The University of California Education Abroad Program will not give credit to undergraduate students who conduct research in most of northern Mexico, said Toby Miller, a UC Riverside professor and academic director for the program in Mexico.Ĭorona’s Crossroads Christian Church canceled its Mexico trips about two years ago after warnings from its contacts there, said Kasey Butler, spokeswoman for the church.īut six Crossroads staff and volunteers were in the Mexico-Texas border region until Wednesday on a mission with Riverside-based Power Ministry. The Cal State system suspended its study-abroad program in Mexico after a 2010 State Department travel warning about parts of the country. Religious organizations are not the only ones worried about violence in Mexico. But an increasing number of victims are innocent people, many “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said. Even in dangerous areas, most victims are linked to the drug trade. Starr said organizations that cancel all trips to Mexico are overreacting, because much of the country remains safe. The security situation is constantly shifting, with violence waning in one area and spiking elsewhere, said Pamela Starr, director of the U.S.-Mexico Network at USC. The Grove has 12 missions this summer to other countries and may still travel to other parts of Mexico later this year if they are considered safe, Barnes said. We have deep relationships with people there.” “It was a very painful decision,” Barnes said. The economy may have been a small factor, but the violence appears to be by far the primary reason, he said.Ĭulbertson, a professor of missions and world evangelism at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, coordinated a trip of about 120 people to northern Mexico last month, but he and his associates were ready to cancel the mission at the last minute if the area became unsafe. Precise figures on trip cancellations are unavailable, but Howard Culbertson, an expert on religious missions, estimates that the number of missions to Mexico has fallen by more than half in the past few years. More than 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence in the past five years, according to Mexican media reports. Highland’s Immanuel Baptist Church and the Seventh-day Adventist La Sierra University in Riverside are among other Inland institutions that have stopped going to Mexico. consulate there warned of a spike in drug battles. Riverside’s Grove Community Church, which has been going to Mexico for 35 years, recently canceled a planned trip for this month to the Guadalajara area after pastors, missionaries and the U.S. “I would rather spend 28 years with you as my mother than 40 years with another mother,” Steven said.As drug-related violence continues to ravage parts of Mexico, a mounting number of churches in the Inland area and nationwide are canceling missions for fear that volunteers might get caught up in the maelstrom. Steven recalled two weeks ago his mother was shopping for her toys for his son Dylan and he came across boxes in her garage filled with toys for him the future. “For a husband to literally release his wife to heaven there is a struggle.” “Rarely do we think of death as an intimate moment,” he said. John Potter,the minister of family care at the church, read a poem he wrote about their final moment. Zinn was with her and held her head in his hands as she took her final breath. “She is about to go see Jesus,” Rob told Price when he visited them the day she died. They married three years later in 1973.Įven as they faced her death, they did not loose their faith. They met at the church when she was 15 and he was the youth pastor.
The love the two had for each other was spoken of. The front of the church was filled with thousands of arrangements of flowers surrounding a photograph of her and Rob. She often decorated the church and fellowship hall for events.
They also spoke of her interest for decorating. The two-hour service was not short, but it was sweet and was filled with tears and laughter as friends recalled Sue Zinn’s wit and knack for practical jokes. “She said RI want you to keep it short and sweet.'” “She looked at me and said “Walter I want you to do my funeral,'” he said. Price recalled visiting the Zinn home the day the family made the decision for her to receive hospice care and he saw her in her hospital bed in the den. “I feel a need to tell you how I got to this spot,” he said. Price said the service was a celebration of life, but tears still streamed down people’s faces as they sang “How Great thou Art.” “Every person in this place is here because they love you and they love Sue,” Price said.
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