​And the mission work continues—just with fewer pictures. Mom was always the picture taker / blog writer, but we wanted to make sure we stopped for a moment and shared with you what has been happening on the mission field this past year.
 
Dad has had a busy and blessed year serving in Mexico in 2025. He served on the vision/leadership team for a new Spanish/English church in Los Cabos, helping Pastor Luis get the new services underway. 
 
He worked with several work/ministry teams that visited the area—including with Shane and Tracey Crowley from Fremont, MI. Shane, a cement contractor, and his wife, Tracey, have consistently journeyed to Los Cabos year after year. Shane can lay bricks and cement like no other! Dad and Pastor Carlos work to line up projects and Shane volunteers his skills and leadership to complete the work. The work he, Tracey, and other guests complete, is invaluable!
 
When it comes to projects, Marta’s Kitchen, has been one project dad has been diligently working on. The pastor and his family lived in the kitchen/church, although room and basic facilities were very limited. With the help of Shane and others, dad was able to acquire additional land and add much needed rooms and a bathroom to the facility.
 
Dad was also able to serve Casa de Vida, a rehabilitation center. New Life Outreach purchased large, kitchen appliances—a commercial stove and grill—for the center. Signage was also purchased.
 
Dad further put his building skills to use building pergolas at a local orphanage. The pergola’s served to provide needed shade and were built just in time for the orphanage’s annual fundraising event. Dad delighted in serving alongside this ministry.
 
New Life Outreach also came alongside Adrianna and her brother, Diego, helping to provide a business start-up loan for their business, Cabo Design. The company specializes in large, custom neon signs. Diego is the creative talent, while Adrianna runs the business end of the upstart.
 
Dad also continued to lead Kingdom Builders, Los Cabos. The Kingdom Builders’ vision is to gather Chrisitan businessmen in the community to learn, disciple, and to impact the community around them, using the resources God has provided to positively transform their geographic area. There are several Kingdom Builders locations, with dad having led the Los Cabos group for the past several years.
 
Finally, dad wrapped up 2025 by purchasing a new lot—what he has dubbed ‘Casa de Oracion’ (the House of Prayer). The property served as a local feeding station—Linda’s Little Kitchen—for several decades. With Linda now in her 80s, though, she was looking to sell the lot and dad was excited to purchase the facility. While the lot will serve as his primary residence and his base of operations, dad also hopes to use the space as a mission station, to host monthly praise and worship services. Right now, he is moving and renovating outdated facilities, but he hopes to be able to use the space for further ministry in the near future.
 
Dad is continually praying and seeking God’s direction. If you have a word for dad or would like to send a word of encouragement, please feel free to reach out at any time!
 
We look forward to all God will accomplish in 2026 and all He has done in 2025!

​Shane and Tracey Crowley, of Fremont, MI, once again blessed the people of Los Cabos, putting their building skills to good use. Shane is a cement contractor who can lay bricks like no other! For several years now, Shane and Tracey have ventured to Los Cabos, ministering to and serving the local people. This year was no exception! Our mutual friend, Randy Paulson, joined the Crowleys, as well. They brought Bibles to the people, ministered at the rehabilitation center, and worked through the intense Los Cabos heat. The people were blessed to have them!

​New Life Outreach was able to help sponsor a pastor’s conference led by Missionaries Randy & Luisina Mishler and Pastor Alejandro Gomez. Pastor Randy’s father first began the ministry several decades ago as a missionary in Mexico. The ministry strives to come alongside local pastors, providing resources, prayer and support for the often impoverished and isolated ministers. As an extension of that ministry, They, organized a 2-day pastor’s retreat. After the original location fell through, Chris Erickson generously offered to host the event at his hotel. In addition to the conference activities, Chris also arranged for the pastors and their wives to go out on the local ‘pirate ship.’ The event proved to be a blessing for them and the ship’s crew – with the pastors sharing the gospel with the entire crew! The entire event proved to be a time of ministry, fellowship, and a needed rest for these dear pastors. It was a great success, one Pastor Randy and dad hope to continue offering in the future. 

Pastor Louis reached out in January to see if I might be interested in pastoring an English service he was looking to start at his church in San Jose del Cabo. Rhonda and I always felt our call was not to pastor full-time, but to come alongside ministries and churches in order to bring together the Body of Christ and to bring transformation to the area. I shared this with Pastor Louis, agreeing to help with organizing the service and his volunteers, as well as helping to preach in the interim. Another missionary couple, Randy and Lulu have a similar calling and have also come alongside the ministry. Lulu is an incredible musician! I was sure the church was playing Hillsong the first time I heard her warming up.
 
