We have been very blessed over the years to serve our Savior here in Mexico. It is you who support us to whom much of the gratitude goes for the opportunities God has afforded us here in this great country we call our home. As world events continue to darken the horizon, we know that our King is coming and His bride is waiting for the ultimate redemption. These things do not shake us, so we continue forward to the finish line. With these things in mind, we want to give you a quick update on ministry in Mexico and some things you can be praying for.
Our school of ministry, “Exodus”, has been progressing slowly. In the last year we have had 3 men complete the program. Our hope is that we would have up to 12 men living at the school and working through the discipleship program. We offer room and board, 3 college level bible studies during the week and an opportunity to learn a trade. We have a missionary family that is currently teaching the men how to become mechanics, through their ministry, Manos 1855. They are also leading our marriage group for Calvary Playas. Our desire is to train the men spiritually and then give them a trade that might free them up to have a better income while increasing their freedom to serve the Lord or go plant a church. Please pray for more students!
Our fellowship at Calvary Playas continues to grow and we have been praying for a new building. Our children’s ministry has grown to the point where we have our youth outside on Sundays and need to build a divider in a classroom to accommodate the kids and their ages. The area we are living in has become expensive so we are praying for His provision as we possibly take a big step of faith in the coming year to relocate the church. Please pray for a location.
We have a youth outreach March 25th, we will have about 50-70 kids coming and we are praying for these kids to commit their lives to Christ. From April 17-21st our fellowship will be heading out to Hermosillo on a mission trip to minister to the community and to the body of believers there as well. We have a women’s retreat coming up and a youth retreat. Please also keep church plant, Calvary Esperanza in prayer, as they just celebrated their first year anniversary. We are excited to see our brothers and sisters serve the Lord faithfully and by the power of His grace. Thank you for your love and continued support.
Hello friends and family in Christ, hope you are well as we close in on the finish of another year of serving our Savior. What a blessed year it has been watching the Lord grow His bride and participating in her sanctification. We would like to share a recap on the things the Lord has been doing in our midst and some of the things we are looking forward to in the future.
This year Calvary Playas was blessed to plant a church in a local colonia here in Tijuana. Calvary Chapel Esperanza was born in an area called Granjas Familiares. It is an old farming area where families have been farming for decades. It is very poor and not much of a farming community any more but was very much in need of a bible teaching church. We started out in a local park as Pastor Juan Quiroz organized events with Calvary Chapel Living Water out of Corona California. We started with bible study in the park, which grew into bible study in a local community center. Now they have their own place which is a renovated garage they are using for fellowship, with future plans for expansion. Thank you to Calvary Chapel Hagerman and all of the faithful men and women who have helped with the construction of this church plant. The Lord is so faithful.
We have some exciting plans starting January 5, 2023. A missionary family, John and Kimberly Kelley, have moved down to serve the Lord in training our men to do mechanical work on vehicles. The vision is that John will be teaching the men that come through the discipleship home basic skills in vehicle repair and restoration. It will be part of the year long discipleship commitment the men make. Our hope is to train these men up spiritually as well as giving them a trade that they can use to support their families as they graduate from the program. John has rented a large piece of property and is preparing to build a shop. We are super excited to see what the Lord is going to do through this wonderful ministry.
Over the course of the last year Calvary Chapel Playas began a Men’s Discipleship Home in an area called Flores Magon. We began to rent a building with the hope of making it a place where men could come and grow in their faith and realize their calling. Through much trial and patience, we have six men in the home and things are really starting to take shape. The men have bible studies in the morning, ministry duties during the day and service at night as well as during the week within the various ministries that take place. It is still a work in progress and we look forward to what the Lord will do through this ministry.
In November, Calvary Chapel Playas was blessed to help out with the children’s program for the Awaken Tijuana crusade put on by Awaken Las Vegas and Awaken Discipleship and Training Center in Tijuana. The first day of the event, medical and dental services were offered, clothes and food were handed out, haircuts and manicures were given and a children’s game and ministry center was offered. The second day was a concert and Gospel presentation. Praise God, many people were ministered to and heard the Gospel message.
