On November 6, we hosted a complementary dinner in the event room of Los Patios, a nearby hotel, with a question and answer forum the following night, November 7.  The forum featured Father Dimitri Sala, from Chicago, IL, who is also on the teaching staff of Transform Our World, http://www.transformourworld.org/en/welcome. This was Father Dimitri’s second visit to Los Cabos and he graciously agreed to return to the area for a protestant/catholic presentation of the biblical principles his book, The Stained Glass Curtain. The dinner was the idea of retired chef, Ron Welsh, who, along with his wife Nita, have been working with us in bringing and hosting Father Dimitri to the Los Cabos area. Ron volunteered to finance and prepare a light dinner− even though we had no idea how many might come−and Father Dimitri loved the idea of the relaxed atmosphere of food and fellowship setting the stage for his presentation.

Our longtime friends, Victor and Monica Castellanos, took charge of promoting the dinner/presentation on social media, as well as personally inviting many of their friends. Richard and I had full-color flyers printed as invitations, and personally visited and invited the majority of our local catholic priests to the evening’s activities. Our faithful friend and comrade, Lupe Hernandez, handed out flyers to her many contacts, as well as volunteering to translate both nights for us.

Our purpose for hosting Father Dimitri has been to prepare a platform from which to share the biblical foundations of the catholic faith with both protestant and catholic church attendees in our area. Just in case you are interested in finding these interesting facts out for yourself, you might be interested in reading Father Dimitri’s book, which is available in both Spanish and English on his website, www.thestainedglasscurtain.com.

The opening night was a Sunday evening and our faithful team of friends put on a lovely event, but sadly enough, there were only twelve in attendance, including the team. None-the-less, the crowd may have been small, but our friends Victor and Monica were deeply moved by the foundational biblical truths of the Catholic Church. We were extremely grateful that Victor and Monica were able to attend the presentation, as only weeks before the event Victor was notified he would be transferred to Puerto Vallarta in less than a month. They have been in Puerto Vallarta for just two weeks now, so please pray for their family in this time of total transition.

There were only nine in attendance on the second night, but one of the nine was a close friend of Victor and Monica, who was also touched by Father Dimitri’s presentation. This vibrant, young woman actually lives in the same area we do, and is one seed left in the area for the next time the doors open for Dimitri to share in Los Cabos.

As I apologized to Father Dimitri for the small crowd, he kindly told me this is a hard mission field and even if one is touched by the clear message of salvation by grace, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ presented in his book, it was all worth it.  And to him, this is not just rhetoric, but the passion of his ministry.
 
One last thought before I close; Father Ramon from the Charismatic Catholic Church in San Jose told us he is still reading and contemplating the truths in the book. Dimitri also left a supply of his books with us and generously told us we could go back to the local catholic churches where invitations for the presentation were left, in order to give a book to each of those priests. Please continue to pray.

We just received a report about a major miracle from the crusade Saturday night at Cristo es el Camino’s 7th Anniversary with Evangelist Gamaliel Sosa…

Scary (pronounced similar to Scotty), one of Pastor Carlos’ faithful men who works with him full-time (another miracle story for later), invited his mechanic to the meetings. His mechanic stood in the gap for his mother, who, according to the doctors, was suffering from heart failure. Carlos called Richard and I up to pray over the man for his mother. Richard had Father Dimitri Sala come with him.

During the prayer time, Father Dimitri gave a specific word to the man in Spanish. When Richard asked Scary what Father Dimitri had said, Scary said that he told the mechanic that his mother would be healed.

Later, we heard this account from the hospital…  At the same period of time while we were praying for the mechanic’s mother, the man’s brother was in the hospital room with their mother. He said her heartbeat on the monitor was very faint and it didn’t look good; then it began to pick up speed and strength, until it was a completely different sound. As the doctor watched this happen, he looked at the brother and announced, “Your mother has the heart of a fifteen year old.”

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in caring enough to make people whole−physically and spiritually!

