Believe it or not, another year has come and gone. This year’s celebration was held at the recently updated Church at Tierra y Libertad during the Sunday evening service. There were approximately 264 in attendance with, according to Pastor Carlos’ estimation, another 100 regular attendees not at the celebration. For Richard and I, it was our 7th Anniversary Celebration with Cristo es el Camino, and just as in previous years, the joy and celebration just flowed into the surrounding neighborhood.

The night started at 6:00 p.m. Richard and I were late due to previous obligations; Pastor Michael and Laura from Cabo English Church were out of town for Thanksgiving and Richard had the honor of preaching at both services at Cabo English before rushing over to Tierra y Libertad.

Every year, the congregation does an amazing job of decorating for the anniversary. There was much time and effort given and the decorations served as a frame for the glorious celebration in the Lord. Everyone is honored at the annual celebration and it means a lot to them to be an active part of the local church. The assistant pastors were introduced and honored, and of course, Pastor Carlos, his wife Janet and their family—Paola, Carlitos and Joshua—were treated like royalty. There was great music from the praise team, soloists and from the youth band, which was led by their talented leader Escary; and since there are always many visitors invited to their celebrations, Pastor Carlos gave a powerful sermon on Christ being the door to eternity. He gave an equally powerful altar call.

I just have to leave you with one last observation of something that always amazes me. I’m an administrator by gifting and I am always amazed at what they are able to put together in a short period of time. Time and time again, I see the site at the beginning of the day and think, “We could be in trouble,” but by the time the opening words are spoken, everything is transformed and the events go on very smoothly (this is Mexico). I’ll use the transformation of the sanctuary area into the fellowship hall as this year’s example. Instructions were given to the congregation as to where to stand for the first phase of set up, then the second and lastly the third. Everyone stood up, continued to visit and within ten minutes, the large round tables you see in the photos are put up with the chairs neatly arranged around them. Just as quickly, the table cloths were carefully laid out and the serving of the food and beverages to the tables started immediately−like a well-trained army!

Just in case you’re curious, the cleanup started shortly after 10:00 p.m., with the last of the faithful servants leaving close to 10:30; and yes, they still go to work and school the next day. Things are different south of the border!

Thank-you for your co-laboring with us for the transformation of Los Cabos!

During our early years of ministry, we were taught anything done for the Kingdom of God is going to have opposition from the enemy of our souls. Satan hates God and—consequently—hates us. Whether you knew it or not, the moment you received Christ as your Savior you were inducted into the Army of the Lord. However, unlike a physical army on this earth, trying to hide would be futile since Satan and his minions know you by the Spirit of Christ who lives in you. The reality of this spiritual conflict is that−until Christ’s physical return to earth−we can expect every attack on the kingdom of darkness to be countered from the hosts of darkness. Nonetheless, attempting to move into ‘self-protection’ and draw back, does not remove us from the Army of the Lord or the enemy’s recognition of us!

I shared this preamble to let you know the enemy does not want the minds and hearts of the Mexican people being renewed with the Biblical values the Avanza sin Tranza program is derived from. We have had several counterattacks from the enemy over the last two years, but we continue to persevere.

Juan Mesa, the newly-appointed Director of Education (from the recent change in municipal government), recently gave us a call. He had previously expressed his department’s need for a value-based curriculum for the schools in our municipality, but he called with the good news that he was ready to implement the program.

With only a few days’ notice, Daniel Valles, Director of Avanza sin Tranza, happened to have an opening in his schedule and was able to fly down from Ciudad Juarez to meet with Director Mesa. Daniel, Richard and I were thrilled to be able to meet with him. Director Mesa is a very gracious man and deeply concerned about the children under his charge.

The meeting was a great success with the only remaining details being the date and time for the training seminar. If all goes as planned, the training should be shortly after the first of the year, making room for a firmly established program before the end of the school year. Daniel was also able to reiterate the importance of implementing Avanza sin Tranza in the government and in law enforcement.