This past year our fellowship went on our first week-long mission trip to Calvary Viscaino. There were 20 people who went on the 12 hour trip south down the Baja Peninsula. What an incredible bunch of saints. We were able to minister to the body of believers there at the fellowship. We helped do some construction on the property and were able to minister to 100 kids who were the children of migrant farmers. We played games with them, crafts, and had a gospel presentation. It was so wonderful as the kids loved and appreciated it very much. We were able to bless the women’s ministry with dinner and study, we helped at a feeding kitchen and served the men at a local christian rehabilitation center. It was a great time to serve others outside the community and a great time to grow in our fellowship with one another. Looking forward to the next mission trip.
Thank you so much for your physical and spiritual support. So much of what we are able to do is credited to your account for your faithfulness in our support on the mission field. We are looking forward to what the Lord is going to do over the course of the next year. Great things on the horizon. If you want to help out financially with the men’s home or want to plan a trip to come down to do ministry, our contact information is below. Please keep our next outreach on December 3, in prayer, as we make meals to pass out and share the love of Jesus with the lost.
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”(Col. 1:9)
In the presence of the Lord is the fullness of joy. Serving the saints at Calvary Playas continues to be a wonderful calling. The fellowship is growing in God’s grace, the Word continues to be the focus and the fruit is the faithfulness of the Body of Christ. Sundays we have two services at 9 and 11. The men and women continue to meet on Mondays for prayer as well as a marriage ministry. On Tuesdays a group of people share the gospel at a men’s and women’s rehab. We have a mid week study on Wednesdays. Church planting class on Thursdays and Youth group and Young adult study on Fridays. Once a month the ladies are doing a women’s breakfast and starting in July they will start a new Bible study for women. There are a lot of exciting things the Lord is preparing for the last half of the year.
It was a great blessing to go to Mexicali on a short two day mission trip with our brothers and sisters from Calvary Playas. There were about 20 of us in total and we went to serve at Calvary Oasis, about 4 hours from our home. It was a great time as we celebrated “Day of the Kid” by cooking up some food and inviting families to bring their kids for the festivities. Our group did games with the kids and focused on the Gospel of our great King! We are also looking forward to going down on a mission trip to Calvary Viscaino this October where we will be able to help reach out to the local community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are looking forward to the Lord blessing the School of Ministry, Exodus Ministries, as we have been working out some of the details. We currently have 3 guys in the program and are praying for a maximum of 12. This June a family from Idaho will be coming down to join us by starting a mechanic training program and possibly some other job training programs in the future. John and Kimberley Kelley have a heart to disciple and train men and women. The plan is to have the men in the home be discipled through biblical teaching, physical training and spiritual service. Those that live in the school of ministry will have daily study, will serve in the local church plants and be trained with a life skill to earn a wage or possibly own their own business in the future.
Please keep Pastor Juan in prayer as he leads Calvary Chapel Esperanza, a local church plant and a growing body of believers. He has been blessed with an awesome building, but he has many needs. Praying for some sound equipment, chairs, and an electric acoustic guitar. The Lord is doing a neat work as they have new believers’ classes, a Calvary Distinctives class and are teaching some of the local children how to read.
As always, thank you for your continued support!
“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:2-4)
With love,
Ryan and Karen Gause
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Even in the midst of chaos in the world, disease that doesn’t seem to want to leave and uncertainty of what the future may bring, the Lord maintains His position on the throne with everything under control. Knowing that truth, the believer has such confidence that our mission on this planet, to lead people to Christ and train them for the work of ministry, will never change. That being said, I would like to share some of the things that God is doing in the local body of Christ here at Calvary Chapel Playas de Tijuana.
The Lord has been doing some exciting things as we have begun the second semester of our church planting course. This semester we will focus on practical ministry. Our hope is to prepare our future church planters with the ability to minister in areas of listening, biblical counseling, facilitating marriages and funerals, evangelizing and discipling. We have 17 people in the class this semester which is an incredible blessing and responsibility.
