On June 12, the kids at the La Ballena Feeding Station (one of 11 of Cabo English Church’s feeding stations) were blessed beyond description with new soccer nets—just before the World Cup Series.

Carlos (Breeze) Garcia came up with the idea of buying the materials to make soccer goals for the kids at La Ballena. Tony Garcia chipped in and the two of them came over to our garage to work with Richard to manufacture the goals. The goals were taken apart for the ride to Ballena in the back of our faithful Montero and completely reassembled at the church/feeding station at Ballena.

The kids played in the street in front of the feeding station (due to the barb wire fence running along the half-lot next to the church). The few vehicles that did come along were full of smiles as they saw the local kids having so much fun!

Four years ago, there were as many as 200 women and children attending to the Lactea feeding station in one of the poorest, most depressing squatter areas. The brother in charge became ill and the site was abandoned. Then, temporarily, Cabo English Church was able to use a nearby lot to resume a feeding/ministry program.

Around six weeks ago, our friends Tony and Lupe Hernandez, who are on staff at Cabo English Church and are in charge of directing the church’s eleven feeding stations, came to me with a request. They asked me to come see the condition of this feeding station. They meet every Tuesday morning in a dry, dusty lot with no water, no power and not enough seating. The only building for us to use is a storage shed and the only shade (at the time) was along the eve of the storage building and along the eve of a neighboring house. My first time there was for Children’s Day, which is a national holiday.  There were around 100 women and children in attendance that day.

The lot this feeding station is now on, owned by Cabo English Church, is scheduled to be plowed within the year—with no more of a specific time schedule than that—so a permanent feeding station (including a kitchen) cannot be constructed. Since the church has a document with ‘right to use’ (this is Ehido land, which is Mexican Indian land, which can only be leased but not sold), the church is guaranteed the equivalent of a double lot in the new location the government is moving the squatter residents (who have paperwork) to. Tony and Lupe know that breaking the continuity of a kitchen in the area by waiting for the new lot would loose the familiarity the station has with the area residents. With this in mind, I went home that day burdened to at least get some temporary shade up at the station.

Richard volunteered to work with Tony and they are currently erecting a metal roof that can be transferred to the new lot whenever the move happens. Meanwhile, someone donated a small portable tent to Feeding Los Cabos Kids, which gave us a little shade.

One precious story, which I couldn’t take a picture of since I was on one corner of the tent, was when we had to move the tent a few feet as we were setting up for the day. The children had already grabbed their plastic chairs and somehow managed to line up nicely (and I might add quickly) under the little available shade. As we moved the tent, they picked up the arms of their chairs—while still sitting in them and moved with more order than I’ve ever seen adults move. I think it might have been their desire to not lose out on an inch of the shade in the 100 degree summer sun!  It was a precious sight seeing them move together, keeping out of the sun’s heat.

One Saturday, Pastor Carlos sent prayer warriors from all three of his churches to walk the streets of Las Palmas—the location of one of his newest church plants.  He encouraged the people to walk, pray and proclaim as the Lord led. 

The prayer walk began at 6:00 p.m. that Saturday evening with over thirty people spread out in groups of three or four. With our official Cabo San Lucas street map (see previous blog), we were excited to have close-up copies of the streets of Las Palmas available for each prayer team.

Again, the amazement is how Pastor Carlos’ people come together in number, with great joy, to kick start each new church plant. One day earlier, Pastor Carlos and some of his people were at the new church plant site when a woman came up to them and told Pastor Carlos that every church group that comes to Las Palmas only comes for one day and never comes back.  Her message was a haughty one—telling Pastor Carlos a church would not remain in that area. Needless to say, Pastor Carlos’ group assured her that wasn’t going to be the case and prayed accordingly.

Please pray for this new church plant. The darkness is great, but that only gives our Heavenly Father more room to show Himself mighty through His servants!