Please pray that any plans the enemy has for resistance will be thwarted and pray for Director Mesa as he arranges the many details necessary for the implementation of the program in the ninety schools of Los Cabos.

The Avanza sin Tranza programming has no funding behind it apart from the modest cost for implementation, material and training Daniel must charge for the movement to continue. Please pray for the program to spread like wildfire in Mexico, along with the additional funds New Life Outreach will need for further implementation in our municipality.  If you would like to financially support the Avanza sin Tranza program, please contact us today.

May the Lord bless every one of you for your faithfulness to the work He is doing at the tip of the Baja Peninsula!

We were thrilled to have several members of our ministry team with us in November.  While here, they were able to take in the Monday ceremony, as well as pray for the area during our regular ‘Monday in the Marketplace’ event. We highlighted a special 'Avanza Sin Tranza' appointment we had in the blog below, but hadn't posted pictures from the ceremony that day.  Here is a look at the team, as well as the Monday in the Marketplace ceremony...

We were thrilled to have several members of our ministry team with us in November.  While here, they were able to take in the Monday ceremony, as well as pray for the area during our regular ‘Monday in the Marketplace’ event.

It was while they were here that we had the opportunity to speak with the head of La Presidente Armida Castro’s security team.  We had met and talked with him previously, but had not been able to present him with an Avanza Sin Tranza—Thrive without Bribes—packet or talk with him at length regarding the program.  The program is designed to teach Godly character, ethics and morals.  The program does not directly reference the Bible, but teaches God’s ways, that a people and a nation might be transformed.  When you do things God’s ways, you prosper. Changing the mindset and teaching a nation His ways has the power to transform a nation!

As Richard presented him with an overview of the program, he shared with us the need for such training.  He shared the struggle with domestic violence, as well as other struggles the people, police, and public servants face daily.  He also shared, though, that with budgets tighter than ever, he could not see paying for such a program—no matter how desperately needed.  We were thrilled to share our hearts and to be able to share our passion for bringing the program to the area through sponsorship, so that it would be free to the schools, as well as to the government officials.

We are currently working with the newly appointed head of the Los Cabos education department and are excited to begin training teachers, that they may train our students in these Godly characteristics!  We were thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with our friend, the head of security, to see if there might be an opening there, as well.

If you are interested in sponsoring the Avanza sin Tranza program, please contact us today.

As always, thank you for all of your prayers and support!

On Monday morning, October 1st, our new Presidente (Mayor) of the Municipality of Los Cabos, Armida Castro, conducted her first Patriotic Ceremony in the San Jose Plaza.

To give a little background on the election:  the Mexican people—desperate for change—voted in an extreme leftist-socialist president for the country.  He is commonly referred to by the acronym of the first letters of his four names: AMLO. AMLO represents the political party MORENA and is the first president of Mexico from that party to ever be elected. AMLO’s people flooded the poorer areas of Mexico encouraging people to vote, as well as reportedly paying people to vote for him and the MORENA party. From what we’ve been told, this is one of the factors that led to the loss of the election of our former mayor, Arturo de la Rosa, and the victory for the MORENA party in Los Cabos.

As a ministry, we will be in continual prayer for Presidente Castro, and will also be offering our services to her administration in any way we can. Pastor Carlos and Isidoro were actually the first people in line for an appointment with la Presidente for the opportunity for us to congratulate her, present the availability of Avanza sin Tranza for her administration, and to offer our services to her in any way we can. We have also been in contact with the new Director of Education. He loves the Avanza Sin Tranza program and is sending the material we gave him to every one of the principals of the ninety schools he oversees. We are looking forward to working with him, as well.

Please spend much time in prayer for Presidente Armida’s team as they establish this change of government in Los Cabos. There are many decisions to be made before she is officially sworn in on December 1st.

