Many of you are probably now familiar with this annual tradition, which started several years ago when the families of two of our daughters chose to have us use the money that we would spend on their families for Christmas to donate towards a ‘special Christmas’ treat for a specific family in Cabo San Lucas. Due to an extended family emergency (don’t worry, all is well), we were unable to schedule this year’s family before Christmas.  We were able to bless this year’s family and enjoy a day together, though, after the first of the year.

Pastor Carlos helped us choose the family for 2021. We have known Magdalena and her family for several years. She is one of the praise dancers for Cristo es el Camino Church’s special services and she and her children play a very active role in many activities. Eight months before we took the family out for shopping and dinner, Magdalena was abandoned by her husband and is now living in a make-shift room off of her brother’s house. Her only income is selling used clothing in front of where they currently live. When we asked her what she and the children needed most, she quietly said “food” (and that wasn’t false humility).

The family had a fabulous time shopping, and they were very careful about what they spent their money on. They happily bought items that were more on the side of ‘necessities.’ We brought Richard’s former ‘mentee’ Brayan with us as an interpreter (for the hard questions), and enjoyed a great dinner at Campestre, one of our favorite restaurants.

Since we know that all of you are generous givers―before you send me emails and texts―we do want you to know that we did give Magdalena cash for food, on top of the usual Christmas celebration amount. 
Please pray for this special family: Magdalena, 11-year-old Arturo and 9-year-old Itzayana.

May the Lord bless all of you!

For those of you who faithfully follow our blogs and quarterly newsletters, you are now very familiar with Cristo es el Camino’s annual celebration of “Festiniños, La Gran Aventura.” We have been honored to sponsor the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child ‘shoe boxes’ since 2014. If you are not familiar with this fabulous ministry outreach, please check out the previous blogs on our website where we have shared extensive information about Operation Christmas Child; including last year’s June 1 blog.
This year, I am going to report on this valuable annual program a little differently—with a picture presentation. Due to the final Covid-19 restrictions, this year’s celebrations were held at four different Christo es el Camino churches/missions. For those of you who follow our ministry in Los Cabos, you will certainly recognize these locations.

Tierra y Libertad Church
This church is in the colonia of Tierra y Libertad and for some time has been used as the “Mother Church” for Pastor Carlos Maciel’s flock. We originally purchased the “right to squat” on the two lots this church has been progressively built on.
 

Lomas del Sol Church
This smaller church is where we started in 2011. This was our first building project for Cristo es el Camino Church.
 

Valle del Cabo Church
This is the second major building project for the Cristo es el Camino church family. From its humble beginnings, this church has also been a work-in-progress.
 
​
Caribe Mission
This location is a small building next to the leader’s home, and has been used more like what we would think of in the United States as a home group. This location is currently under reconstruction.

I hope you enjoyed this year’s reporting of the graduation party known as Festiniños, La Gran Aventura. As always, we covet your continual prayers over what God is doing in Los Cabos, Mexico. We have only been able to minister here these last eleven years because of each one of you. May the Lord bless you and keep you!