On Saturday evening, November 5, we were proud to be a part of the ministry of Healing-Evangelist Gamaliel Sosa. This was “Gama’s” fourth year of being brought in from mainland Mexico for Cristo es el Camino’s (Jesus is the Way’s) anniversary celebration and crusade. This year marked the seventh anniversary of Pastor Carlos’ mother church, Cristo es el Camino.

Months ago, Pastor Carlos regretfully shared with us he was going to cancel Gama’s meetings this year in order to save money towards the purchase of the lot next door to his church. We didn’t want to see that happen, so we committed to paying Gama’s airfare.

Gama is very dear to us and is a much anointed brother who strives to walk with Christ-like character. He himself has a church of 1,500 in Pastor Carlos’ hometown. Gama was originally from Pastor Carlos’ home church in mainland Mexico. There, Pastor Carlos and other church leaders had a part in raising and mentoring Gama after the death of his father (the pastor of the church, who died before Gama was even born). The leaders took on an even larger role in Gama’s life after the subsequent death of his mother when he was six.

Due to technical difficulties, the meetings and accompanying anniversary festivities were not held in the street in front of the mother church as they had been in years past.  The Saturday night crusade was moved to an event salon in Cabo Valle near the Cabo Valle church plant we have had a part in building. They had the usual special music, traditional costumes and other ‘fun’ events during the day and evening before the worship and preaching began. Gama brought his church’s worship leader, Moises, with him for the second year. Moises has a heavy call of God on his life. The presence of the Lord was strong and the altar was flooded with people desiring to accept the Lord and receive prayer for healing, as well as prayer for other needs. Father Dimitri, Richard and I were honored to help pray for those at the altar.

After a day’s worth of events and ministry, they had “beef barbacoa” (fire roasted until it’s falling apart beef). They also served hundreds of tortillas and lots of stewed beans. We always tell Pastor Carlos and his wife, Janet, that they know how to “throw a fiesta” and, of course, always have a powerful presence of the Lord, and usually amazing testimonies to follow.

We were great blessed, as always, with our ministry team’s annual visit (although Lisa was not able to come this year.) Amber is our webmaster, publicist, and our ministry material editor, as well as the one responsible for the complete layout and editing of my books, articles and booklets. Roman, of course, helps his mother, Amber, and is a great help to us when we have the privilege of him being with us. Bryony (Bry) lives in our ministry home base in Michigan, takes care of our mail and correspondence and makes our bank deposits on the U.S. side of the border.  Lisa, who was unable to attend, is our faithful intercessor! We make up a very special intercessory prayer and ministry team!

With this introduction, this blog is a report of a huge pencil and pouch handout at Cabo Church’s Tierra y Libertad feeding kitchen, just a stone’s throw from our continuing church project in Tierra y Libertad. One of our sons-in-law, Rob Hogancamp (Amber’s husband), is the Operations Manager at Raintree Graphics in Jacksonville, FL. They had 100 pencil pouches and over 400 pencils left over from an order. Rob and Amber asked if we wanted them for the ministry down here and we said to send them our way.

We send a big thank-you to Raintree Graphics for the pencils and pouches and to Rob and Amber for paying the postage to send them to Michigan until we could carry them down to Mexico in our luggage.

We waited until Amber and Roman would be here for the annual family/team visit and Roman had great delight in handing them out to the children at the Tierra y Libertad feeding station. It is a joy to watch our ministry family in action. We are greatly blessed to have a family with such a heart for ministry!

Pastor Carlos Maciel celebrated the opening of his church's newest church plant—Cristo es el Camino-Tierra y Libertad.  Having worked with Pastor Carlos for the past four years, we were excited to celebrate the opening of this much-needed church, which is located in an impoverished squatter area. 

Richard and his team put hundreds of hours into the church and continue to finish up a few projects even now.  It was exciting to see people worshiping in the church and to have the festivities take place!
Here are the highly anticipated pictures!