One of the first ministries that Neil introduced us to on their first visit was Transform Cambodia (you can see the mighty way God has used this ministry concept in Cambodia at: https://www.transformcambodia.com/). Richard and I were deeply touched with how Transform Cambodia was literally transforming the lives of the poorest of poor through a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ, along with the education and encouragement to be the future leaders of their country.
Upon flying back to Australia, Neil never dropped the vision of how the Cambodia prototype might work in Los Cabos. He maintained his commitment to do all he could in Australia to obtain funding for the beginning of a foundation that would establish and run a similar program in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. After all, Transform Cambodia was originally started by just two Christian businessmen in Australia, who established, funded, and designed the foundation that continues to fund the multiple centers that now exist in Cambodia, with or without them.
Since that first trip to Los Cabos, Neil has faithfully been in contact with Richard and me, including face-to-face telemeetings where we continue to discuss each other’s progress in our respective countries. Not too long ago, during one of our conversations, I happened to mention something that caught Neil’s attention and he asked me to follow up on it. I wasn’t sure it was a ‘God idea,’ but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to explore it. This idea led to the meeting we are reporting on in this blog.
On Saturday, October 17, Pastor Carlos and his family invited the families of two of his assistant pastors to meet with Richard and me to present the prototype of Transform Cambodia with the group. Ever since they had heard about the possibility of an affordable Christian school/leadership academy in Los Cabos, their interest had been peaked. Apparently, they had been talking with Pastor Carlos for some time prior to this.
I do want you to know that as of the writing of this blog, we have no commitment of funding for this program, but the leg work has begun. Before the end of that night, the group had identified which of them had the contacts and experience to obtain the financial information, as well as to research the legal processes that would be necessary for the initial stage of the vision―down to the last detail. Richard and I were amazed, as well as impressed.
We will be tweaking the prototype of Transform Cambodia for our area, but the end result will be children and their families coming to Christ, children receiving a Christ-centered, quality education, and children being nurtured and prepared in order to be future leaders in their city, states and country. As Pastor Carlos, Richard and I thought about the name of this initiative (at Neil’s request), all three of us ruled out Transform Los Cabos because the vision was becoming larger. The start of this ‘academy’ in Cabo San Lucas could possibly be a prototype for all of Mexico―one step at a time. For that reason, Transform Mexico had officially been birthed!