Cindy Jacob’s Mexico Report
June 07, 2011
General Announcements
Descending down through the hazy skies over Mexico City was a time of reflection for me. This huge metropolis is one of the biggest cities in the world—around 28,000,000 people. We were coming to meet with top political leaders in the nation for an initiative called Two Nations-One Project.
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Viva Mexico
Descending down through the hazy skies over Mexico City was a time of reflection for me. This huge metropolis is one of the biggest cities in the world—around 28,000,000 people. We were coming to meet with top political leaders in the nation for an initiative called Two Nations-One Project.
For me, this all began with a phone call from my good friend, Rosi Orozco, who is a congresswoman in Mexico. Both Rosi and her huband Alex are not only in government, but they pastor a congregation of more than 10,000 people.
As I listened to her heart concerning the nation she served and loved, we both realized that the only real answer to stop the violence, the narco and sex traffickers was going to be concerted prayer.
Rosi’s call set in motion what was to be a life-changing set of events beginning with what we eventually called the Cinco de Mayo Prayer Initiative that took place April 15th-May 5th.
Mike and I were driving down the road on the way to the Arizona Starting the Year Off Right conference last January while I was on my cell phone listening to the plight of Mexico and our mutual borders. When I hung up I turned to him and said, “Mike, we’ve got to do something! Let’s plan a prayer initiative and do it bilingually in Spanish and English with Mexico and the United States both agreeing together to put a stop to these problems.
I mulled this over for a few moments when Mike piped up with one of those flashes of inspirations that he gets and said, “Let’s call it the Cinco de Mayo initiative” and I jumped in and said, “That’s it! Let’s do it!” We opened up a calendar, counted back 21 days from the 5th of May. That night, I got up and announced that we were going launch the Cinco de Mayo Initiative on April 15, 2011.
There was so much that went into that time of prayer. Mark Gonzales, of the Hispanic Prayer Network, worked day and night. Melissa Medina, the Executive Coordinator for the United States Reformation Prayer Network, also worked tirelessly to help Mark. Hal and Cheryl Sacks of Bridgebuilders International worked with me as we sowed countless hours into the preparation of the 21-Day Prayer Guide. The prayer guide was translated into Spanish with the help of Rosi’s friends and was used by participants in a 21-day 24-7 prayer wall as well as nightly prayer meetings at Christ for the Nations Institute. Houses of prayer in border cities fasted and prayed during this time as well—even for a continuous 24 hours on the 5th of May.
As this is not meant to be an in-depth report of that initiative, I am happy to share that thousands of people around the world fasted and prayed in partnership with the 21-day Cinco de Mayo Initiative.
Jolting out of my revelry by the wheels touching down on the tarmac, we stood up to file out of the plane into a season of destiny. We would echo with our friends from south of the border, Viva Mexico!
We joined 29 other leaders who had converged from all across America for a briefing from Transform, Mexico. We were delighted to also have received an invitation from President Calderon and his gracious first lady, Margarita. The list of American leaders looked like a who’s who of evangelical leaders. We were blessed to be there with them.
Two friendly faces, that I knew from a previous ministry trip, waved at us as we emerged from customs and gave us a briefing of the next day’s events. After a dinner with some friends who came with us for the meetings, we attended an informal reception to get acquainted with the other leaders on the team.
The next morning was a rather warm one. Mexico City was experiencing a heat wave. We boarded a bus and were briefed on the protocol for interfacing with the President and First Lady.
Our transportation stopped at the gate of the grounds of Los Pinos (the pines) and through the windows we could see beautifully kept gardens with huge trees and an abundance of flowers.
If you will allow me to write this in the way of a person journaling as opposed to simply a report, let me digress to the thoughts that just popped into my head: People often ask me if I am scared to go to Mexico City, “Aren’t you afraid you might be kidnapped?”. “Not at all, “I reply, “It is safer in Mexico City than Washington D.C.!” Actually, the President was later to share with us that the murder rate in Mexico City is 17 per 100,000 and Washington’s is 40 per 100,000!
After going through the security checkpoint, we entered a lovely, brightly colored conference room. We were to be hosted at this juncture by the First Lady, Margarita, and Dr. Poiré, a Harvard grad and teacher who has a cabinet position that similar to that of a U.S. Secretary of State. His briefing was articulate and insightful. Here are a few points from my notes, as I understood him:
• With the closing of the Caribbean route for drug trafficking from 1985-1990’s cocaine started being brought in from Colombia through Mexico. At the same time there were cocaine wars in the United States in the 80’s and the 90’s. The demand greatly increased.
• During that time, there was a one-party system that caused the unraveling or tearing up the fabric of society. The youth didn’t have opportunities and were recruited by the cartels. By the year 2000, middle-class greed in Mexico, along with their own drug usage, also fueled the narco-trafficking.
