Jonathan Mosser is 22 years old, a 2002 graduate of York Suburban High School and a 2006 graduate of Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT.  Graduating with a degree in Biochemistry and a minor in Spanish, Jon is in the process of applying to medical school.  However, Jon is currently serving the Lord for a year (or two) in Juarez, Mexico, with Life Challenge International (LCI), a non-profit Christian charitable organization serving the Juarez/El Paso border area and future missionaries from around the world.  LCI's vision is to see individuals and communities transformed by the Holy Spirit, educated and equipped to fulfill God’s will, living lives of compassion towards the hurting and lost, and committed to the unified effort of building the Kingdom of God.

Jon's interest in mission work began with short term mission trips he took through his home church, First Presbyterian of York, PA (Donegal Presbytery) which sparked an interest that followed him to college.  Before finishing college, Jon took several mission trips, including a medical one to Honduras, which served as the impetus to serve others in a medical context.  Last February, he visited Juarez on a mission trip with a close friend from college and decided after much prayer to take a year off and work with Life Challenge International.  Mosser describes Juarez as “an area of great hope and beautiful people.”  He also notes that it attracts the unemployed from throughout Mexico who hope to find work across the border in El Paso, Texas.  When they come to Juarez, they find “sex trafficking, drug trade, and other criminal activities.”

The community is in the process of evolving from cardboard shacks to wooden houses to cinder block homes.  LCI’s ministry to the community is is focused on helping the people of Juarez (and, in Jon's case, Carlos Chavira) develop their community.  Jon's web site details his journey in words and pictures. It also includes updates of his life in Juarez and support and contact information.  On contact with Mosser by e-mail, he said …”In daily life, living in a community like Carlos Chavira (the neighborhood of Juarez where I live) is challenging. My neighbors are the products of broken homes, child abuse, and violence—and it usually extends to their children. The local cholos (gang members) essentially control the colonia at night and usually graffiti our property. Nonetheless, we have a pretty good relationship with them and occasionally invite some of the guys over for dinner. We're starting a gym (with free-weights and some machines) at the end of next week, and our prayer is that it would provide a means for further relationships with those guys.”

As Mosser works to build a relationship with gang members in his community, he’s also seeing the fruits of the mission’s labors in medical clinics.   Jon predicts a dozen medical clinics seeing hundreds of patients will be in place by the end of next summer.  One of the mission’s goals is to expose people from the U.S. to mission work through  short-term trips. He hopes and prays that the Americans who come there on short-term  trips will see God’s amazing work demonstrated in Juarez. To that end, a program to bring dentists from El Paso to Juarez for one-day mission work is being explored. It is hoped that this experience will encourage the dentists to discover whether God is calling them to mission work.

Take a few minutes and visit Jon in Juarez:  website with video. 

You'll be glad you did.

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