Cobden church has heart for Mexico

COBDEN -- More than a thousand miles away in Cobden, Matt Hartlines thoughts rarely wander very far from a desert in Northern Mexico.

Each year Hartline leaves the village of Cobden, where he serves as associate pastor of First Baptist Church, and travels with members of his church to El Coyote, a small remote village in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico.

For him, its more than just a trip out of the country, though, referring to it as a calling from God.

We are called to missions, but we are called to go to El Coyote, Mexico, Hartline said. We are not just doing random missions, but were called to go there. All of us have a heart for the Mexican people, for these people.

Beginning a dental ministry

Brian and Sherri Lukes, members of First Baptist Church of Cobden, began making the trip to Mexico more than 14 years ago after hearing a woman speak about using what God has given you to do ministry.

Sherri had taught dental hygiene at SIU for 25 years, and so she wanted to clean peoples teeth, meet their physical needs and while theyre waiting in line, share the gospel, Brian Lukes, her husband, said.

The mission work began meagerly, with Sherri setting up a lawn chair at a garbage dump in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and cleaning teeth while her husband and others built a soup kitchen in the dump.

They expanded their ministry over the next four years, going deeper into the heart of Mexico to Palmillas. While Brian and others from the church did construction work, Sherri cleaned teeth with the help of three to six of her SIU dental hygiene students.

But after hearing about Octavio, a missionary from Mexico City, and his wife, who is a dentist and has a dental operatory and a dormitory for mission groups in El Coyote, the Lukes and others from the Cobden church have been returning each year to the tiny desert village.

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Cobden church has heart for Mexico