Jill Duggar And Derick Dillard Leave For Another Mission Trip In A Catholic Region

Jill Duggar and her husband Derick Dillard recently headed out on another mission trip. The religious demographics of the region they’re visiting are similar to those of El Salvador, the small Central American country they resided in for two years. However, the former Counting On stars won’t be gone as long this time.

On Saturday, the Instagram page for Cross Church College (also known as C3) shared a photo of a large group of young people who were about to leave for a short-term mission trip. Jill Duggar, Derick Dillard, and their youngest son, 8-month-old Samuel, were among those preparing to depart from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. Two-year-old Israel Dillard wasn’t pictured with the parents, so it’s possible he’s staying home this time.

For their latest ministry-related excursion, Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard are heading to Guadalajara, Mexico. According to the World Population Review website, 92.5 percent of the city’s residents identified as Catholic in 2010, so there are few non-Christians living there for missionaries to convert. However, the majority of the population of El Salvador is also Catholic, according to the CIA website, and this didn’t stop Jill and Derick from ministering there for months.

As reported by Entertainment Tonight, the couple was accused of trying to convert Catholics to their preferred brand of Christianity during their previous mission trip. The Duggar daughter and her husband are Southern Baptists who attend the Cross Church megachurch located in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Jill and Derick haven’t shared any details about what exactly they’ll be doing in Guadalajara, but C3’s Pure Charity page offers some information about the week-long mission trip. It says that the purpose of the sojourn is to “continue to help Julio Arriola with his new church plant.”

“The week will be filled with street evangelism and building relationships to share the gospel as we help Vida Church continue reaching Guadalajara,” the description reads.

According to Julio Arriola’s page on Modern Day, a website for missionaries, he believes that God has led him and his wife “to plant life-giving churches that organically and supernaturally multiply into many more churches.” He writes that “only around 2% have been reached with the Gospel” in Guadalajara. The 2 percent refers to Guadalajara’s evangelical population, according to the Vida Church website. The implication here is that Arriola doesn’t consider Catholics to be true Christians, so the purpose of his church may be to convert them.

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard haven’t just been criticized for seemingly targeting Catholic regions as they try to make a living off of ministry work. As reported by Romper, the couple has also angered some Duggar detractors by asking for donations online. Late last year, Derick set up a GoFundMe account and attempted to raise $10,000. He revealed that the money was going to be used for his enrollment in Cross Church’s one-year ministry program for aspiring Christian leaders. According to a post on the Dillard Family website, the Guadalajara mission trip is part of the program. The trip alone costs $1,470 per person.

Derick and Jill also raised money online for their long-term mission trip to El Salvador, which lasted about two years. As reported by People, the couple announced that they were moving their family ministry back to northwest Arkansas last August. They claimed that they decided to cut their trip short because God was calling them to serve in their home state.

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard aren’t currently asking for donations. However, as the Inquisitr previously reported, they did recently try to make a little extra cash by entering a photo of their son Israel in a contest with a $350 prize. The couple seems unsure about what they’re going to do for money after they spend what they’ve raised for the Cross Church program, which will end sometime this summer. They’ve asked fans to pray for God to give them a direction as they contemplate their future plans.