I want to thank those of your who have expressed concern over our well-being in Los Cabos. We are doing excellent. Mexico has a tendency not to react until our reputation is at stake and then we tend to over-react, so the strict sanctions which closed down much of the city didn’t hit until April 8; with the lesser sanctions starting less than a week earlier. Our city is blessed by being relatively small and isolated from most of Mexico.
 
The sanctions on public meetings−which affected our ability to meet for church services−didn’t officially start until March 29, at which time meetings were immediately limited to 20 in attendance. Cabo Church made the switch to taped services on March 22. After the 20 person sanction, Pastor Carlos quickly started a What’s App chat for his churches, and carefully divided his flock of 250-300 people among his three churches, missions, and home churches. We still somehow ended up with over 200 people at Tierra y Libertad that Sunday at our 6:00 p.m. service. They had had 40 first-time visitors just the week before!
 
Due to the crowd at Tierra y Libertad−by April 5−Pastor Carlos sent instructions to his people on preparing “home altars.” They prepared altars in their homes and posted photos of themselves on the church chat.  They did the same for the Thursday night mid-week services, as well as the Friday night prayer meetings.
 
Pastor Carlos and his people have still been carefully providing for the needs of others; especially with the closing of Cabos Church’s feeding station at Tierra y Libertad. As a ministry, we have also supplied Pastor Carlos with funds for outreach, which we will continue to do as we are able. The mandate to “stay at home except for essentials and only one person in a car” didn’t come out until April 8. However−with so many in need−ministering to others in the barrios will not likely be suspended apart from a direct order from the governor of Baja California Sur.
 
So far, we have not had any major shortages of food and staples in Los Cabos. Fortunately, most of the North American population headed for the United States and Canada as soon as the news of Covid-19 broke out. What we do have is a large percentage of our population with no jobs and little to no money saved (due to the closing of all non-essential work, all tourist activities, many of our hotels, and finally all of our sit-down restaurants). The poorest of our poor usually buy food one day at a time and even one meal at a time. This would include the “day-workers” who are picked up by businesses or locals to work at an extremely low wage, one day at a time. Many of the members of this group are addicted to drugs and alcohol and were roaming around looking for what they could find (legally or illegally) within a week of the economic slowdown.
 
The largest problem we will face−apart from a miracle−will be crime and/or looting (many of our businesses have already placed plywood over their glass and pulled down their metal safety shades. The looting after Hurricane Odile in September of 2014 did help prepare us for this). There will be no government checks issued from our troubled, Mexican government, and our major ‘industry’ is tourism, which was just devastated with the early return of our ‘snow birds’ to North America and the loss of revenue we typically receive from Spring Break.
 
Please Pray
 
As you continue to pray for your countries and the world to conquer the Covid-19 threat, please pray exceptionally hard for the people of Los Cabos, most of whom do not know the Lord and are not ready to enter eternity.
 
We have been waiting for the start of the promised harvest of souls to come in for more than nine years. Please pray for the ability of our churches and various ministries to minister to the spiritual needs of large numbers of new converts. The Lord has been assuring my heart for quite a long time that He has an amazing plan for handling the outpouring of His glory and the resulting harvest in Los Cabos, but it will take a God-sized plan to do it!
 
Also, please pray for jobs and financial provision for the people of Los Cabos—especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ, many who have now been without work and/or income for several weeks.
 
Finally, please pray the safety of our city from increased criminal activity or looting.
 
Thank-you for your faithfulness to what God is doing in Los Cabos and may peace and God’s blessings surround you!

Originally, we hadn’t planned to share our newest Avanza sin Tranza update (the values program we have been working with for over three years) until after the training that was scheduled for March 30-31, but the coronavirus burst onto the scene and our dates for the training for 80 teachers and educators in the Municipality of Los Cabos has been postponed. Nevertheless, it was officially scheduled!
 
