Happy New Year! We pray that you had a wonderful Christmas and the opportunity to spend some meaningful time with family. I know that we did and we are so thankful to a large number of people that have made this possible. We would like to start off by updating you on the church plant in Santa Cruz, California. If you remember, in May 2017 we helped our friends and fellow missionaries, the Hansons, move back to their hometown to plant a bilingual church. They began their work by starting a life (fellowship) group in their home. It wasn’t long before they outgrew their home and moved the group meetings to the coffee house located at Santa Cruz Bible Church.  On November 4th, we had the opportunity to attend and help serve at the launch service for Santa Cruz Bilingual Church. Kristy, William, Brian & Brittany, as well as our friend, David, had the privilege of leading worship. Two members of SCBC’s worship team, Melissa & Caleb Hanson, joined us. It was a meaningful time of worship and Pastor Michael did an awesome job preaching God’s word. We were blessed, and we pray that all who attended were blessed as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the beginning of November, Kristy received a free gift of being flown to Wisconsin to spend some quality time with her sister, Kim, who was sick with cancer. She also had the privilege of attending the Chicago Bears game at Soldier Field with Kim, her husband, Dale, sister, Shannon, her husband, Tom, and their cousin, Alford. The tickets were a gift from Alford, and his brother, Mark, arranged it so that Dale & Kim could lead the way on the field at the beginning of the game and hold the “Bear Down” flag. It was a fun time, and we are so glad that Kim had this experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last few months of the year have always proven to be a time with the least number of teams. This year we hosted seven teams, which consisted of serving at the dump, working on a new church building, orphanage visits, children’s ministry, and more. A team from New Hope Community Church provided a new roof for the Connections House Dorms. This fulfilled a huge need to have the roof replaced before the rainy season. Teams in December meant approximately 220 backpacks for kids that were filled with toiletries, clothing, school supplies, toys, handmade hats, and more! They were given out at Christmas party outreaches at three different churches. The parties included games, songs, cake, the Christmas story, the gospel, and then ended with piñatas and an abundance of candy! So many children were blessed with items that they need, as well as other special things they wouldn’t otherwise receive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The backpacks were a special highlight of the year for us. This was the third year we’ve received these backpack gifts, and praise God that there was more than double the number of backpacks as last year! This ministry was started and organized by Ron’s sister-in-law, MeLinda (wife of Philip), from Colorado. Through her hard work, amazing sales shopping skills, and also word of mouth, the ministry just exploded this year. Many people from their home church, Chapel Hills Church in Colorado Springs, also joined in the effort. Due to the number of backpacks this year, Philip & MeLinda hand delivered them to Mexico themselves. There were too many to send in the mail. This was a great blessing to us, as Phil & MeLinda had the opportunity to serve at one of the three churches where the backpacks were given out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also in December, we had a team for a week. But not just any team. This one consisted of family! Charles & Erin Lasky (Ron’s cousin) brought their six children for an amazing week of ministry. They hit the ground running immediately as they arrived in Rosarito. Since the local children still had a few days of school left until Christmas vacation, one of the Christmas outreaches was scheduled for their only weekend day, Sunday – the day of their arrival. The team jumped right in, playing games with the kids, serving cake, handing out backpacks, and more. They served at and hosted three of these outreaches, providing everything (except the backpacks). The team also blessed two families by replacing the roofs on their homes. Both homes had water damage on the inside. These families could not afford the necessary repairs. So one of them used tarps to try and keep the water out, and the other family removed most of their shingles and painted a rubberized coating onto the plywood. Neither of these temporary fixes would’ve helped very much when the rains started coming a couple of weeks later. The families were very blessed by this gift and the team’s hard work.

It is extra special to be able to serve alongside our family here in Mexico. These two families, in particular, have been a long time, huge supporters of us and our work on the missions field. This was a very meaningful time for us and we will remember it always.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day has almost arrived for us to close on the purchase of Connections House dorms!! As of now, the closing date is set for February 5th. Please pray with us that everything will go smoothly with the paperwork. This will be just over 11 months from when we were originally supposed to purchase the property, so we are praying that there will be no more delays. We are still about $28,500 short of the full amount. While we do have a loan secured for the remaining amount, it would be great to be able to pay the entire amount and not have to borrow. If you feel led to give toward the purchase of our ministry dorms, you may do so by one of two ways:

#1 – GoFundMe – Just click & give!

Click to Donate Now!

#2 – Tax-deductible gift – May be sent in the mail by doing the following:

Checks may be made payable to “Calvary Chapel Rosarito”. Please write “Connections House” on the memo line and mail to Calvary Chapel Rosarito, 511 E San Ysidro Blvd #6355, San Ysidro, CA 92173

 

We will leave you with some more pictures of our recent team ministry from the end of last year.

Connections House

We are excited to update you on the purchase of Connections House dorms! The paperwork on the property is progressing and we hope to be able to complete the purchase in as soon as 3-5 weeks. The amount we still need to raise is $33,800. Please pray with us for the Lord to provide the funds needed and for the paperwork to go through.