We just recently returned from Transform Our World’s 28th Global Conference, which was attended by over eight hundred delegates from over thirty countries from around the world. It was held this year at the Marriot Santa Clara Convention Center near San Jose, CA. Ed Silvoso, at age 73, offers programming throughout the conference that is the conference equivalent of the most engaging extreme sport. The participants leave spiritually charged and inspired for another year in the trenches in their particular sphere of influence. TOW’s tag line is, “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things with God.” The conference videos are not yet available online, but if you would like to sample some of the inspirational videos available on the TOW website, check them out at: https://transformourworld.org/transformationondemand/

I can’t possibly even begin to fill you in on all the magnificent testimonies of what God is doing around the world, so my only hope is to peak your interest with personal highlights. The opening night speaker was Loren Cunningham, the 83–year-old founder of YWAM, who is still flying from country to country, leading the ministry in great exploits. We heard Loren for the first time last year at the conference and we can’t hear enough of his amazing testimonies from around the world. We’ve known of YWAM for over 30 years, but we had no idea of the impact that YWAM and Loren Cunningham have made in world events. Last year, we heard him give an account of a current national event that only God could have arranged and that we’ll never forget, but since we heard it at one of the un-taped meal sessions, I’m not allowed to share it here. The next time you see me, if you ask me about Loren Cunningham, I can share this tremendous “God story” with you.

The emphasis at this year’s conference was the impartation of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to the conference delegates in order to enhance their results for transformation in their many different spheres of influence. We were blessed to receive many prayers of impartation from brothers and sisters from around the world, but one such prayer left me with a lasting memory. This impartation came from the very large delegation from Hong Kong, led by retired Judge Barbara Chan, YK Chan and Pastor Wong. When they got up to report what they, as one of the oldest and strongest moves of transformation with TOW, could impart, they gently declared, “We carry humility,” and they−with many influential delegates−certainly did! Humility was an amazing ‘God empowering” attribute to choose to impart to the delegates from other parts of the world.

The next moment that was especially meaningful to Richard and I was to hear Pastor Norberto Carlini from Resistencia, Argentina. Pastor Carlini was, and still is, one of the foundational pastors of the powerful revival that swept over Resistencia in the mid-1990’s. This revival was largely due to the (then) relatively unknown evangelist, Carlos Annacondia. Ed Silvoso was a part of that move. Cindy Jacobs was called to the area in the early days of her ministry.  These, along with a handful of believers we have just ‘come across’ in Los Cabos, were all called to the area during this time. Ever since working for an entire year to host the Carlos Annacondia Crusade in Los Cabos, we have been amazed at what God used Carlos Annacondia to do in Resistencia and the change it made in the brothers and sisters who were a part of that move of God.

Ed had Pastor Carlini come to the conference to share what has happened in the city since God began to change the city. Ed asked for the privilege to translate for Pastor Carlini and the power of the presence of the Lord flowed between them like fire. That was at the morning session, with a teaching luncheon following—with Ed again translating for Pastor Carlini. It was during the luncheon that Richard and I rushed over to tell Pastor Carlini about Carlos Anacondia’s crusade in Los Cabos in 2016. We then told him we knew of the unction of the Holy Spirit on the Argentine pastors, and asked if he would be willing to impart the fire to us. He was delighted to pray over us and we are grateful to God for that moment!

In order to share our last ‘special’ experience, I need to quickly share that while we were in Michigan in August for our annual excursion to our home base in Muskegon, MI, I was in a severe auto accident and our mini-van was demolished. I was miraculously spared serious injury, apart from extensive bruising, 18 stitches, a broken left thumb and a broken right arm. We were scheduled to fly back to Los Cabos one week after the accident, and all the American doctors were very helpful and told Richard how to remove my stitches, along with giving him instructions for caring for me during recovery. I only share the story of the accident to tell you that I had a cast on my right arm during the conference and that is key to what I am going to share next…

I had been asking the Lord to have mercy on me and heal my right arm faster than the predicted three to four months but, of course, I did not have confirmation that He would choose to do a faster work of healing. Pastor Kris Valloton, associate lead pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA, had just taught in the morning session. Bethel Church originally had a mission school two hours north of us in Mexico in our state capitol of La Paz until not long before we first came to the area in 2010. We heard through the grapevine that there were several encouraging prophetic words spoken over the Baja at that time, so when Richard saw Kris Valloton in the hall after the session, he asked Kris if he remembered any of the words. During that short pause in the hall, Kris, who also runs the School of Ministry, looked at my cast, asked what had happened and said, “I’ll have to pray for you tonight.” This was special because Kris carries a heavy anointing for praying for the sick, even though the purpose of this meeting wasn’t for personal prayer.