In our last blog, I covered the Monday morning at the Political Ceremony where our friend, Captain Juan Zamorano, head of all our security forces in Los Cabos, was honored by the city. This was worth blogging about, but there was another, very important breakthrough not reported in that blog. Almost a year and a half ago, Captain Zamorano expressed the need for a mandatory values training program for his police officers, and thanks to the investment of one of our faithful supporters, we were able to offer the initial training for the area’s police officers—free of charge to the city (Avanza sin Tranza has been embraced by multiple municipalities in Mexico, but someone must pay the cost of the program and that is a problem in Mexico). After that initial conversation with the Captain about Avanza sin Tranza, we had a complete change of government, his responsibilities on Monday mornings changed, and nothing more was said for more than a year.
 
But God Once Again Intervened
 
On the Monday morning when the new police vehicles were handed over to Captain Zamorano, Richard and I arrived just in time for the ceremony; most of the participants were already in place and we ended up standing at the far end of the plaza. When the Captain saw us he stepped out of the crowd to tell us how excited he was with the new vehicles. When he finished, I asked him if he still had a need for values training for his officers and he immediately answered, “Yes.” Then, Richard asked what would be the best way for us to help him make this happen and his answer was for Daniel Valles to make an appointment with his assistant. We were able to make immediate contact with Daniel. Daniel was able to immediately secure an appointment with the Captain, and a visit to our area the following week was scheduled.
 
On the following Monday morning, Richard and I had already finished “prayer walking” the area and were on our way out of the plaza when, much to our surprise, Captain Juan was still standing in the plaza. We were able to have a wonderful talk with him; including having the time to ask about the topics he had asked us to pray for when we first talked to him. One of those prayer requests had been answered and he said our prayers must have worked. We told him that Daniel had an appointment with him two days later and that the Director of Education, Juan Mesa, was working with us to get the program for the school system. The Captain smiled sweetly and said, “We’ll see what we can do.”
 
We said goodbye to Captain Juan, and as we turned around to go, Director Juan Mesa was right in front of us (remember, there were only a few people in the entire plaza by then). We told Director Juan that Daniel was flying in to talk to Captain Juan and asked Director Juan if he would like to see Daniel again since he would be in town the following Wednesday. Director Juan had us call his assistant and both of these precious men were scheduled within a couple hours of each other with Daniel Valles.
 
The Happy Almost Ending
 
Richard, Daniel, and I were excited when we headed to San Jose del Cabo the following Wednesday. Our appointment with Captain Juan was first. Daniel told him that our ministry was paying for fifteen people to be trained as trainers. The Captain smiled and said he wanted fifty law enforcement officers trained and that he was going to pay for the other 35. Now that was exceedingly, abundantly above all we could have asked for or thought! We rushed over to the office in charge of making Daniel an official ‘vendor’ of the Municipality of Los Cabos and, within a week, Daniel had shipped all of the necessary paperwork to us to bring back to the city. He was instantly approved.
 
After all that, we still had our appointment with Director Juan. We were greeted at the door to his office with one of the Avanza sin Tranza decals we had given him.  It was proudly displayed on the front door of the Department of Education. Director Juan sat down across from us and questioned Daniel about several things, but we soon found out that he already knew he was ready to schedule the training when he sat down that day. The training was scheduled for March 30-31, but you already know the rest of the story—we are postponed for the time being.
 
Both of these directors are ready for action when we are cleared of COVID-19. Please pray for protection and wisdom for both of them, as well as for their families, and—of course—keep praying for the implementation of Avanza sin Tranza.

New Police Trucks and More!
 
We never know what to expect at 8:00 a.m. on Monday mornings in front of the Municipal Palace in San Jose del Cabo where we go for the weekly patriotic ceremony, which is held in the plaza in front of the Municipal Palace (main building of our municipal government).
 