The first couple weeks have been incredible. The church has a solid group of volunteers, many of which have attended the Spanish service for years. They have jumped into serving with their whole hearts and the fruits of their labor shows!
 
Please continue to pray as to what role God has for me in this service and in each ministry I am currently serving with. My heart’s desire is to always be at the center of His will.

We were once again blessed to have a missionary team visit the Los Cabos area. The team included four chiropractors and their wives, one of which is an optometrist. As an optometrist, she was able to give eye exams and hand out the prescription eye glasses and sun glasses the team had brought with them. The chiropractors were able to provide alignments and work on physical ailments, while three of us pastors prayed for spiritual ones! In total, the team held two events on Saturday at two different feeding stations and three events on Monday at three other feeding stations.

A women came for prayer at one of the feeding stations. She was 100% def. One of the pastors, his wife, and I prayed for her and she walked away a little despondent, but in about 10 minutes I heard a bunch of Hallelujahs and the group came back to tell me she could hear. I went and prayed for her again and celebrated with her. I talked with her and she could hear me! Praise God!

Another gentlemen was excitedly doing deep knee bends. He was almost crying as he explained he had not been able to do that is a very, very long time. He was so blessed by what the Chiropractors were able to do from just a single adjustment!

Those needing an eye exam were equally blessed. They were not only able to get their vision diagnosed, but many of them were able to walk away with glasses, helping them see clearly for the first time in a long time.
The team also handed out New Testaments, and I gave out Rhonda’s Spanish “He took me to the cross with Him” tracts. Between meeting their physical needs and sowing into their spiritual lives, both days offered powerful opportunities to present God.
​
Thank you to everyone who participated in this event, and thank you to those of you who continue to lift us up in prayer. 

For several years now, two of our daughters and their families have donated, in leu of presents, their Christmas dollars to a Mexican family in need. This year’s family was recommended by our friends Ascary and Diana. The family included the grandmother, Alejandra, and four of her grandchildren, whom she is raising; Shaiel Isacc, Camila Isabel, Kenia Tamae, and Alan Eduardo.
​
To celebrate, Ascary, Diana and I took the family to eat at Campestre and then took them shopping. The intent is always to purchase gifts, but it never ceases to amaze us the basics chosen because of the need. The family was greatly blessed, as were we.

Richard has had the privilege of ministering at a rehabilitation center in La Paz, a city approximately two hours north of Los Cabos, for the past several weeks. Dad, along with Marcos Vasquez, his wife Crystal, Escary, his wife Diana, and Pastor Abel and his wife, have been making the trip each Saturday to minister to the men.  Escary and Pastor Abel minister in music, with the team taking turns preaching and praying for the men (as time allows).
Dad first made the trip to the rehabilitation center with Marcos’ brother Carlos. Carlos was connected to the rehabilitation center through a former employee of his who had been through the program and is currently running an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program in Los Cabos.  When visiting the La Paz center, Carlos saw their need and was moved to purchase 90 bunk beds and mattresses, as well as an industrial stove for the center. Carlos, Marcos, and dad then began to put together a group to travel to the center to minister to the men.  Afterall, there is one way to true freedom and that is through Jesus Christ!
Dad had the opportunity to preach once again to the men on Saturday, September 23.  His message centered on the value of knowing Christ (Phillipians 3:7-9):
 
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” – Philippians 3:7-9, NASB
 
While preparing the message, dad practiced the sermon in both Spanish and English so that he could preach bi-lingually, serving as his own translator. Several men have translated for dad through the years, but dad was eager to maintain the flow of the message by seamlessly transitioning between languages.  It is still a work-in-progress, but one dad is eagerly embracing as he shares all God has laid on his heart.
Dad and the team are looking forward to traveling back to La Paz again this Saturday.

While in Michigan this summer, Gideon Wayne Kauffman of Newaygo blessed New Life Outreach with 60 bibles, along with a donation to support the ministry and the dispersal of the bibles.  The Gideons first donated bibles last spring, donating 100 small Spanish New Testaments.  These bibles were shipped to the Instituto Samarin Christian School, a small Christian school in Los Cabos. As we have found over the years, though, things don’t always go as planned in Mexico.

