With the heavy schedule to get Pastor Carlos and his family into their home in time, Saturday, February 26 was the first chance for a home visit we have had. Even then, Richard stayed on the jobsite (since he had to fly to Michigan this week for a possible job offer) and I went with Pastor Carlos, his mother (she is one small, but powerful intercessor), Paola and Carlitos to the home of a relative of one of the church family members. A 39-year-old man has been twisted, bedridden and unable to talk for six years due to a car accident. For the less fortunate, people like this are not in rehab or a home but have to be cared for by the family 24 hours a day. He communicated by sounds and indicated he wanted to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. We sure were hoping for a supernatural, complete healing. We are expecting “attesting miracles” (NASB side note) when the revival starts and are still praying for this relatively young father of three.

We had yet another divine appointment when we met our dear brother Fernando.  Fernando works as a photographer, taking pictures of the fisherman’s catch while playing Christian music on his computer at the fish cleaning station in Playita. 

That’s how we met him…  We were walking by the fish station when we heard what sounded like Christian music.  We followed the music and met a wonderful brother! 

Fernando feels a call to the pastorate and is just waiting for God to put the pieces in place. He has touched many lives at the dock and at his church at Bet San, where he is an elder.

We again visited the Cabo English Church on Sunday, February 20. We were able to meet new Pastor Michael Galles (who was not there yet as of last May).  We were also able to share once again with Administrative Pastor Doug Love and get a picture of our friend Tony Hernandez (who came to the church to run the sound for the revival meeting last May).

You can find out more about Cabo English Church at www.cabochurch.org.

On Saturday evening, February 19, Cristo es el Camino held its first program on the new church property. They showed the original “The Cross and the Switchblade” in Spanish and served orange drink (although the water was still not turned on and the toilet needed to be flushed with a bucket of water from the next door neighbor). Basically, only the core members of the church came, but the entire neighborhood could not help from hearing the message of the movie and the neighbor boys who hang around when anyone is at the property sat on a pickup truck roof and had a great time. Just in case you ever need to know, you can use a tightly drawn sheet as a big screen.

We finally found the huge body of fresh water in the Estuary that we saw in the brochures the first time we came last year, but hadn’t found where to walk to find it.  San Jose del Cabo was originally founded because of its large supply of fresh water in a land that is desert if it is not irrigated or next to water. The Estuary near where it reaches the Sea of Cortez is much more beautiful than the pictures show. As an explorer it was a big find!

Most people only see the resorts and beautiful landscapes of Los Cabos, but there is a stark contrast between what the tourists see and where most of the people live. Even the most competent resort employees are paid very little for the responsibility they have and the hours they work. Most of the workers at the resorts were not born in Cabo but have come from all over Latin America to get ‘good’ jobs. Los Cabos also has Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, Soriana, Chedraui, Super Ley and Magna, which are all huge grocery/department stores. For me, as an American, the stores are huge and pretty but have very little of the things we would expect such huge stores to have. The prices are also very expensive - even compared to prices on the West Coast of the U.S.  

For the locals, it is worse yet. The stores show what is available in other parts of the world, but what they cannot afford (along with the temptation to spend the little money they have on non-necessities). From our experience around the average working family, they eat very little meat, except maybe fish they can catch.  What meat they do eat is spread very thin. The cheapest cuts of meat (white and red) are more expensive than T-bone steaks (on sale) in Michigan. They don’t complain, but the vast gap between their income and the super stores is very apparent.

Richard, Pastor Carlos, and countless volunteers have been busy preparing the lot for the new church and parsonage.  Here’s just a glimpse of what they’ve been up to…

What a blur the last few weeks have been! 

When first arriving in Cabo, Richard began visiting our local contacts, including Centro Familiar Christiano Church Pastor Carlos.  There, he discovered Carlos had purchased a new lot to serve as church and parsonage.  The lot, though, needed a lot of work and Richard’s maintenance expertise and trailer full of tools was a welcomed site!  Since then, Richard, Carlos, and countless volunteers have been busy working the site and building the parsonage. 

Pastor Julian Maciel, who oversees the area Assemblies of God churches, generously met with us and asked what we had in mind while in Cabo.  The meeting was a wonderful confirmation of what God has been doing this last year in Cabo.  While revival has been prophesied for some time, the concept has not always been embraced by many as a reality for the area.  The excitement that God has chosen Cabo and that He has great and mighty things in mind for that southern tip of the Baja has set in, though, and more each day grow in excitement at what God is going to do.  It is exciting to see this breakthrough – preparation for things to come!  Pastor Julian also graciously invited Richard to speak (once his voice is feeling better).

In addition to these appointments, God has continued to lead us from one divine appointment to the next – discovering new ministries and those with a heart for revival.  We’ll work to write often - just wait until you hear all that God’s been up to!

Standing on what He says until we see it like He sees it…

We are once again in Los Cabos (through the third week in March 2011).  We are staying in La Playa, a small fishing town at the northeast end of the tourist corridor. This is the town the Lord led us to on our February 2010 trip. It is just outside of San Jose del Cabo and only around twenty-five miles from Cabo San Lucas, where we are currently working to build a church/parsonage for a church plant from Centro Familiar Cristiano Assembly of God in Centro Cabo San Lucas.  The church is pastored by Pastor Julian Maciel. This church plant is also named Centro Familiar Cristiano, but for clarity they go by the name of “Jesus is the Way,” which is pastored by Pastor Carlos Maciel (who is actually only a distant relative from Pastor Julian).

When we met on February 1 with Pastor Julian, who is the head of the association of twenty of the local churches in the area (with Pastor Carlos translating for us), Carlos made a point of sharing with us that when we were telling every ministry and person we could find that God wanted to pour out His Spirit on Los Cabos, the pastors in this association did not believe it was going to happen, but that in the seven months we have been gone, they have come to believe that God is truly going to bring revival to Los Cabos.