Our Partners

Cross Sound Church has embarked on this Journey With a Village (JWAV) together with Seattle-based Agros International.  Agros exists to restore hope and opportunity to the world's poor.  Their mission is to see rural poor families own agricultural land, attain economic self-sufficiency, realize their God-given potential, and pass on to future generations the values and resources that enable them to flourish.

Cross Sound’s role in this five-year partnership includes participating in the planning, providing necessary funding for relief efforts and long term sustainable development, periodically sending service teams to work in the village alongside the people, helping build awareness and support in our surrounding community, and providing daily spiritual support through prayer for San Pedrito’s families and all the partners in this effort.

There is only so much individual service teams can accomplish on a particular trip, and only so much we can bring in terms of skill sets and knowledge.  Agros International maintains a full-time team of Mexican nationals based in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas.  The team including experienced professionals in engineering, agriculture, veterinary medicine, community development, education and so forth, works directly with San Pedrito all year-round.

This is not a charity effort.  The Agros model is premised on dignified and sustainable development, breaking the cycles of handouts and dependencies.  San Pedrito thus makes the decisions, does the prioritization, drives the planning and does most of the work, ultimately must pay back loans and make significant investments of their own over time.

Mexico Churches

This effort is part of Cross Sound’s larger overall program for the Mexico Missions.  As such, we have partnered with two churches in Mexico - Iglesia Puerta de Salvacion, in Cuatla, and Iglesia Nacional Presbiterania Bethel, in Cuernavaca, pastored by Victor Cruz Sarmiento and Alejandro Loya Hernandez, respectively.

Recognizing that the state of Chiapas is in particular need of social reconciliation these two churches have decided to place an emphasis on this particular region.  Their roles include planting churches, attaining formal training for lay pastors such as the Jose in San Pedrito, and providing spiritual and financial support through Agros.  They have already helped funding for San Pedrito’s new teacher and periodically hold prayer vigils for San Pedrito in their congregations.  Given much of the indigenous peoples’ poverty in Mexico stems from their own country’s failure to acknowledge their condition and participate in addressing the problem internally, this is a significant step forward.

Other Organizations in the Immediate Region  

Chiapas has been mired in social, political, economic, racial and religious tensions and conflicts for far too long.  While Agros has an excellent team permanently based in the country, it cannot address the problems of San Pedrito without addressing the larger issue of regional reconciliation among the various ethnic, religious and political groups.  Agros cannot do this alone, and thus is partnering with other institutions and organizations in the region to holistically address these issues over the long-term.

One of these organizations, for example, is the Institute of Intercultural Studies and Research (INESIN), based in San Cristobal de las Casas.  This faith based non-denominational organization focused on these very conflicts has expertise in the indigenous peoples of Chiapas and is chartered to understand and unravel these complex issues and help bring other organizations, including Agros, together in an organized manner to find solutions to these problems.

Other Organizations in the Puget Sound

Similarly, Cross Sound must partner with other organizations in our community to develop broad based interest and support for an entire organization.  Our team is thus looking for other interested organizations, and we hope to see them soon here on this page.