Reynosa-based River Ministry missionary facilitates program in public schools focused on family restoration  

On March 7, Pedro Muñoz celebrated both his 60th birthday and his 19-year anniversary as a River Ministry missionary. He connected with River Ministry in 2007 while seeking direction after God called him out of the church he was pastoring and to “wait for [his] calling.” 

“Out of the blue,” Muñoz received a call “on behalf of Josue Valerio,” former director of the Center for Missional Engagement at Texas Baptists, inquiring to meet with him. 

“[The staff member calling said], ‘Josue wants to meet with you tomorrow. Can you do that?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ So I went to a [local] restaurant, and there was Josue, and [he] says, ‘Do you want to be a missionary for River Ministry? Would you like to join us?’ And I said, ‘Well this is my answer from God, so yes, I would like to be a missionary for River Ministry,’” explained Muñoz. 

Texas Baptists’ River Ministry connects churches to specific projects along the Texas/Mexico border and in the most populous Mexican cities. The projects include medical clinics, counseling sessions, events to help various family needs, outreach, VBS and social events.

As a River Ministry missionary, Muñoz and his wife, based in Reynosa, Mexico, have led family Bible studies with parents in public schools in both Reynosa and McAllen, Texas, called the "Family Health Parenting Program,” focused on overcoming dysfunction. Muñoz said the Bible studies were inspired by personal experience. 

Focused on family ministry after restoration 

Prior to God calling him to pastoral ministry in 2000, Muñoz worked as an industrial chemical engineer, managing factories for major car manufacturers, and his primary focus became to “earn a lot of money.” 

“One of my companies that I worked for in my early years in the factories was Mercedes-Benz and BMW. So I went into BMW, and I said, ‘I want one of those.’ So I started very quickly to climb up [the ranks]. But suddenly, I don't see my wife or my kids in the picture,” explained Muñoz. “I was gone most of the time working in the United States… [and I] was about to get divorced because of that, but somehow the Lord provided us [restoration and a way] to stay together and reach the timeline for his calling [me to ministry in] 2000.” 

He said by the time God called Muñoz to pastoral ministry, “we knew that our ministry [focus] had to do with how to recover family, how to recover marriages, how to restore broken families,” because he and his wife had experienced restoration in their marriage.   

“[God] healed our matrimony, our family. We needed to put together a ministry where we could do the same with other families, and at the same time, this could be an entry strategy for the community, because that will allow us to help people… and from those relationships, we can share Jesus [and] we can do missions,” said Muñoz.

One day that year, Muñoz visited a local children’s home for kids who come from broken families and felt convicted “to do [the family bible study] with the parents of these kids.” So he invited the families to his former church to participate in the Family Health Parenting Program as it was being developed. 

Over a course of eight weeks, the program focuses on four areas: “Aware. Equip. Restore. Heal.” Muñoz said he and his team facilitate up to four sessions of the program per year in various elementary and high schools. At the end of each eight-week session, he and his team host a gathering to celebrate the families who have completed the program.

Strengthening families affected by family dysfunction

In 2005, a member of Muñoz’s former church living in McAllen asked if he could bring the Family Health Parenting Program to PSJA Early College High School in McAllen. 

“[She called me and asked], ‘[Can you] come tomorrow? We can meet with the principal and go from there.’ So we went there, and the principal in the McAllen High School came in, and he said, ‘We have a bunch of problems here in the high school, but I know that you, the pastors and Christians, have the answer to get rid of all of these problems,’” explained Muñoz. 

Muñoz explained the bible studies and offered that the principal could give the program materials to the parents, but he recognized that “parents either project to their children positively or negatively,” and “the key to solving family and marriage problems [is restoration of] the parents.” So, he decided to launch the program at PSJA Early College High School in McAllen. 

While their parents go through the program, Muñoz and his team also work with the children of these parents in a similar program, to help them “strengthen their lives, which have been affected by the negative effects of family dysfunction.”

“[The children’s program addresses] the really tangible problems that we were seeing in that population of students. Most of the schools we go to are the elementary schools, [so we] started [with focusing on] ‘What is adolescence about?’... [and] several schools have [even] allowed us to do VBS inside of their facilities,” explained Muñoz. 

Muñoz said he sees “40 or 50 parents that show up” to each session of the program, and that God is opening up doors for more schools and parents to have access to this program.

“We bumped into this teacher yesterday… [and he said], ‘I'm a superintendent in the teacher's union, and I'm in charge of 11 schools. Why don't you go to these 11 schools, and I can support you? I can open up these 11 schools for you to do this program,’” said Muñoz. “I said, ‘Wow, the Lord is opening up a lot of doors throughout Mexico.’” 

He asked for prayer for laborers to partner with his team in this ministry as opportunities arise to meet the public schools’ needs. 

“[My] prayer [request] will be [for] laborers, workers, brothers in Christ that would like to be handling this ministry, these programs at schools,” said Muñoz. “If we see a need in the public school – there is a lot of need not only spiritually but also material-wise – … we try to fulfill it.” 

“There is nothing impossible for God”

Muñoz said that through facilitating the Family Health Parenting Program in partnership with River Ministry, he has seen “first-hand that we have a real God.”

“One [area] where God really is affecting our lives in a positive way is that we see marriages, brokenness, we even see a lot of women coming by themselves [to the bible study]. But by the second session, they come with their spouses, and then by the end of the eight weeks, they are holding hands,” said Muñoz. 

Muñoz encouraged those considering serving with River Ministry that “God will speak to you, to your ministry through River Ministry.” He shared an example of God affirming his pastoral ministry through a River Ministry retreat. 

“Our [current] church, [Family Rehabilitation Center], is made up of house churches… [and my wife and I thought], ‘Maybe we're wrong. Maybe we were going against the Bible [doing house church].’ But the Lord says, ‘No, no, this is okay,’ and we went to this River Ministry retreat, and guess what? There is a guy there speaking about house churches,” explained Muñoz. “It was like he was speaking to us from God, saying to us, ‘You're going and heading the right way.’” 

Muñoz shared Luke 1:37, “There is nothing impossible for God.”

“[Knowing that truth], if the biggest evidence that Jesus Christ is not in human hearts is family dysfunction, we have all the power in God to [help heal] family dysfunction and make healthy families and healthy marriages,” said Muñoz. “There is nothing more satisfying than seeing God's hand healing families from the first session and seeing them begin to love and reconcile! Hallelujah, God is very good!”