The session he referred to was actually late afternoon and we were ready. We ran right up to him after the teaching. He quickly, but gladly, prayed for my arm and then had to rush to catch his plane home. From that time on, my arm felt much better, but we do not have confirmation. My orthopedic surgeon from Muskegon, MI had already told me just to get an x-ray in Mexico and send the DVD via the internet to him and he would read it for me. We still haven’t figured out a comfortable and economical way to get an x-ray yet, but either way, this was a special divine appointment with Kris Valloton.

I need to bring this to a close since I am typing with one hand—and my left one at that. Check out the material on the TOW website and enjoy the photos from the conference. A big thank-you to all of you that made it possible for us to attend this year’s conference!

While at a recent Monday patriotic ceremony, Presidente (Mayor) Arturo’s right hand man made a point of telling Richard the administration wanted to honor us as a couple at the weekly ceremony on Monday, September 24. Regretfully, we had to share that we would be in the San Jose, CA area for the Transform Our World Global Conference and would not be able to attend the ceremony that Monday. The timing was also important since Arturo del a Rosa was defeated in the July 1st National elections, even though, in Mexico, the newly elected officials are not sworn in until December 1st and fade out of office somewhere between the election and December 1st. Mayor Arturo’s administration wanted to be sure to honor us on his last day as acting mayor.

As we shared in previous blogs, Presidente Arturo has honored “those who pray for him and the city,” before the public on several previous occasions, but this particular offer was a precious gift for our two years of faithful prayer for his administration, our attendance to the patriotic ceremony, and because of our ministry’s financial gift of paying for the values-based program, Avanza sin Tranza (see previous blogs), to be taught in all 90 elementary schools in the Municipality of Los Cabos. They also especially wanted to honor us for our patriotism to their country, as well as for our concern for the well-being of the Municipality of Los Cabos, even though Mexico is not our homeland. We have often been blessed to hear this from various members of his administration throughout these past two years. They have even graciously likened our faithfulness to the city we are called to, to that of a handful of foreigners in the history of Mexico who physically fought for the country—to fight for a land not our own.

All of you who pray for us, support us financially, and continue to encourage us, you are honored, as well.  May the Lord richly bless you and give you peace!

Along with our ministry reports, I like to give those of you who have visited Los Cabos updates on the area from time to time. Many months ago, the plaza in front of the Municipal Palace and the historic Catholic Church in San Jose del Cabo was completely torn apart, including the infrastructure. I am sharing just a few photos of the ‘new look’ for the sake of those of you who were familiar with the ‘old.’

For over two years now, we have made a point of attending the San Jose del Cabo governmental patriotic ceremony, which is held in front of the Municipal Palace at 8 a.m. on Monday mornings.  Our prayer is to make our presence in the community known to the government officials, to pray for the government, and to pray for the San Jose Central area.

The photos showing parts of the ceremony are significant for two reasons. The first deals with the special presence of Presidente Arturo de la Rosa and his wife Vianney. The second is the visit of Bill Hodges from Christ the Rock Church in Muskegon, along with his friend, Ben Culbertson from England, who recently spent a week with us. Bill and Ben came to our area to pray with us over specific geographic locations.

Enjoy the photos and please pray over the area as you look!

This project has been a progressive one—as the funds have come in and the help has been available.  The new addition of a permanent fence and entrance area, which was started by Shane and Tracey Crowley during the first part of the year, is complete!

