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Colfax pastor takes teams to Mexico, Costa Rica

Michael Birnbaum, pastor at Plymouth Congregational UCC in Colfax, will be leading a team from the church and community for a “It’s Time to Serve” Mexico Mission Trip.

EMTs check a baby while another participant builds a cooking shelter.            Photo courtesy of Mike Birnbaum

This is the fourth year he has taken a group from Colfax on a mission trip.

In 2026, he plans to take a team from Nov. 15 to 21 to Baja, Mexico. Participants will fly to Phoenix and drive in vans to and from Puerto Penasco.

Michael said the mission trip includes adventure, fun and mission service. The mission service activities include helping with local church projects, children’s after-school outreach, light construction projects, meal programs, distributing supplies, doing English tutoring and, for those qualified, doing medical service activities in partnership with the local Ministry of Health.

The team will include nurses, doctors, dentists and health profession students.

The fun and adventure include fellowship with local people, shopping, day and half-day tourist trips, free time and cultural outings.

Five years ago, Michael, who has 25 years of experience in leading mission teams with Well Child International, began going to Colfax once or twice a month to do supply preaching.

Now, although he retired, he is doing all the pastoral work—funerals, weddings, pastoral care, adult classes and more—along with preaching three Sundays a month.

Michael grew up in a German Lutheran family in Corpus Christi, Texas, and began college at Texas Tech University but felt a call to ministry, so he finished his bachelor’s degree in the pre-seminary program the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church requires at Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Ind., earning. His degree in Greek, Hebrew and Latin in 1972.

He took a job in a store for two years while his wife finished her undergraduate studies in Colorado before beginning seminary studies in 1974 at Christ Seminary in St. Louis, Mo. He finished his master of divinity degree at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif in 1977.

For the next 40 years, Michael worked in and out of parish work, spending time missionary work in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Mexico, coordinating programs of the Lutheran church for health and ministry services from 1992 to 1998 with banana workers in Costa Rica.

He returned to Texas when his father was ill. He lived in Texas but served in Mexico from 2008 to 2012. Then he served an independent Lutheran church in Arizona before retiring.

“I also had the idea of doing mission experiences for universities, organizations and churches—international service-learning opportunities,” said Michael.

Since retiring, he has connected with Well Child International because of their focus on youth and families.

When visiting grandchildren in Eastern Washington, where he has a hunting ranch in Hunters, he reconnected with pastor friend serving a church in Lacrosse.

That friend connected him with Plymouth in Colfax for supply preaching, which grew after two years to being part-time pastor three years ago.

Michael connected with the Pacific NW Conference when he first came.

He has also preached at Chewelah, Colville and Guemes Island UCC churches.

Michael has continued here to lead mission trips, taking groups one year to Costa Rica and since then to Mexico, so he has invited folks from Colfax, as well as nursing students at Grand Canyon University in Arizona, where he served as adjunct faculty.

While he has ties in Nicaragua, he has not taken teams there but has raised funds for orphanages in Nicaragua.

Michael also did mission work with the Lutheran Church at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Tanzania, where the German church has sent mission workers since the 1800s.

On the mission trips, which often have a construction project, participants have often found their one niche. One woman with sewing and quilting skills bought sewing kits for teen girls and taught them to sew and give a kit.

Another group brought bring sewing machines for sewing training.

Much of the work is in health care, so Michael is focusing on recruiting EMTs from Whitman County Ambulance Service and doctors, nurses and dentists Whitman County Medical Center. On a previous trip, a group of EMTs learned medical Spanish they can use when responding to accidents locally.

They do health ministry, visiting people in their homes and assessing their needs, as well as having the doctors, nurses and dentists to provide care in a clinic.

“We recruit people in the community as an outreach for the church to be visible in the community. People come back and continue to support the missions,” he said. “People gain an opportunity to serve the community, nation and world, to get their hands wet and dirty, and help people directly.”

Usually 10 to 15 go, including those from Grand Canyon University, because they travel in 15-passenger vans they pick up at the mission center in Phoenix. Participants cover their travel, lodging and food expenses through a trip fee.

For information, call 509-710-3285, email michael@wellchildinternational.org or visit wellchildinternational.org.

 

Pacific Northwest United Church of Christ Conference News © June 2026

 

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