Beth,
What a refreshing post! It's very encouraging to see that spirit still alive in some today. My wife and I relocated here to Mexico City area for the purpose of volunteering in an area where there was a need. In our case, it was to offer free Bible education to those who speak, or who desire to speak, English. We found a tremendous response here in two, month-long visits to the area. There are far more English speaking people here in the City area than anyone thought. And, a very deep desire in the populace to understand what the Bible teaches. Not religion, philosophy or tradition; but only what is actually contained within the pages of the Bible. That's why we sold our home and relocated here. We are full-time volunteers who try to eek out a living working in my previous field; food, pharmaceutical and medical, capital equipment projects. The secular work has been slow going . . . but, we have savings.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but your post did say, literally . . . "attorney, teacher, farmer....whatever." My wife and I are Pioneer ministers of Jehovah's Witnesses. "Pioneer" just refers to those who can dedicate at least 70 hours per month volunteering in the teaching work. Our organization is truly one of the largest, most progressive and fastest-growing organizations in Mexico. I will give you the stats from this year's yearbook, which covers the progress of our organization globally.
Mexico: Population 122,456,000; 2013 Peak Publishers (Witnesses) 806,506; Ratio of Publishers to Populace: 1:152; % of Growth Over 2012: 4%; 2013 Number Baptized: 26,405; Avg. Pioneer Publishers: 121,786; Number of Congregations: 13,228; Avg. Bible Studies: 1,093,867; Hours Spent in Volunteer Ministry: 192,651,159; Number Attending the Memorial of Christ's Death (Public Invited in a Country-Wide Campaign): 2,211,244.
As you can imagine, this is a vast, amazingly organized initiative covering hundreds of language groups and reaching out individually to all classes of people evenly and simultaneously. (Please see JW.org, available in 600 languages) It is all entirely volunteer (globally), with no collections, tithes, fund-drives or other instruments used to collect money.
We are never bored, never out of work, always on the go, often tired (but "Good Tired"), and always helping people succeed with real-life concerns; family concerns, loss of a loved one, fear of worsening world conditions and general feelings of hopelessness. These are helped, not by studying religion, philosophy or tradition, but only by learning for themselves what is inside the Bible they have had on the shelf for decades. It is a deeply satisfying and rewarding work. The results often become lifelong friends. And, since it is a unified, global organization which has achieved what governments have only dreamed of, you can have your pick of assignments anywhere on earth. We chose Mexico because it has the highest ratio of Bible studies in the world, and, that's what we enjoy doing the most.
Well, this definitely fits your criteria of "whatever", I'm sure of that. Do you have what it takes to serve? That, my friend, is entirely up to you. That would be the whole "volunteer" part, right? If you'd like to know more, just let me know. Learning the basics of the Bible is shockingly simple, once you strip away all of the other stuff. Every congregation on earth provides weekly training, a school and practical guidance. Every week, open to the public, free of charge. I hope you can assist, we could use the help.
Hope to hear from you, and wishing you the best,
Paul Pakyz
Working in Mexico
Starting a business in Mexico
Working in Cancun
Working in San Miguel de Allende
Working in Jalisco
Working in Mexico City
Working in Mexico as a digital nomad
The labour market in Mexico City
