Dios te bendiga! God bless you from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Since arriving mid day on Saturday, our missions team of fifteen from Bridgewood Community Church have all joyfully jumped right into action. The needs here are great, but God in His grace has prepared the way and we are thankful for the opportunity to serve Him and the precious people here.
The missions church of Alpha y Omega is the focus of our week of service. It is located in a very poor neighborhood of what is becoming the sprawling metropolis of Cabo. With the difficult economic times more and more Mexicans are making their way to tourist destinations like this one in search of work. Make shift homes from whatever material can be acquired are springing up in areas where the development of infrastructure cannot keep pace. Many of these neighborhoods, served only by dusty pot-holed streets, have no electricity or running water.
Pastor Juan and his wife Patty founded the Alpha y Omega ministry just five years ago. They are deeply motivated by their concern for neglected children and desire to bring healing to adults ravaged by the hopelessness of sin. Both Juan and Patty have personally experienced the pain and suffering of those to whom God has called them to minister. But both have also experienced the amazing power of Jesus who has healed and set them free.
Juan was born into a family where he was one of the youngest of eighteen children. His desire to make something of himself turned him into a driven man pursuing a government career at the expense of his marriage and family. He ended up separated from Patty but Jesus came into his life in his mid forties, restored his marriage and called him into the ministry.
Patty was a victim of horrific child abuse, primarily at the hands of her mother. And like Juan, it was not until later in her adult life, that she had an encounter with Jesus and experienced Him healing and changing her life. Juan gave up his government position and along with Patty together they have devoted themselves to planting this church.
As confirmation God miraculously gave them a large piece of property high up in a hillside neighborhood. It over looks the entire Cabo area, including the famous arch, which is the very tip of the Baja peninsula that juts southward out into the Pacific Ocean.
From this location they feed up to 100 neighborhood children several times each week, conduct their church services and minister at a nearby rehabilitation center for men. Their church building is actually constructed from some of set material left from the filming the movie Troy.
The team spent most of the day on Sunday worshipping and ministering to the saints of the Alpha y Omega church in their morning and evening services. At Pastor Juan’s request I spoke on parenting in the morning service. We concluded with a moving time of prayer where we asked the Lord to bring healing to those present who had parents who neglected or abused them. Many in this culture, especially women, have been the victims of this atrocity. And we also had a time as parents, asking God to forgive us for permissive, neglectful or domineering parenting.
In the evening Susan and I spoke at the first session of a marriage seminar. We talked about the necessity of making Jesus the foundation of the marriage relationship and His agape love as the glue. Jaren and Alyssa Zech, a young couple on our team, also shared their powerful testimony of the transforming difference Jesus made early on in their relationship. We concluded by inviting couples who wanted prayer to come forward. The highlight was the joy of praying with one couple in particular who both invited Christ into their lives for the first time and dedicated their marriage to him.
Yesterday, on Monday, we were back on the church property bright and early reporting for Kingdom duty.Half of us, mostly the men, found joy in shoveling dirt rather than snow, as we leveled and built the form work for pouring a concrete slab. While the rest of us found delight in conducting a women’s conference and ministering to the children.
More later, the next time I can secure and internet connection.