Last summer we began to do outreach and evangelizing in a local community called Granjas. It is an area with a lot of crime, drugs and not much hope. One week ago we officially opened the doors for Calvary Chapel Esperanza there in Granjas. It is our first church plant and God has blown our minds. We have been blessed with a building and children’s ministry area for 100 dollars a month. Pastor Juan has a great team of brothers and sisters helping him as they minister to the community. Along with Sunday services, they have an inductive bible study and teach a class on the Calvary Distinctives.
Seven months ago we were blessed to be able to rent a very large building to begin a School of Ministry. It has been a slow process of renovating the building but we have five men living in the ministry home. Their daily activities include bible studies in the morning, serving in church planting, teaching at rehab centers and serving in the local community. It is a great place for men to grow and to understand their calling in ministry.
We want to praise the Lord that he has provided for us to serve Him in Mexico for 9 years now. How time flies! It has been such a blessing and an incredible adventure. We could not have done this without your faithful support, both financially and spiritually. Thank you for your continued support as we serve the Lord in Mexico.
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“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”, as the infamous quote of Charles Dickens continues to contrast situations we face, within the reality we face them. For the born again saint, we face the darkness with light, we exercise faith in the midst of unbelievable situations. Dickens knew all too well the struggle and strife every believer faces, as he was a brother in Christ.
Although it has been a difficult year for all of us, to say the least, we have all seen the work that our Saviour is doing in our midst. As our family continues to be blessed to serve Jesus at Calvary Chapel Playas, Tijuana, we have seen just that, God at work in our midst. By the grace of God we only shut down having service for about 2 months, which allowed us to begin to post our bible teachings online. In turn, God used that as an opportunity to reach people we never would have reached. When we returned to in person services, we had families come that had been watching online, but we had never met. God is faithful!
We are blessed to have so many brothers and sisters in Christ who have obeyed the calling to faithfully serve. This past month Juanito and Rocio were called to lead the church outreach ministry and Karolina will be leading the children’s ministry.
There are many things you can be praying for as you support the ministry. Our evangelism team is going to begin having outdoor bible fellowship in a local community. Granjas Familiares is the colonia. Our hope is that we will be able to begin a home bible study and that eventually God would raise up a group of believers that will result in us renting a building to hold service. We are hoping to purchase some folding chairs, portable tents and tables. One of our greatest desires is to start a men’s and women’s discipleship home. We have been praying for a building to begin this ministry. We are praying that God will provide our physical and spiritual needs in the areas where He is leading us, as we know He will.
It has been a blessing to watch our fellowship minister to the homeless here in Tijuana. We have a great team of about 20 people who go out every Saturday to evangelize to the homeless. As a result, we have been privileged to assist men and women to get off the street and into discipleship homes where they can seek God. Every month, Calvary Chapel Living Water has been coming down to bless our fellowship with a day in the park. In June they came and we had an outreach to the homeless. We set up at a place called “las cuevas”, where many homeless live, and we worshipped the Lord in song, prayer and the Word. We ate and fellowshipped with the homeless as a few of them surrendered their hearts to the Lord
For our family it has been especially difficult to see our kids begin to leave the home and make their own life decisions. We are praying that God will have His way in their lives and lead them according to His will. Please continue to pray for our family as we are going through some very difficult times right now. Love hopes all things, believes all things! We thank you for your continued support and may God cause His light to shine upon you as you seek Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
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Hey friends and family, we are very excited for the beginning of this new year. As we serve the body of Christ at Calvary Chapel Playas de Tijuana, many people come to Christ, growing in the grace of God, day by day. Sunday through Friday our church offers studies, both online and in person, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our hope and desire for this year is to plant some bible studies in the local communities, expecting Gods word to bring people to faith and to transform lives. We are currently praying about one location, where a door has been opened to start a Bible study with the belief that God may want to plant a church. We will be faithful to walk through the doors and see what God is going to do.
