of partnership with as many churches as possible,” said Camacho.

As a child, Saul Camacho lived at the home, when his family couldn’t take care of him. He studied medicine and was set to join the staff at a hospital in Mexico City when he said the Lord led him to serve at the children’s home. Not long after his decision, a major earthquake ravaged the city and leveled the hospital.

Camacho and his wife, Maria, have seen former residents of the children’s home go on to start 60 churches throughout Mexico

“I had some expectations but I never realized they were that many, so God is using every resource, every kid,” said Camacho.

Pastor Keith Cochran said the partnership with the children’s home has inspired church members to start mission and outreach projects in Tupelo and the surrounding area.

“There are things they are doing that encourage us because we go ‘If we can do it in Matamoros, we can do it in Tupelo, Lee County, and Mississippi’. That’s the blessing I get, being around the kids, the Camachos,” said Cochran.

Camacho said no special skills are required for those who are part of a mission trip to the home.

“I told one pastor who asked me what skills people need, I said, as long as you know how to hug a kid and show them love, you’re welcome to come because that’s what those kids need,” said Camacho.

For more information about the Matamoros Children’s Home, go to matamoroschildrenshome.org

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