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Jan: Serving in Mexico City

Jan (Haase, 1975) Olson wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country for her Bethany College of Missions internship. That desire led her to serving God in a Hispanic culture today. Jan and her husband, Kerry have served with Bethany International Ministries for 20 years. Jan is a mother and teacher. Kerry is Bethany’s area coordinator for Mexico and the Caribbean.

I expected to be assigned to Puerto Rico, like a lot of interns back then, but to my surprise it was Mexico City. For two years I sold Christian literature and learned Spanish.

After internship, I returned to Bethany in Minnesota for one year before going to the Bethany book store in Hialeah, Florida. My co-workers had been Bethany students: Jon and Phyllis Gehrls, Dick and Birdie Johnson, Wendy (Walters) Schryber, Paul Hartford and Rowen Wipf. My internship in Mexico and short-term work in Florida were foundational for what God would call me to later.

My dad, Ernie Haase, encouraged me to return to Bethany in Minnesota, which is where I met my husband, Kerry Olson (who happened to also do his internship in Mexico City). After getting married, we wanted to serve in Colombia, but were denied visas, so we pursued options with Bethany International Ministries.

In 1986 Kerry and I joined the Bethany Bible School in Matehuala, Mexico. It was a great group of people and a great place to raise a family. Fellow missionaries included Diane LeClair, Muriel (Biswanger) Guzman, Nancy Slagg, Doug and Teri (Byrnes) Kojetin, Mark and Jodi (Goodmanson) Brown, Ariel and Shirley Castillo, Mike and Karen (Goracke) Leeming and Mai Lou (Stiles) Garcia. During our time there, Kerry was asked to be director of Bethany Matehuala. The Bethany Bible school transitioned to a missions school, a church was started, and a bi-lingual Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) school, as well as outreach to unreached indigenous works. I worked in different areas; the kitchen, office, hospitality, and as dean of women. I led a weekly chapel period, taught Sunday school and sang on the worship team. Kerry began traveling more and we could sense our time in Matehuala was coming to a close. The work had grown and we felt the Lord leading us to a more strategic area in Mexico. It was bittersweet for us since we had deep roots there but God led us to move to Mexico City in 1995.

In Mexico City we visited several churches and settled on one of the largest congregations in Mexico, Amistad Cristiana. The church was also connected to our sons’ school. Initially, Kerry was invited to teach at the Christ for the Nations Bible school. In time we were asked to be part of the church staff. In 2000 we opened the Cross Cultural Missions School, as part of the Bible school. Kerry is also the Missions pastor for the congregation. I coordinate two women’s Bible studies each week and teach on a rotating basis. Next month I will begin to help with the English class at the missions school. Mexico and Amistad Cristiana have become home to us. It is exciting to see Mexicans go out as full time missionaries around the world.

Joshua, our oldest son, has finished Youth With a Mission?s Discipleship Training School and recently graduated from the Basic Leadership Course in Brisbane, Australia. He will attend Bible college in the fall of 2006. Our second son, James, completed his YWAM DTS in Portuguese in Brazil. Both sons are praying about their next steps. Our youngest, Jonathan, is 16 and spent the summer of 2005 in Mongolia with Teen Missions.

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