HARVEST HANDS MINISTRIES
Celebrating 25 Years!
OUR PEOPLE
Meet our founders and staff members, who serve God by sharing the love of Christ with the people of Mexico.
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Garry and Terry
Mathewson
Founders
Garry and Terry Mathewson founded the ministry in 1999 after they answered the call on their lives to serve the Lord in Mexico.
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Garry, President, travels/speaks on behalf of the ministry at churches, maintains communication with pastors & team leaders across the country, meets/counsels the directors of Resplandor De Vida, maintains communication with Mexican pastors, hosts and plans short term mission teams at RDV, plans the construction projects and helps with bookkeeping and administration at Harvest Hands headquarters. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 KJV
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Terry, Administrative Director, Secretary/Treasurer, oversees bookkeeping, website, Mexican Student Sponsorship Program, child sponsorship programs, newsletters/power point presentations, correspondence, staff training, board meeting preparation, and maintains communication with HHM staff, work teams, Mexican pastors/staff, volunteers, and the RDV office. "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." John 15:16 NASB
Tammy Hayson
Program Coordinator
In Dec. 2007 I asked Garry and Terry how I can help with the Christmas boxes. After going to Mexico to deliver them and seeing the smiles and joy on the faces of the children, I knew God was nudging my heart to do more with Harvest Hands. So out of obedience to the Lord, I started volunteering to help how ever I could. I love serving with HHM because I love seeing impoverished children get cared for, and I wanted to do what ever I could to help. My favorite Bible verse is Phil. 1:6 (NKJV) - being confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
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Tammy has worked with HHM since 2008 and has the heart of a servant...she oversees shopping for Resplandor De Vida's needs monthly and the student program. She is our El Paso respresentative and program coordinator for school supplies and Christmas boxes and helps in many other ways.
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Celia Álvarez
Mexico Student Program Coordinator
Harvest Hands Ministries (HHM) has changed my life. I was a sponsored student from the beginning of Secondary School in 2002, until the end of my Bachelor’s Degree in Public Accounting and Finance in 2014. For me, it was a great blessing because it was an answer to my prayers. When I graduated from sixth grade of Primary School, I knew that I could not continue studying, for lack of resources. My parents had already talked with my brother and me to tell us that although they would like for us to continue studying, it would not be possible. And as a wonderful response to our prayers, HHM came into our lives. Thanks to God and HHM, I was able to finish a career at the University.
Through all of these years with HHM, I have seen how this work of God has touched the lives of several families like mine. That is why I have wanted to collaborate in this great work as well. Since January of 2009, I have helped the ministry as best as I can as coordinator of the sponsored students outside of Resplandor De Vida. I help with things like: attention to the students, filling in school forms, enrollments, payments, purchases, collection of receipts and report cards, delivery of Christmas gifts, making databases in Excel, etc. It brings me great satisfaction to help in anything I can for the ministry because in that way, I am thanking God for having placed people with great hearts in my life, and I feel happy that I can participate in helping other people.
Lindsay Schell
In 2013, I was blessed to go on a mission trip to Resplandor de Vida with my church, Calvary Chapel of Seneca Falls. The Lord even then began speaking to my heart. Years later through teaching Spanish at the Christian school I worked at, our class began to sponsor a child at Resplandor De Vida. Since then, I have been down on many missions trips. I have even helped lead several mission teams to Mexico from my church and school, as well as spending the summer of 2024 there. I also started out helping translate letters to sponsors from the kids. Gradually, through my involvement and heart for the ministry, I was added to staff and given more responsibilities and ways to serve the ministry. The Lord has made it clear to myself, the leaders at Harvest Hands, and those who know and love me that this is where I am called to serve.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4: 16