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First, a little bit of background 

on the Mexicali Chinese Baptist Church. 

Mexicali is a border town three hours‘ drive from OC. The church was started by Pastor Karlson Poon about 15 years ago. God has called a number of Chinese churches over the years to support and partner with the Mexicali Chinese Baptist ministry, and our church was once one of the supportive churches. The ministry has been very challenging especially because Pastor Poon had been battling cancer. A few months ago he finally returned home to be with the Lord. His wife Fanny has been keeping the ministry going during the last 2 years and after Pastor Karlson’s death has accepted the call to be the coordinator of the ministry for the next two years. 

Around March or April I heard that Mexico has been badly affected by the covid-19. Unlike the US, the healthcare system in Mexico is a lot less equipped to handle the pandemic. There were not much PPE around and most people were not wearing any mask. Thus the death rate in Mexicali from covid 19 was at least 6x higher than the US average. This is particularly worrisome among the refugees. About 2 years ago you might remember thousands and thousands of people from Latin America were heading to the US border in caravans. President Trump ordered the border wall built and eventually got the Mexico government to allow some refugees to temporarily stay in Mexico. I was advised by Fanny that several hundred of them settled in Mexicali. They were given some cheap housing to stay in but little assistance beyond that. Most of them couldn’t even be employed. Fanny was moved to help out this group during the pandemic. At this time the Irvine Christian Pray and Serve ministry was in high gear and I sought assistance from them. Bro’s and Sis very enthusiastically pitched in to donate cloth masks, surgical masks, face shields, hand sanitizers, etc etc. In June Gary and I drove them down to SD to give to Pastor Lock to bring to Mexicali. Fanny and some local helpers did the first distribution of about 200 covid-19 care packs in July, mostly to the refugees who were in most need. Though we won’t know how much help that was, I am certain that some lives could have been saved. 

Fanny plans to do a second distribution in end of Sep. Cloth masks happen to be most welcome to the refugees because they are reusable. We have collected about 400 cloth masks and some surgical masks, and a brother from our church has collected some computers and laptops and tablets to donate to Mexicali. May the Lord bless our hearts and use these donations for His glory. 

首先，一點闋於墨西卡利華人浸信會教堂的背景。墨西卡利（Mexicali）是一個距OC 3小時車程的墨西哥邊境小鎮。 該教 堂由潘兆棋牧師（Karlson Poon）於15年前創立。 主要宣教對象原本是從中國廣東省移民到墨西哥的中國人。他們大多數 是開歺館的多年來，上帝召集了多間中國教會來支持墨西卡利中國浸信會事工並與之合作，我們的教會曾經亦是支持的教 

會之一。 不過，教會事工一直充滿挑戰，特別是因為潘牧師一直在與癌症作鬥爭。 幾個月前，他終於回到天家主的懷抱 裡。 他的妻子Fanny在過去的兩年來一直維持該教會的工作，而潘牧師去世後，她接受了呼召在未來兩年繼續地服事該教 會。 

大約在三月或四月裡，我聽聞墨西哥受到covid-19的嚴重影響。 與美國不同，墨西哥的醫療體系沒有足夠的能力應付這個 大流行。 個人防護裝備不多，大多數人沒有戴口罩。 因此，covid 19在墨西卡利的死亡率至少比美國平均高出6倍。 這疫症難民中尤其令人擔憂。 大約2年前，您可能還記得成千上萬的拉丁美洲人正乘大篷車前往美國邊境。 特朗普總統下 令建築邊界牆，並最終令墨西哥政府允許一些難民暫時留在墨西哥。 Fanny告訴我，其中有數百難民留在墨西卡利。 他們 獲得了一些廉價住房，但除此之外沒有什麼幫助。 他們中的大多數甚至都沒有被雇用。 在大流行期間，Fanny被感到有幫 助這些難民的負擔。 

這時，我向ICP&S尋求他們的幫助。 Bro和Sis非常熱情地捐款及捐獻了布口罩，手術口罩，面罩，洗手液等。六月，Gary 和我開車到SD，交這些covid奉獻品予Pastor Lock以交給墨西卡利。 Fanny和一些當地的同工在7月首次分發了大約200包 covid-19愛心包，主要分發給了最需要的難民。 儘管我們不知道那幫助到多少的人，但我確信可以挽救一些生命。 Fanny計劃在9月底再進行第二次分發行動。由於布面罩可以重複使用，因此它們最受難民歡迎。 我們本教會已經收集了大 約400個布口罩和一些外科口罩，KC收集了一些電腦，電腦和平板電腦以捐贈給Mexicali。 願主祝福我們的心，這些捐贈 品可祝福他人。榮耀歸於上帝！ 

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By Alice Wong (Chinese Baptist Church of Central Orange) 2020