I want to thank those of your who have expressed concern over our well-being in Los Cabos. We are doing excellent. Mexico has a tendency not to react until our reputation is at stake and then we tend to over-react, so the strict sanctions which closed down much of the city didn’t hit until April 8; with the lesser sanctions starting less than a week earlier. Our city is blessed by being relatively small and isolated from most of Mexico.
The sanctions on public meetings−which affected our ability to meet for church services−didn’t officially start until March 29, at which time meetings were immediately limited to 20 in attendance. Cabo Church made the switch to taped services on March 22. After the 20 person sanction, Pastor Carlos quickly started a What’s App chat for his churches, and carefully divided his flock of 250-300 people among his three churches, missions, and home churches. We still somehow ended up with over 200 people at Tierra y Libertad that Sunday at our 6:00 p.m. service. They had had 40 first-time visitors just the week before!
Due to the crowd at Tierra y Libertad−by April 5−Pastor Carlos sent instructions to his people on preparing “home altars.” They prepared altars in their homes and posted photos of themselves on the church chat. They did the same for the Thursday night mid-week services, as well as the Friday night prayer meetings.
Pastor Carlos and his people have still been carefully providing for the needs of others; especially with the closing of Cabos Church’s feeding station at Tierra y Libertad. As a ministry, we have also supplied Pastor Carlos with funds for outreach, which we will continue to do as we are able. The mandate to “stay at home except for essentials and only one person in a car” didn’t come out until April 8. However−with so many in need−ministering to others in the barrios will not likely be suspended apart from a direct order from the governor of Baja California Sur.
So far, we have not had any major shortages of food and staples in Los Cabos. Fortunately, most of the North American population headed for the United States and Canada as soon as the news of Covid-19 broke out. What we do have is a large percentage of our population with no jobs and little to no money saved (due to the closing of all non-essential work, all tourist activities, many of our hotels, and finally all of our sit-down restaurants). The poorest of our poor usually buy food one day at a time and even one meal at a time. This would include the “day-workers” who are picked up by businesses or locals to work at an extremely low wage, one day at a time. Many of the members of this group are addicted to drugs and alcohol and were roaming around looking for what they could find (legally or illegally) within a week of the economic slowdown.
The largest problem we will face−apart from a miracle−will be crime and/or looting (many of our businesses have already placed plywood over their glass and pulled down their metal safety shades. The looting after Hurricane Odile in September of 2014 did help prepare us for this). There will be no government checks issued from our troubled, Mexican government, and our major ‘industry’ is tourism, which was just devastated with the early return of our ‘snow birds’ to North America and the loss of revenue we typically receive from Spring Break.
Please Pray
As you continue to pray for your countries and the world to conquer the Covid-19 threat, please pray exceptionally hard for the people of Los Cabos, most of whom do not know the Lord and are not ready to enter eternity.
We have been waiting for the start of the promised harvest of souls to come in for more than nine years. Please pray for the ability of our churches and various ministries to minister to the spiritual needs of large numbers of new converts. The Lord has been assuring my heart for quite a long time that He has an amazing plan for handling the outpouring of His glory and the resulting harvest in Los Cabos, but it will take a God-sized plan to do it!
Also, please pray for jobs and financial provision for the people of Los Cabos—especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ, many who have now been without work and/or income for several weeks.
Finally, please pray the safety of our city from increased criminal activity or looting.
Thank-you for your faithfulness to what God is doing in Los Cabos and may peace and God’s blessings surround you!
The sanctions on public meetings−which affected our ability to meet for church services−didn’t officially start until March 29, at which time meetings were immediately limited to 20 in attendance. Cabo Church made the switch to taped services on March 22. After the 20 person sanction, Pastor Carlos quickly started a What’s App chat for his churches, and carefully divided his flock of 250-300 people among his three churches, missions, and home churches. We still somehow ended up with over 200 people at Tierra y Libertad that Sunday at our 6:00 p.m. service. They had had 40 first-time visitors just the week before!
Due to the crowd at Tierra y Libertad−by April 5−Pastor Carlos sent instructions to his people on preparing “home altars.” They prepared altars in their homes and posted photos of themselves on the church chat. They did the same for the Thursday night mid-week services, as well as the Friday night prayer meetings.
Pastor Carlos and his people have still been carefully providing for the needs of others; especially with the closing of Cabos Church’s feeding station at Tierra y Libertad. As a ministry, we have also supplied Pastor Carlos with funds for outreach, which we will continue to do as we are able. The mandate to “stay at home except for essentials and only one person in a car” didn’t come out until April 8. However−with so many in need−ministering to others in the barrios will not likely be suspended apart from a direct order from the governor of Baja California Sur.
So far, we have not had any major shortages of food and staples in Los Cabos. Fortunately, most of the North American population headed for the United States and Canada as soon as the news of Covid-19 broke out. What we do have is a large percentage of our population with no jobs and little to no money saved (due to the closing of all non-essential work, all tourist activities, many of our hotels, and finally all of our sit-down restaurants). The poorest of our poor usually buy food one day at a time and even one meal at a time. This would include the “day-workers” who are picked up by businesses or locals to work at an extremely low wage, one day at a time. Many of the members of this group are addicted to drugs and alcohol and were roaming around looking for what they could find (legally or illegally) within a week of the economic slowdown.
The largest problem we will face−apart from a miracle−will be crime and/or looting (many of our businesses have already placed plywood over their glass and pulled down their metal safety shades. The looting after Hurricane Odile in September of 2014 did help prepare us for this). There will be no government checks issued from our troubled, Mexican government, and our major ‘industry’ is tourism, which was just devastated with the early return of our ‘snow birds’ to North America and the loss of revenue we typically receive from Spring Break.
Please Pray
As you continue to pray for your countries and the world to conquer the Covid-19 threat, please pray exceptionally hard for the people of Los Cabos, most of whom do not know the Lord and are not ready to enter eternity.
We have been waiting for the start of the promised harvest of souls to come in for more than nine years. Please pray for the ability of our churches and various ministries to minister to the spiritual needs of large numbers of new converts. The Lord has been assuring my heart for quite a long time that He has an amazing plan for handling the outpouring of His glory and the resulting harvest in Los Cabos, but it will take a God-sized plan to do it!
Also, please pray for jobs and financial provision for the people of Los Cabos—especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ, many who have now been without work and/or income for several weeks.
Finally, please pray the safety of our city from increased criminal activity or looting.
Thank-you for your faithfulness to what God is doing in Los Cabos and may peace and God’s blessings surround you!
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