Place

THE LARGEST CITY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

With more than 22 million people, Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and one of the top three urban areas in the world. Once the shimmering island-capital of the Aztecs, Mexico City became the first capital of the Spanish conquest. Today, Mexico’s capital city has exploded into a megalopolis known less for its impressive cultural heritage than for its choking smog, crime filled streets, and endemic corruption.

In the midst of these massive problems, however, God has been at work. For more than a century, he has been calling Mexican men, women and children out of folk religion and nominal Catholicism into his church, where salvation is proclaimed by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It is to serve this church, particularly the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, that Peter and Ruth and the interns have moved into the City.

THE LARGEST CONCENTRATED STUDENT POPULATION ON THE PLANET

They call it University City, and with over 120,000 students, it lives up to its name. Inside this colossal campus sit the buildings of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Founded shortly after the fall of Mexico City to the Spanish in 1521, today the UNAM is one of the oldest and largest student populations in the world, and has a reputation for socialistic thought and political activism. It also has a small and growing Christian contingent among its freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and seniors completing their thesis and social service.