Pastor Carlos from Cristo es el Camino recently held a community outreach crusade in the Lomas del Sol area—at the community playground. The crusade didn’t happen as early as expected, but it would seem the Lord may have allowed all of the circumstances—seemingly interferences— to delay the outreach for a reason.  I’ll share this reason a little further on.

If you read the blog announcing the crusade, followed by the blog detailing the delay, then the details I am going to share with you will be significant to you.

The postponed crusade was finally scheduled for Saturday, August 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Playground in Lomas del Sol, within a mile of Pastor Carlos’ original church. The city only issued a permit for one day, rather than two, and ended up doing neither the maintenance on the park or an outreach of their own, but read on…

This crusade was the inauguration of the portable stage Richard and Pastor Carlos have been designing for quite some time. Pastor Carlos’ crew actually did all the work−including the welding of the frame and legs (his crew has been working alongside Richard for several years and countless projects now and have acquired many new skills since that first project)!  Cristo es el Camino now has a portable stage large enough for any larger crusade we might put on in the future. Artemio, who did the backdrop for the Carlos Annacondia crusade back in 2016, also painted the backdrop and skirt for the new stage.

Prior to the crusade with Gamaliel Sosa two years ago (at the Quinta Real property), New Life Outreach paid half of the cost of new sound equipment—purchased with crusades in mind. Apart from the lighting and supporting frame work, we are now ready to continue having evangelical crusades throughout the area!

At the beginning of the evening’s activities, the church handed out frozen treats and the children enjoyed the playground. You also might notice in the pictures a lady doing face painting. This is Claudia Cardenas (with her husband Mauricio helping in the background). This is the couple from Ensenada who helped us with the Annacondia Crusade and who we were blessed to minister with again, just this last April, with Sam and Karen Knapp.

The modest-sized park was full of excitement and people, and some of the neighbors who didn’t come in sat in lawn chairs in front of their homes. As a result of just this one evening meeting, Pastor Carlos reported they have welcomed six new families to his Sunday service, and presently we know of one seventeen-year-old teen who received Christ at the crusade itself. This is part of the story that has to do with the timing of the crusade—God’s timing…

Seven years ago a woman attended the Cristo es el Camino Church in Lomas del Sol. She only came that one time and came for the purpose of having her one-year-old baby girl prayed for. Pastor Carlos doesn’t remember the diagnoses, but at that time the doctor had told the mother there was nothing they could do to save the baby. They never saw the woman or her child again until the night of the crusade.

That night, she told her story. Her baby was totally healed and is now seven-years-old. Right after she visited Cristo el Camino Church, her family moved away from the Los Cabos area. As of the night of the crusade (approximately six weeks later than first scheduled), she had been back in the area for only two weeks and had no idea how to find Pastor Carlos’ church. She now lives within a couple of blocks from where the Lomas del Sol Playground is. When the faithful army from Cristo es el Camino handed out flyers for the crusade, she received a flyer at her new home. As soon as she saw the flyer, she knew this was the church that prayed for her baby six years before.

She arrived towards the end of the meeting and literally ran to the crusade to give the testimony of her daughter’s healing. Two of her older daughters followed her to the crusade. Her seventeen-year-old daughter gave the testimony that for some unknown reason she felt compelled to go with her mother to the meeting and ran along with her. By the time they arrived at the park, the teen was crying for no reason she knew of. Arriving, near the end, the seventeen-year-old gave her life to the Lord. She was compelled in tears, to run to a meeting, for a reason she didn’t know. This is exciting and is the kind of report you hear from areas experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit! 

God is always on time, and will go to all length to pursue us.  Have you pursued Him today in such a way?  I challenge you to passionately pursue.  Don’t delay—not one more day.

Also, please continue to pray for the Cristo es el Camino churches and for God’s plan for Los Cabos, MX.

For those of you who may not come to Los Cabos every year, I try to give you an occasional update as far what is happening in the San Jose del Cabo Plaza. On the Monday morning when I brought our ‘big camera’ for some extra photos of the courtyard and surrounding area, we were blessed with a very special day:  The Municipality of Los Cabos presented new flags to the area schools.

La Presidente Armida Castro led the way, with help from other staff. As always, the students are well-groomed. With their uniforms on, you would never know how they might live! They carry themselves in the patriotic presentations like future honor guards. It is always a delight to see them. There were many schools present for this particular ceremony.

In the slide show, you might also notice a white tent just outside the main entrance to the Municipal Palace. A former supporter of La Presidente Armida claimed that she is not keeping her campaign promises. He, along with some help, erected the tent (complete with enlarged photos of him being drug away from the mayor by security). Despite being drug away at the time, the tent is allowed to stay, along with a rotating group of dissenters. Mexico is never boring!

I took some extra photos so you could see the most recent work on the courtyard. Enjoy the photos and, as always, please keep praying for the power of God to change Los Cabos, Mexico!

Our season for building projects in Los Cabos begins in January when Shane and Tracey Crowley fly down to lay as many blocks as possible in the time they are here. When Shane and Tracey fly back to Michigan, Richard takes over from there with the next stage of that year’s projects. We have been in Mexico long enough to know it is best to be finished for the calendar year by July—due to the extremely hot, humid weather from July to mid-October.

When Shane and Tracey were here this past winter, they laid block for some very welcomed additions to the churches at Tierra y Libertad and Valle del Cabo. Richard has been working steadily at Tierra y Libertad. For the new bathrooms there, he ran plumbing, connected the plumbing to the sewer system, and ran electrical lines. He was also able to run electrical lines along the new block walls (including to the new classrooms). He installed a new electrical box and connected the service. In addition, he installed windows and doors at both church sites—and to those of you who have seen these two church sites—both have a totally new look.

Since Pastor Carlos is running out of space at Lomas del Sol, he is currently in the process of sending part of the main congregation down to Tierra y Libertad. As we build, Pastor Carlos Maciel and his team bring in the new converts, while continuing to train others into maturity.

We are excited about the progress at both churches and wanted to thank everyone who helped financially, physically or through prayer for the work that was done this year.

Blessings to all of you and enjoy the photos!