 

Upcoming Midwest Trip!

That’s right, we are heading to the Midwest to visit our supporters, family, and friends. We will keep you informed as to the dates of some get-togethers that we will have. We’d love to visit with as many of you as possible, so please feel free to send us a message and let us know if you’d like to connect. We will be visiting in Wisconsin and Illinois from September 3rd to September 26th. Ron will actually be arriving a bit early to visit his parents and staying a little later for a missions conference.

 

Family Update

An update on our ministry this summer will be out soon. Right now we just wanted to give a quick family update. William will be starting 11th grade soon. It’s crazy how fast the time goes. Only two more years and he will be graduating high school! Brittany is continuing to work stateside about three times a week at Bibigo, a Korean fast food place. She also continues to serve at Calvary Chapel Playas (Playas de Tijuana, Mexico) with her husband, Brian, where he works full time as the Pastor’s Assistant. They recently started the youth group at CCP on Friday nights and it is going very well. Brian will also begin classes soon at the University where he will be continuing his eduation in foreign languages.

We also just got a new puppy! If you have heard, we lost our dog, Maya, to some sort of lung infection a couple of months ago. The new puppy’s name is Maverick and he’s a lab mix. He is 2 months old, very smart, and is getting along really well with Moka.

We recently had some family come and visit us here in Rosarito. This doesn’t happen often, so it was very exciting for us! Kristy’s sister, Kim, her husband, Dale (who is also Ron’s brother), their family, and one of Kristy’s other sisters, Shannon, all came to visit. We had a great time together! We even crossed a few things off of Kim’s bucket list!

If you have not heard, Kim was recently told there are no more treatments available for her cancer. Her doctors say she likely only has 3-12 months left on this earth with us. We know that only the Lord knows how much longer she’ll be here with us. We also know he can still do a miracle! Please pray with us that Kim’s migraines would lessen and that she would be not be in so much pain.

Also, Ron’s mom has been battling cancer. While she successfully won her fight with brain cancer, today we found out she has stage 3 fallopian tube cancer. She also recently underwent surgery, so she will have the next month to recover from that before beginning a new regiment of chemotherapy.

 

Through all of this, we can only declare that God is good! His plans are perfect and His ways are higher than our ways. It is difficult to be so far away from family at this time, but we are very thankful for our upcoming trip! Please continue to keep us in your prayers. They are what keep us going!

We will leave you with some photos of our recent family’s visit. God bless!

It has been a little while since our last update on the purchase of the Connections House property here in Rosarito. We are excited about the funds raised so far and we are completely in awe of what the Lord has done! Just over two thirds of the total purchase amount has been given. At this point, however, we are in waiting mode. There are a couple of small issues with the paperwork for the property that need to be cleared up before the sale can go through. It looks like it could be up to an 8-10 month process. So we are waiting on the Lord’s timing. We know it is perfect. We have faith that everything will be taken care of so that we can make the purchase final.

As we look ahead, we have two big projects here at Connections House coming up. The first one is to replace the leaking roof over the dorms, and the second is to add two new bathrooms. If your church/youth group/etc. is looking to send a team to Mexico and would like a construction project, please pray and consider one of these much-needed improvements to our dorms!

Teams, Teams, Teams!!

Right now we are springing into the busy season! Connections House was hopping with four back to back teams in the two weeks surrounding Easter. At the same time we had two teams housed at a different location that we were serving with as well. There was children’s ministry, soccer & testimonies, a dump outreach, street evangelism, a senior home visit, work projects, children’s homes visits, and so much more! One highlight was an outreach at the park, complete with carnival games, prizes, face painting, popcorn, cotton candy, soccer, and clowns, which ended with the VeggieTales movie, “Jonah”, on the big screen.

 

New Bilingual Church Plant and New Staff at Connections House!

 

Next month we are going to have to say “see you later” to some very good friends of ours. Michael & Melissa Hanson, along with their three children, Caleb, Sarah, and Nathan, have been serving here as missionaries for six years. In May, they will be moving back to Santa Cruz, California to plant a bilingual church – Santa Cruz Bilingual Church! We are so excited for them and looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do through this amazing family. Next month we have the privilege of helping them move to Santa Cruz, approximately 8 hours north of here. We will visit a couple of churches along the way that we have been working with for several years. Our return trip will be to move our good friends, Shawn & Pam Cullen to Rosarito. The Cullens have served as part-time missionaries for the past six years. Pam has served many weeks at a time, as well as several summers, here with us during our busiest seasons of teams, as Cook, Nurse, Team Host, and wherever else needed. Shawn has also served for many weeks here and there over the past six years and has recently retired from the fire department in Northern California. Shawn and Pam will be working with us in team ministry here at Connections House. The photo on the right is Shawn and Pam with their daughter, Jessica. Our trip up to California will also include some much needed family vacation time as well.

