Near the end of May, Pastor Carlos Maciel, senior pastor of the Cristo es el Camino churches, was able to get another 2-day permit for a crusade in the Colonia (neighborhood) of Las Palmas. A previous blog shared the excitement of being able to have our first, post-Covid-19 crusade at this same location.

This crusade was not nearly as successful as the first. There were strong winds during the two nights that were planned for the crusade. Pastor Carlos decided not to take the risk of putting up the tent and take a chance it would come down on the people. This particular location is a wide open, flat field/bus parking lot, and isn’t located close enough to the commercial areas to get the attention of the surrounding neighborhood without the presence of a tent.

Even with this disappointment, it was only the second time since Covid-19 that the ‘missions’ and churches that make up the Cristo es el Camino congregation could meet together. It was also the first time that communion was taken by the congregation since before Covid-19.
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There was good music, worship, and preaching, and we never know who in the crowd, or standing in the outskirts, might have been touched in some way by the ministry of the Spirit of God in that flat field, on a chilly, windy night.
Please continue to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Los Cabos, and please don’t forget that all of you, who support us in any way, will share in the reward of what God is doing through New Life Outreach at the tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Near the end of March, the Cristo es el Camino Church finally received authorization to hold a two-day event in the Colonia (neighborhood) of Las Palmas! For those of you who follow our newsletters and blogs, you might remember the name of this neighborhood from several years ago. Pastor Carlos Maciel and his magnificent team of workers started a Bible study in the home of one of their attendees who lived in Las Palmas. From that Bible study, the church branched out to having services in a ‘relatively’ empty lot not too far from the home where the Bible study was. Our ministry paid the rent up front for several months for this church start. However, when the owner found out that Pastor Carlos had ‘Gringo’ money behind him, the rent was tripled.

At the same time, the satanic influence in the area was at work, resulting in the enemy gaining a foothold in one of the family members of one of the first families committed to the church plant. As we prayer walked the area, we were told by other Christians about the heavy presence of practicing witches in the area; and one day Pastor Carlos and I had a significant encounter. One of the area witches, who we had identified and seen several times as we prayer walked, confronted the two of us. She glared with her dark eyes at Pastor Carlos and me and snarled, “Many (in reference to Christians trying to make an influence) come, but they all go.” Shortly after that is when the foundation of the work started to crumble.

A handful of times, throughout the passing years, I have brought up the words of that witch to Pastor Carlos. He remembered that day as well, and was also grieved by her scorn, but at the end of March, Pastor Carlos planned his first Post-Covid-19 crusade in Las Palmas. Since governmental Covid-19 restrictions had just been lifted, only a handful of flyers (relative to their usual canvassing) was handed out for this two day event. It started on Saturday evening, continuing with a free breakfast for the neighborhood on Sunday morning, and then Sunday evening was the closing service for this outreach.

This event was a glorious reunion for this congregation! The Cristo es el Camino Church family had been maintaining contact via WhatsApp for almost two years. During that time, they started with ‘family altars,’ then meeting with just a few families in homes or their small missions; until finally being able to have a limited number of people―which necessitated several services―in their churches and missions. This crusade was definitely a ‘coming out party!’

Enjoy the pictures and please don’t forget to pray for Cristo es el Camino Churches’ many activities.

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.
 
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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!

For any of you who have visited us in Los Cabos, or for those of you who follow our blogs, these pictures of Manuel and Norma should bring back fond memories of this dear couple.

Manuel and Norma moved from mainland Mexico seven years ago so that Manuel could find work in the hotel industry. Due to Los Cabos’ ever-expanding hotel industry, along with the blessing of the Lord upon our security, nationals are continually arriving in hope of finding work in our tourist industry. Manuel and Norma’s story has a unique twist, though. Manuel came to find work in order to send as much money as possible back to their city to build a church building for their church family there. In fact, the two of them lived well below their means in order to save as much money as possible to send home.

We have worked beside them during their seven years in Los Cabos. They have worked tirelessly and unselfishly. They are a joy to be around—even in trying circumstances. Their Christ-like character radiates from their sweet smiles.
We were saddened to hear they were ready to return back to the mainland to help finish the work on the church building that they have faithfully funded, but we also knew they were ready and anxious to return to their hometown. We celebrated their departure with a farewell dinner. We also sent them with a cash gift for expenses along the way.

There is one special prayer request we have for this couple: They have been trying to start a family for as long as we have known them. Please pray for the desire of their heart to come to pass! 

Since 2014, when Cabo San Lucas was literally torn to pieces by Hurricane Odile, our Cristo es el Camino churches have been blessed at Christmastime with Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes. The program includes professionally, well-done material that teaches children all they need to know to make a decision to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior by the end of the required lessons. They also receive their own Bible at the graduation celebration. Through the years, many of the family members of these participating children have received the Lord as a result of this program, as well.

This year was a dual blessing. The children were able to gather together again for Sunday School, so this year the Samaritan’s Purse material was used during their normal Sunday morning Sunday School time. As you can see, the children really enjoy this time of training each week.
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For those of you who might not be familiar with Operation Christmas Child, look it up on the internet and enjoy reading about an amazing program with amazing results!

Just before going home for Christmas, the 8:00 a.m. Patriotic Ceremony in the San Jose del Cabo town square in front of the Presidential Palace resumed (this is the name for the building the mayor’s office is in).

We have blogged on different, notable events at this weekly ceremony before, but the significance of this particular program was the excitement of a bit of normalcy returning to our municipality!