We have had the opportunity to open a food pantry, but things are proceeding slowly. We believe that it is something the Lord desires, so His timing is perfect. We are fixing the outside of the building and we are going to need a lot of work done on the inside. Plumbing, electrical etc, so if you wanna come down and lend a hand, we have a free place for you to stay!
It is crazy how fast time flies by, all of our kids have graduated High School and two are in College. Jamie and Mackenzie finished their first semester of College, so proud of them. Brian has moved up to Idaho and is working with his uncle while RJ is working at Chick-fil-A. They have been faithful employees, very proud of them as well. Karen is free of homeschool duties, but for the past year she has been teaching two of our friends children how to read. She has been a great blessing for our girls as well, helping them prepare and succeed in college.
Please keep our family and the fellowship in prayer, as we head into our eighth year as serving the Lord in Mexico. We are very excited to see what God is going to do this year as we walk by faith and patiently wait for His will to be done.
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There is a unique diversity within the city of Playas de Tijuana. There are many Spanish speaking nationals, there are many bilingual also, many who have been deported, and those who are homeless. Playas is unique in that we have at least four alternative cancer clinics which operate in our city. People come from all over the world, Africa, India, China, Canada and the United States, to name a few. We have been blessed to meet many wonderful Christians who have come to seek cancer treatment in an alternative manner. Through the years we have built friendships with some of these families and have been blessed to have them stay with us as they return for treatment. We find ourselves often encouraged by them as they share their hardships and we hear of the great faith and biblical understanding they have that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. They don’t want to go, but they know their hope is not in this world, but in the one to come!
My good friend Elijah Demeray brought a team from Calvary Chapel Springs in Heyburn, Idaho. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and ministry. It was a quick trip as they went to the Tijuana dump to minister to the homeless, served at our Mexican Independence Day Celebration and they were a blessing as they helped around the church. We were able to pray for and hear an update from our good friend, Jake Emerson who was a missionary at our church and now is a missionary at Calvary Chapel Guanajuato. You can be praying for Elijah, Jake, and I, as we will be heading to Jordan in late January. We are going with a team from Calvary Chapel Saving Grace to encourage the countless refugees that have come in from Syria seeking refuge from war. Many people are coming to the Lord as the Body of Christ reaches out to these people who have lost everything. We are very excited to meet some of these families and let them know that we love them and are praying for them!
The Gause family is crazy! We have 4 kids, between the ages of 16-19 years old. Three of them are working, two of them will graduate from High School this year and life is crazy busy. It is so difficult to maintain spiritual balance in the home, as I am sure many of you have experienced. Sure, we go to church together, we serve together, but the madness of life makes home fellowship difficult. Karen has started a group chat with our family where we read chapters of the Bible day by day and share thoughts about the scripture or simply acknowledge that we read. It has been a great way to stay connected to the kids and God’s word as a family.
Prayer Requests
Men’s Conference on Dec. 7 at Calvary Chapel Playas
New Bible Study Home Groups in January
Ordaining two new Pastors
New Feeding Kitchen in Playas
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Calvary Chapel Playas has gone to two services. It is so exciting to see God’s word honored as people come to learn and fellowship with one another. Our 9am service had a great turnout and it was a blessing as people were excited to serve. We have concluded our first session of the School of Ministry courses and will start back up in the fall. Calvary Chapel Living Water out of Corona, California came down and blessed us during our men’s breakfast as well as with the day of fellowship. We had a fellowship and baptism day at the beach, what a great time! People from church came out as we baptized 8 people and barbecued up some burgers. It is such an encouragement to have brothers in Christ come and minister to our body of believers, what a blessing.
Calvary Chapel Saving Grace has started a “School of Missions” and we were blessed to spend a couple of days doing ministry with their future missionaries. It was so much fun, we evangelized in the park, ministered to mentally handicapped people who have been abandoned by their families and spent some time getting to know the team. They are a great group of young men and women who are waiting for God to confirm the call he has on their lives. They will be the next generation of those who will take the Gospel to the unreached nations. We were blessed to be a part of what God is doing in their lives.
