Jill Duggar And Derick Dillard’s Mexico Mission Trip Included ‘Water Sports Activities’ And Being Tourists
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard had a blast doing mission work in Mexico. The former Counting On stars’ previous mission trips have been met with disapproval. Some critics accused the couple of treating these evangelization excursions more like vacations, and Jill and Derick recently admitted that their latest such trip included a lot of vacation-like activities.
On Wednesday, Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard shared a new post on their family website. Their latest ministry update included a detailed description of their week-long mission trip to Guadalajara, Mexico. The couple was joined by a group of Christian college students for their own version of a spring break vacation. However, according to Derick, there was no binge drinking during their visit. Instead, he and Jill stuffed themselves with local foods, including street tacos, tamales, and chilaquiles. One of Derick’s favorite culinary discoveries was the torta ahogada.
“If you want an authentic Guadalajaran experience while trying to avoid tequila, I highly recommend this Mexican delicacy!” the Duggar husband wrote of the “drowned” sub sandwich.
Derick revealed that he and Jill spent some time visiting a local church and helping out with the youth ministry there. Later on, they returned to join the kids for some fun “water sports activities.”
Derick admitted that he and his wife got a chance to act like tourists on the second day of their stay when they took a leisure trip to Lake Chapala to visit a pastor and his family. However, Derick wrote that they didn’t stop looking for opportunities to “share the Gospel” while they were sightseeing.
“The next day we had more of a relaxed day to hang out and be tourists with the pastor and his family on and around Lake Chapala, about an hour South of Guadalajara.”
It wasn’t all water sports and relaxation for the Duggar husband. He did help paint a school, and he also assisted with the training of a few local church leaders.
Derick Dillard and Jill Duggar left their oldest son, 2-year-old Israel, at home. However, they brought 8-month-old Samuel with them. Derick admitted that he and Jill used their baby boy to strike up conversations with locals while doing some “street evangelism.” According to In Touch Weekly, preaching to people in the streets was one of the main ministry activities on the missionaries’ itinerary.
“Most of our time on Tuesday and Wednesday were specifically set aside for street evangelism. Jill had Sam in tow, and he is particularly good at starting conversations,” Derick wrote.
The Duggar husband shared a few photos of these efforts on the Dillard Family website. In many of these snapshots, locals are playing with Samuel or cooing over the cute baby. There are also pictures of Derick and other missionaries ambushing people sitting on benches by surrounding them. Even though he spent much of the trip trying to convert people on the street, Derick admitted that he felt conflicted about doing so.
“Sometimes I find myself skeptical of street evangelism efforts. However, done the right way, I have seen it to be very fruitful in numerous ministry contexts.”
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a majority of the population of Guadalajara is Catholic. In the past, critics of Derick Dillard and Jill Duggar’s ministry work have complained about the couple trying to convert Catholics to their own faith. They are Southern Baptists who attend Cross Church in Arkansas. The megachurch is responsible for organizing the Guadalajara mission trip.
In his mission trip update, Derick Dillard dropped a hint that another mission trip may be in the cards for his family. He wrote that he and Jill Duggar are “definitely ready to get back to Central America,” which is where they lived as missionaries for two years.