We were recently in for an extra special surprise since it honored our security forces in the area, along with our dear friend, Captain Juan Jose Zamorano, who is the head of all security in the area. He is a man of great character, and the Municipality of Los Cabos is blessed to have him here. As a ministry, we have promised to pray for the continuation of Captain Zamorano’s assignment to the Municipality of Los Cabos, for his safety and that of his family, along with exceptional blessing and well-being. We invite you to join us in praying for Captain Zamorano. As you look at the photos, he is the gentlemen receiving the symbolic ‘large key’ to nine new police trucks and two new police motorcycles. The lovely lady handing him the key is “la Presidente” (mayor) Armida Castro.

Annual Flag Day Ceremony
 
This day is always one of our favorite days at the Patriotic Ceremony. Several schools are always given the honor of participating and the flag corps and the drum and bugle corps arrives in full parade dress. It is a sight to behold! Patriotism is a wonderful thing! This particular year was special because−as far as we could tell−the participants appeared to be university age, which is a grade level we had never seen participate in the annual ceremony before. Los Cabos actually has several universities (which is the word translated for what we would call colleges; the Spanish version of ‘college’ is usually just attached to a trade or specialty school).  
 
The annual ceremony also includes certificates of merit for a handful of outstanding students. Pride just radiates from each of them. Mexico is excellent at giving honor to whom honor is due.

Women Awareness Month
 
Women’s Awareness Month is always a special event at the Patriotic Ceremony, as well. One of the biggest highlights this year was a large, very impressive, traveling display; giving a pictorial account of the evolution of the rights of women in Mexico. The reason I’m sharing this with you is because I love antique photos that show the history of an area. These particular photos are not from the Los Cabos area, but they do show a part of Mexico’s past that we had never seen. I did try to include the date and explanation in Spanish for most of the photos. You may not be able to read the captions but the date of caption will help you put things into perspective.
 
An awareness of the physical and sexual abuse of women in Mexico is also highlighted every year. This is definitely a problem in the United States as well, but in many parts of Mexico, such activity is considered an unspoken right of the men in the home. Captain Zamorano once told us that the largest demand on law enforcement in Los Cabos is domestic violence, and from the Mexico Daily News on the mainland of Mexico, there are still areas that embrace horrific practices with their women and children. We have no idea of how blessed we have been in the United States because of our godly foundation and biblical beginnings.
   

For those of you who have followed our blogs for any length of time, you have seen many photos of the Lomas del Sol Church (Iglesia Lomas del Sol). Nonetheless, you may not have realized the church had spread from the original foundations we poured, blocked, and filled in during the spring of 2014, to the lot next to the church. Pastor Carlos has been renting the lot for just a little under eight years now. During this time, there has been talk of purchasing the lot, but the owner wanted top dollar and−just in case you don’t know−land is a very limited commodity on our narrow peninsula and many times the property prices seem terribly unreasonable for very humble pieces of property. Each year, Pastor Carlos would contemplate whether or not he should move the church to a different location or stay at Lomas del Sol. During this time, however, nothing opened up and many times—even with the lot next to the original church—there has not been enough room and people have been overflowing into the street.
 
Finally, just last month, the “mother church” was moved from this original location to the Tierra y Libertad location. Lomas del Sol gave up the lot next to the original building, and Lomas del Sol became what Pastor Carlos calls a “mission church.” Tierra y Libertad has continued to be added to and improved on since its original construction and is now Pastor Carlos’ only church that can fit 200 to 300 people when all of the “missions” are together. Since we purposely did not build walls around the sanctuary area so there would be more available room, I must share with you that nighttime services from December to March are quite chilly. I often had so many layers on I could hardly move. With this new arrangement, I might actually have to break down and bring a lightweight winter coat to Cabo San Lucas−I know, if you come in the tourist season, it is hard to imagine.
 
When there is a special service with all of the churches and missions together, we can just barely fit. We are still praying and negotiating over the Quinta Real property, and Pastor Carlos was recently given the use of a large tent in great condition, which can seat 500. Watch this story closely, it is guaranteed to reveal God’s working as far as the land at Quinta Real!