The Mexican Postal Service received the shipment of bibles and tried to deliver them to the school after it was closed for the day.  For some reason, a note was not left and the bibles went back to the post office—getting lost in the shuffle without anyone ever being contacted. So, after waiting an extended period of time for the bibles to arrive and after having checked with the school several times, Richard (dad) was finally able to track the shipment down with a tracking number and discovered they were at the Post Office. Unfortunately, the Post Office proceeded to require an import duty on the package, which to dad’s chagrin was around $40 U.S. dollars. He was glad to have the bibles in his hands, though—although only for a moment as the Post Office then explained he could not pay the import duty there, but would instead have to leave the bibles until the fee was paid at a bank down the street. After he returned with a receipt, he was finally able to take the bibles to the school. The founder and director of the school is Demos Samarin, who is also a Gideon. Demos was not there when dad arrived, but he was able to leave the package with the secretary. She was excited to receive the bibles!  After that adventure, though, dad returned to carrying the bibles to Mexico in suitcases, as they had done previously, rather than ship them.

With the current printing of the Gideon Bibles still in process, Wayne personally purchased the most recent donation of 60 Spanish New Testaments.  Dad filled a suitcase, maxing out the 50lb limit, and headed off to Los Cabos.  These bibles were brought to the Men’s rehabilitation center in La Paz, a city approximately two-hours north of Los Cabos.

​The rehabilitation center is an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) center ran by a Catholic couple—Rodrigo and Mama Rosita. The center focuses on rehabilitation from addictions and is similar to Teen Challenge.  The program itself, though, is a little different in that once a person is admitted, they remain in the program until their family or the center sees they are ready to move on to a halfway house or back into regular life. Rehabilitation centers are available for teens, men, and women.

Dad has been ministering with Marcos Vasquez, his wife Crystal, Escary, his wife Diana, and Pastor Abel and his wife at the rehabilitation center on Saturdays.  On Saturday, September 7, dad brought the bibles to the men, who were also thrilled to have a personal copy of God’s word!  They have been proudly bringing their bibles to the services since. Pictured here are the men proudly displaying their bibles.

Thank you to Wayne and to the Gideons for their support of the ministry and their continued efforts to made the Word of God available—until the whole world hears!

Thank you for the love and support you have poured out these past few weeks. While it is has most certainly been difficult, we are confident in God’s goodness and in His timing—even when we don’t fully understand. We continue to press in and ask for ears to hear and eyes to see, that we may see it as He sees it and that we may live and move as He moves.

With that in mind, one of the questions many have asked dad these past few weeks is what he will be doing next.  Dad is diligently seeking God for His vision and direction. He is not sure what the future holds, but he does know the last indication was that he was not released from Mexico yet, and so he will be heading back to Mexico at the end of this month. There are several projects there he needs to connect with, and he is resolved to take one day at a time—seeking God’s direction each step of the way.

Please be sure to pray for dad and continue to call, encourage, and support him as he continues on with all that God has called him to.

For those who were not able to attend mom’s funeral service, a recording is available on EverRest’s Facebook page. A link is shown below.
https://www.facebook.com/p/Ever-Rest-Funeral-Home-Chapel-100054510397382/

Thank you again for your love and support. The fruit of mom’s life has been evident these past several weeks, and has been such a blessing to see.

Amber Hogancamp
​(one of Richard & Rhonda Mead’s daughters)

I am reaching out today with difficult news. Rhonda (mom) has passed away due to lower GI tract complications. While in Mexico, Rhonda became weak and wasn’t feeling well. Upon return to the United States for their summer trip, her close friend noted her color was not good and recommended she go to urgent care to get checked out. Upon arrival, it was determined she was very low on blood. After admitting her to ICU and stabilizing her with several units of blood, the doctors performed a scope and determined Rhonda had a couple of small ulcers and one large one in the opening of the small intestine. The doctors provided several prescriptions and sent her home to rest and recuperate. During the night on Wednesday/early Thursday morning, Rhonda passed away. According to the medical examiner, it appears something in her GI tract ruptured.
 
This was all very unexpected. God had spoken to Richard and Rhonda regarding their ministry and the things He has planned for Mexico. We don’t understand all God has allowed, but we do know that He is sovereign, He is in control, and we trust Him beyond measure—even when it hurts as much as it does right now.

We will continue to provide ministry updates in the coming months as God provides direction for Richard (dad) and for the ministry. In the meanwhile, if you are local and would like to attend the services, they will be at:
EverRest Funeral Home and Chapel
1783 E Keating Avenue
Muskegon, MI 49442

Monday, July 24, 2023:  Showing 5-7 pm
Tuesday, July 25:  Viewing 1-2 pm, Funeral Service at 2:00 pm
 
Sincerely,
Amber Hogancamp
(One of Richard and Rhonda Mead’s daughters. I help mom and dad with the website and ministry publications.)