• Early on, the drug traffickers were mainly non-violent. In 2004, however, the United States lifted the assault weapons ban and this provided narco-traffickers with access to the kind of weapons they needed for violent confrontations. They started fighting one another, corrupted low-level police, started human trafficking and small cartels saw that they could fight for greater territories. Since 2009 alone, they have confiscated over 11 million rounds of ammunition, 1110,000 guns and rifles, and at least 52,000 other weapons including such things as shoulder missile launchers. They are tracing guns that are being sold illegally.
• The government at that time did not invest in police infrastructure. Beginning with the Fox administration, reforms started to take place. The Calderon administration has worked for four years for institutional reforms, including police. They are doing joint exercises against the cartels with the military. At the moment they have 37,000 police for a nation of 112 million people and they are working to vastly improve that with a system of vetting to weed out corruption. Seven thousand of their police officers now have college degrees. They have doubled the federal budget for security as well.
• The current Mexican government is also working on many other structural reforms. At the moment, Mexico does not have a judicial system with oral arguments or trials by your peers. By 2016 they expect to have reformed this system.
• Another way that they are working toward change is by reconstructing social patterns through the restoration of public spaces as well as starting hundreds of new schools and opening new universities.
Many more important points were made during the briefings but the best was yet to come. We were to have lunch with the President himself and he was also going to brief us on the nation.
By this time, I was deeply impressed with all that I witnessed and heard. Although I have always had a profound love for Mexico and respected its people, I was now awed by the huge reformation that is already underway this country.
We boarded the bus and went to another part of this park-like compound. What greeted us was a “fiesta” for the eyes! Our luncheon setting was a gracious, marquee-like white canopy atop banqueting tables set with beautiful, Mexican silver chargers and serving pieces. The flower arrangements in the center of this hollow square seating arrangement were huge and elegant. Music from a live group resonated through the air as we looked for our place cards and were seated.
Another cabinet secretary came in and sat at my right hand. He explained that he is the equivalent to our Homeland Secretary. He was most kind to be there in our midst. To his right was President Calderon and the First Lady, Margarita.
The whole meal was served in courses in the most elegant manner. What an honor it was to be there in that beautiful place!
After we dined, we were briefed by Alex Orozco, who is in charge of programs for the well being of the nation’s elderly population.
Then President Calderon, a graduate of Harvard University, greeted us in flawless English. What a great man he is! I thought to myself, “We are in the presence of a living legend who is risking his life every day to serve his nation!” He shared a number of excellent points with us but as I didn’t have note cards at this point I wasn’t able to write them down. He shared that the unemployment rate for Mexico is lower than that of the United States; which surprised me. He also expressed how the murder rate was lower than many places in the U.S. and gave some statistics.
After a time, we were able to ask him questions as well. At one point, I was able to voice what many of us had expressed privately to one another, “Mr. President, I believe I can say that many of us have felt both embarrassment and sorrow at some of the things we have heard today about how our nation has caused so many problems for your nation.“ I went on to ask his forgiveness for our greed for money, drugs and lust. Many leaders shook their heads in agreement. It was a snapshot in time that I will personally never forget. I don’t think it was just my imagination, but there was a tangible change in the atmosphere at that point. At the very least, I was greatly relieved to have had a moment to share the heaviest of heart I had felt after hearing the Mexican side of our border problems. We, as Americans, cannot point fingers at “them” without taking a hard look at ourselves.
The crux of the matter is that the Bible commands us to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” Mexico is our neighbor. We made a covenant with them through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to be friends and have reciprocity in our relationships. That day the covenant was repaired—in our hearts and beyond.
If that was all, we had accomplished that day, it would have been monumental, however, that night was the “icing on the cake” as we say in Texas. After a brief stop at the hotel, we drove around an hour in the usual Mexico City traffic jams to the convention center for a night of prayer. About 800 pastors and leaders had been invited from every state in Mexico to join us. Thousands joined the leaders as we asked God to heal our borders.
Ron Luce of Teen Mania prayed for the youth, Larry Stockstill shared what God had shown him for the nation. Billy Wilson of Empowered 21, John Robb of the International Prayer Council, pastors of several large U.S. churches, and many others prayed—Mexican as well as American. The flags of both nations stood on either side of the podium. A video had been made for prayer points to aid us in informed intercession.
The full results of our twenty-one days of prayer and that one night’s intercession are still to be made known. We do know that the week before the police had closed down the oldest area of prostitution and 60 woman and girls had been rescued. Now that was worth the whole journey to hear!
I know that the heavens were rent open that night. The next morning as we traversed the city, we sensed the peace and blessing that had been deposited in the city by the prayers of God’s people. After teaching at a women’s conference the following day, we boarded a plane with a “Vaya con Dios” or “Go with God” on our hearts.

Cindy Jacobs, May 2011
CC: Dan Tovar ACTS – Apostolic Centers for Training the Saints, Mexico City