"Roman Catholics are really open to the truth about their religion," concluded Tim Berends and Mike Cahill after an outreach to Mexico City.

Popular opinion dictates that Chick tracts, which expose the idolatry of Roman Catholicism, will be rejected by Roman Catholics on the street. Tim and Mike found that this is not true, even directly in front of the massive cathedral in downtown Mexico City. Of 3000 copies of Why is Mary Crying?, Are Roman Catholics Christians?, Last Rites, and Papa, handed out on this outreach, 90 percent took the tracts when offered. Only two people responded angrily. One shouted, "I'm not a Christian, I am a Catholic!" unwittingly agreeing with the message in the tracts.

A few others recognized the message and came to encourage Mike and Tim, declaring that they were really Christians and pointing to the tracts. At first they were hesitant to hand tracts to the soldiers and policemen who were on guard everywhere. One tried to get them to stop but 10 others came and requested copies.

Tim said he was amazed at the level of acceptance, since the area was near the cathedral, some government offices and a shopping mall. Even in this upscale area, the people were not put off by the titles of the tracts. His conclusion was that the thinking people were tired, or even disgusted with their religion and its obvious hypocrisy of drunkenness and sexual sin.

"The people are trapped," Tim concluded. They see the evils in the "false church," yet don't understand the other hypocrisy of the Protestants who hold big meetings, lead many to Christ and then send them back to Catholicism.

If they were true "Protestants" they would be making a more public stand against Catholicism's unbiblical traditions. Instead they have swallowed the Vatican's lie that the pope just heads up a somewhat different church "denomination."

Tim and Mike have made several trips to the border towns in Mexico and have received a great reception for the tracts on Catholicism. Instead of the people putting up a wall of resistance to the message, Tim and Mike are sometimes mobbed by people wanting to get the tracts.

Even though there is chaos and danger from the ongoing drug wars, the cartels seem to respect true believers and seldom bother them. One missionary told Tim that he was stopped by armed men who demanded to see what he was carrying. When they opened the boxes they found them full of Bibles. They seemed to recoil in shock that they were dealing with more than an ordinary citizen, and allowed the missionary to go.

Bible believers in the U.S. should seriously consider this ripe mission field that is so easily accessible. So many there are disillusioned or even disgusted with their "church," that they are very open to the truth.

Tim says he is grateful to Chick Publications for standing firm in the truth that Catholicism is a cult and that Roman Catholics are not Christian and must come out to be saved by faith alone.

"It's a great day of my life to know that the tracts will help free the people from this damnable system," he says. "I was in tears to see the despair of the people and know that that massive cathedral was not built by the tithes of the people but on their false hope that their sacrifice could pay to get their loved ones out of purgatory."