Richard had expressed his desire to Pastor Carlos for the last stage of the church at Tierra y Libertad to be finished—if Pastor Carlos could find help with the thin-coat, painting and gate. Not only did Pastor Carlos find help, but he and his youngest son, Joshua, helped as well.  One of Pastor Carlos’ associate pastors, Escary, rounded up a couple of his youth and the group finished the entire project in one day. The project looks wonderful and we want to give a special thanks to Pastor Carlos, Joshua, Escary and the fine young men from his youth group!

Pastor Carlos calls his church plants ‘missions’ and Tierra y Libertad is one of them. The church has an outreach breakfast on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m., followed by Sunday School. The worship service, which we have been attending for almost a year, is held at 4:00 p.m. The mid-week bible study is held on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. and prayer meeting is held on Fridays at 7:00 p.m. The church is only running an average of thirty people, but the presence of the Holy Spirit is heavy and the worship is passionate.

Please remember to pray for all of Pastor Carlos’ churches; the mother church (Lomas del Sol), Valle del Cabo, Caribe, and Tierra y Libertad.

We again would like to thank the generous donor from West Michigan who helped fund this most recent phase of the church at Tierra y Libertad. Thank-you all for your prayers and generous giving that makes all we are able to do in Los Cabos possible! Great blessings to all of you.

Back in January-March 2011 when Richard and I came for our first work project in Los Cabos, Pastor Carlos had just purchased a small, humble partially-built home. His plan was to “camp” on the property with his family of five (including his baby at the time, Joshua) and to build his first church building in front of the house. Having not much, if any, construction experience, he was crying out to the Lord for direction.           

Within a few days, Richard drove up with our trusty Blazer and covered trailer, along with his expertise and a plethora of tools. I arrived a little over a week later with my ability to shop for building products (and paint when the time came). When we left in mid-March of that year, there was a humble addition added to Pastor Carlos’ house, running water, wired electricity, and the foundation and beginning of the existing church. From that leap of faith at the Lomas del Sol property, Pastor Carlos and his wife, Janet, have realized they needed more space and a home not located in back of a church in a Mexican barrio, where the needy, the bored, and the lonely are often at the door day and night.

It was just a year ago, when we came back from our Christmas break in Michigan, that we found out Pastor Carlos had bought another “fixer-upper” in that short period of time. Since that time, Pastor Carlos−as he has been able to save a little money−has been hiring brothers from the church to work on the house. Then, the blessing from Shane Crowley’s diligence in Michigan surfaced just before it was time for Shane to come. One of his material suppliers in Michigan offered a generous donation for the mission work Shane would be helping with. A good part of that blessing was gladly budgeted for Pastor Carlos’ house.

With funding, Shane and Tracey, and the brothers from Pastor Carlos’ church, who we were able to hire with the donated funds, made great progress laying the blocks for the upstairs of the families’ new home. In addition to the construction, the donated funds were also used to purchase a stove and refrigerator for the home.  We were able to take Janet and her family shopping for appliances. 

It may seem like very slow progress to anyone not living in Mexico, but with all factors considered, this project is moving along quickly. Pastor Carlos and his family have now been living in the home for several weeks and there is an end in sight.

The labor pool necessary for all the finishing, electrical and plumbing virtually dried up this spring/summer. We have had so much new construction in the area over the last year and a half that anyone who wants to work can be working.  Pastor Carlos hired a couple of men who helped Shane and Tracey, but when Shane left, their work ethic left with him. With Pastor Carlos in such a desperate situation, Richard knew he might be the only one who could get Pastor Carlos and his family into the home. Consequently, Richard added countless hours of work on Pastor Carlos’ house to the work he was already doing, including the finishing of the latest phase of the church at Tierra y Libertad.
There are still some finishing touches that will have to wait for the workman who has committed to do the thin coat over the blocks; as well as the welder who still says he will make the front gate (which is badly needed to secure the home). However, even in this condition, Pastor Carlos, his wife Janet, and their three children Paola, Carlitos and Joshua, are thrilled to be in their new home!

We all send a huge thank you to the generous donor from West Michigan that made the majority of this project possible. Thank-you, Tom, and may God bless you and your business!