Family Life

There is never a dull moment. William is working diligently to finish up school over the next month. He is doing really well, considering all the days and half-days he takes off for ministry purposes. He is excited and striving to finish up in time for our upcoming trip so that he will not have to do school on the road. Ron has been busy getting some items ready to sell at a fundraiser at CCR and to pick up a huge load of donations near LA for the church and our church plants. Kristy is working to catch up on all the photo editing from all the teams and recent ministry. A recent project was the Easter photos at CCR. You can see the background we created in these three photos. William is pictured with one of his good friends, Daniel.

Brittany has a new job working for Bibigo, a Korean restaurant. She commutes an hour, one way, to work on the other side of the border. Brian will be finishing up his third semester soon at a university in Tijuana, where he is studying to be a teacher of foreign languages. He and Brittany continue to serve together in worship ministry at Calvary Chapel Playas in Playas de Tijuana, where Brian is also working full-time as Pastor’s Assistant.

 

Thank You!

We truly do feel your prayers! We are so blessed to serve here in Rosarito and we are excited for what lies ahead. Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and support!

Financial Giving

No, it’s not too late to give toward the purchase of Connections House! The sooner the property is paid off, the sooner we will be able to make the improvements needed! There are still two easy ways for you to give:

#1 – GoFundMe – Just click & give!

Click to Donate Now!

#2 – Tax-deductible gift – May be sent in the mail by doing the following:

Checks may be made payable to “Calvary Chapel Rosarito”. Please write “Connections House” on the memo line and mail to: Calvary Chapel Rosarito, 511 E San Ysidro Blvd #6355, San Ysidro, CA 92173

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s crunch time. We are down to 43 days until we need to make our first of three $55,000 payments in order to purchase Connections House, our team dorms and home here in Rosarito. It has truly been a blessing for us to be able to rent this property, however the owners do want to sell it. We earnestly seek your prayers as we make the decision to move forward with this purchase. Please see the information below to help us with your tax-deductible donation. We will need to assess the situation again in two weeks in order to make a final decision.

As you can see, we have raised less than half of the first payment. While we continue to try and secure a private loan to make up the difference, we also have to remember one thing. And that is, once we make the first payment, we are all in. We’ll have 12 months to come up with the second payment of $55,000. Borrowing part of this down payment may prove to be difficult for two reasons. One, because we would be making loan payments at the same time as making interest payments to the owner. And two, because it will put us behind on being able to save towards the second down payment. Obtaining a private loan for the full amount needed to purchase the property would be ideal. For those of you that may not remember, the reason we are not able to take out a bank loan is because Mexican banks will not loan money to Americans, and American banks will not loan money for Mexican property.

While we are certain that the Lord has called us to this ministry of working with short-term missions teams as well as providing housing, we want to make sure this is the property that He has in mind long term. We need to remain open to the possibility that this place was something temporary on the way to something different or better. So we ask you now to join us in praying for wisdom and discernment. This is His money and it is our desire to be mindful and diligent when it comes to how it is used. May it be all for God’s glory and for the purpose of expanding His kingdom!

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Protesting of Gas Prices in Mexico

If you haven’t seen our facebook posts, or heard on the news, the gas prices in Mexico made a huge jump at the beginning of the year. This has caused some major protesting, especially here in Rosarito where we have a Pemex gasoline distribution plant. This plant fills approximately 220 trucks per day with gasoline. Pemex also currently owns almost all of the gas stations in the country, which is supposed to change sometime this year.

On January 1st, gas prices spiked with about a 20% increase throughout Mexico due to the deregulation of the gas industry by the government. The cost of gas here in Rosarito is about $17 pesos per liter, or $3.20 per gallon (up about $.50/gallon over night). The minimum wage here is $10 pesos per hour, which means that people need to work about six hours to earn the money to buy one gallon of gas.

There is protesting and unrest all over the country. Thankfully, things have been calm and non-violent here in Rosarito for the most part. There was a blockade to the Pemex plant for several days. Most or all of our gas stations ran out of gas after a few days as a result, in Rosarito, Tijuana, and beyond. However, with police reinforcements, the blockade was ended and the shortage was averted. There were some reports of looting and some injuries during the protesting. Also, our two nearby border crossings were closed on a couple different occasions. Praise the Lord that we have had no deaths and little violence as a result of the protesting, which is not the case in other parts of the country. Police vehicles are still escorting the gasoline trucks to and from the Pemex plant. Otherwise, despite the fact that gas prices have not budged, things have calmed down even more.

Please do keep this situation in your prayers. The peso is worth close to half as much as it was when we moved down here almost seven years ago. That along with the sky high prices of gas has made the cost of living rise heavily. While we are blessed to be able to cross the border to fill up with gas, etc., it is likely that these high gas prices are going to cause the cost of other things here to rise – food, drinking water, propane, etc.

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Thank you so much to each and every one of you for your prayers! Thank you for your support and financial gifts. We know that we wouldn’t be here without them! This ministry would function without them. We are thankful to God for all you.

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Financial Gifts

Checks with your tax deductible donation towards the purchase of Connections House may be made payable to “Calvary Chapel Rosarito”. Please write “Connections House” on the memo line and mail to:

Calvary Chapel Rosarito, 511 E San Ysidro Blvd #6355, San Ysidro, CA 92173