Please continue to pray for the Spirit of God to sweep over the Municipality of Los Cabos (which includes San Jose del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, as well as several nearby, smaller cities).
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Enjoy the pictures! This ceremony is always a patriotic inspiration.

Sometimes ​there is just not enough information for an individual blog, even though inquiring minds might want to know. Here are just a few gems worth sharing:

• Our dear friends Rick and Nancy Cramblet made a special visit to Tierra y Libertad to show their daughter Bethany and her friend the Cristo es el Camino church building and Cabo Church’s feeding station. At the very beginning of the church’s humble construction beginnings, Rick Cramblet went home from Los Cabos and presented the project to the company he worked with. Their contribution funded the initial construction of the church. We will be forever grateful for that donation.

 
And just for a little history… Lupe Hernandez (who ran the feeding stations for Cabo Church at the time) asked Richard and me if Pastor Carlos would be interested in building a church at Tierra y Libertad in order to pastor, teach, and care for the spiritual training of the women and children who regularly attended the feeding station. Pastor Carlos prayed about it, New Life Outreach purchased the two lots the church buildings are built on, and the vision began!

• I really don’t know if any of you faithful followers and prayer warriors have followed Cristo es el Camino’s annual anniversary celebration, but here’s the bad news... Due to Covid-19 limitations at the time of the anniversary, there was no celebration this year. However, for those of you who might want to know, it was the 13th anniversary since Pastor Carlos’ first church plant in the rented building overlooking the large arroyo (large gully) on Via Lactea. Pastor Carlos asked Richard to preach for the first time at that location in 2010. The power of God was there and we fell in love with Pastor Carlos and his family!

 

• Our last news release is very exciting. If you keep up on our blogs or newsletters, you might remember that Richard takes a small bag of tracts and New Testaments with him to the Cabo San Lucas boardwalk/marina area on a regular basis. During the last year, many of the men who have been touched have promised to come to Cabo Church for the Sunday service, but none had come. We previously blogged on the first man that came to church, but since that time a total of four men have come to Cabo Church. One brought his son and another brought his girlfriend when he visited again. Several have also kept in contact with Richard. This may not be many, but we are thankful for those who have chosen to at least stay in contact. Please pray for the men that Richard has an opportunity to share truth with and pray with each week.

And don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!   (Galatians 6:9, TPT)

Many of you who have labored in different ministries throughout your Christian experience can probably share similar stories... I began working for the Lord in my early teens and I faithfully served Him in whatever areas of need arose, but―looking back―I am only aware of just a handful of testimonies of lives that were touched through the years that followed. For this reason, we can be glad of the encouragement of the Lord in Galatians 6:9. For all of us, the size of the harvest from what we have planted throughout our lives in co-laboring with the Lord will not be known until eternity, but nonetheless, the harvest is coming!

This preamble brings us to the actual purpose of today’s blog. In December 2020, we shared about a ministry Richard began by talking and bantering with the ‘hawkers’ (the aggressive salesmen scattered throughout Cabo) who flock to Cabo San Lucas during our busy tourist season. One of Richard’s favorite lines is, “I don’t have to think of a way to strike up a conversation; they come after me.”

Richard first started by going along with any salesmen who happened to approach him until he could swing the conversation around to his spiritual condition.  Now he goes weekly to the Cabo Marina area with similar clothing on, in order to be recognized. Since that time, they see him coming down the boardwalk, and start shouting, “Hi Pastor!”

The Harvest Has Begun!

Several months ago, a friend of ours, Ron Welch, went to the Marina with Richard. Ron has a real heart for people, and consequently he fell in love with this approach to ministry. Now when Ron is in town, he contacts Richard to see what day will be Richard’s next visit to the marina.

Just within the last several weeks, the first man who has ever come to Cabo English Church from Richard inviting them came to our Sunday morning service. It just happened that Ron was with Richard that day, and was still in Cabo to have the pleasure of seeing our first ‘invitee’ actually come to church, along with being visibly touched by the presence of God. Being an optimist, Ron’s response to this was, “I knew he was going to come to church!”

The very next week, a father and son whom Richard had invited came and again the father was deeply touched and his son loved Sunday School. The following week, a brother (whom Richard had previously talked to many times) came to our service and was deeply touched, as well. We never know how large the harvest will be in the lives of these four people, but we know that it is God’s desire for them to walk in His ways, and our God will release resources from heaven and on earth in order to bring them to living fruitful lives for the Kingdom of God.

For all of you who are reading, who have wondered when the harvest from your labors of love for the Lord will come, listen to the Apostle Paul, “Don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened…the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!”

Just a few weeks ago, Baja California Sur received the Covid designation ‘green.’ This designation opened up the ability to have large public gatherings―yes!

There was one person who was baptized during the eighteen months of strict Covid-19 restrictions, but just last Sunday, the Cristo es el Camino church family, pastored by Pastor Carlos Maciel, had the joy of baptizing sixteen people at Tule Beach, which is located between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.

This has been a church tradition for many years. The attendees arrived at the beach at 8:30 a.m. for Sunday School, followed by a magnificent baptismal service.  They sang praise songs to the Lord, held their Sunday service on the beach, and shared a great ‘family’ picnic amid the ocean breezes. The whole day was a celebration of the freedom to be able to meet in a large group (and all of this on one of our gorgeous Cabo beaches). Pastor Carlos reported a head count of close to one-hundred!

We want to thank all of you who have been praying for Baja California Sur to go green. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Please continue to pray for other restrictions that are still being enforced―even with our green designation―to soon be lifted.
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Please enjoy the photos and may the Lord bless you for all you do for us and for the work of the Lord in Los Cabos, Mexico.