Our family has been busy this summer. We have been blessed with hosting many families and groups who have come to Mexico to serve alongside us. Jamie and Brian have been working hard and saving to prepare for the next season in their lives. RJ was in La Paz, BCS, Mexico for 5 weeks and served at Rancho El Camino this summer. He was also able to visit our dear friend’s Basketball Camp, offered through their ministry, Transformados, when he was in La Paz. Mackenzie was blessed with scholarships to be able to attend a Christian Camp in Northern California called Hume Lake for a week. As people are being discipled through God’s word, it is amazing to watch the transformations that are taking place in the lives of the body of believers here at Calvary Chapel. Please keep our family and the church here in Playas de Tijuana in your prayers. We appreciate you all very much!
It looks like we will be going to two services, the first week of August. We are excited for this next step as we see God blessing His word and His body of believers. Our school of ministry was able to participate in a Medical Outreach in June and it was great. We have local swap meets in Tijuana and we had a brother bless us with his spot within the swap meet. There was a great turn out. We were able to pray for people, help them with their medical issues and above all, share the gospel with them. You can be praying for us as we will be doing a medical outreach again on the 18th of July.
Calvary Chapel Living Water, out of Corona California, came down and blessed us with a day of fellowship at a local park. It was a great time of encouragement for our body of believers. We ate, we played games, we worshipped the Lord in song and in His word. We had a great turnout and we are looking forward to our church beach day and baptisms on the 27th of July. Living Water will be coming down again! What a blessing it has been to have connected with this sweet fellowship of brothers and sisters.
We officially have two High School graduates and two more to go. Brian graduated this past month and has been working full time. Very proud of that young man. Our kids are getting so old, where does the time go? RJ continues to play basketball and in July R.J. will be heading down to La Paz, Mexico to serve at Rancho El Camino. Their ministry is focused on reaching the local impoverished areas, RJ will be serving at a summer camp that will reach the local youth for Christ. Mackenzie will be heading out to Hume Lake for a youth camp as well. This is the second time she will be going, she is super excited. CC Playas youth group was invited to serve at a local conference for youth and some of the worship team from CCPlayas led the youth in worship for one of the days. The kids continue to serve in children’s ministry at CCPlayas. We were blessed this month to have my two nieces and nephew come down to visit, as well as a friend from Calvary Chapel Buhl Youth Group in Idaho, came down to serve with us for two weeks. We also had friends from California visit, they encouraged us in the Lord and blessed us greatly! Our family is doing well, what a blessing to serve the Lord with one another especially as the time we have left with our children at home is drawing to a close, as they prepare for the calling God has on their lives.
Please keep us in prayer as we have been offered a small building to rent for 150 dollars a month. It is right next to our Church building and we are praying about what we can do with it. Maybe an extra children’s ministry room, a youth room, a coffee shop and/or a bookstore. We have no idea what the Lord wants to do, but we know he wants us to have it. The owner was asking 500 dollars a month, and we countered with 150. Apparently the lady just wants the building to be used to honor the Lord, and we are the blessed recipients of His favor. Thank you Jesus!
Please continue to pray for our weekly Bible studies, Mom’s in Prayer, and our Men’s and Women’s Bible studies, as well as the Deportee Ministry and Men’s discipleship homes. It has been a very slow process and we want to work within the timing of the Lord. We know, He has a plan, He knows the timing, and we just need to walk by faith.
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Family in Christ, thank you so much for your physical and spiritual support for our family as we have been serving the Lord in Mexico for 6 1/2 years now. How the time flies! Brian and Jamie have graduated from High School, R.J and Mackenzie will follow in the next 2 years. It has been a journey of ups and downs and all arounds. Wouldn’t trade it for anything!
We have been reaching out in a local colonia called Hiberito. It is an area where we are partnered with a men’s discipleship home. The purpose of the home is to help men who are deported, men who are struggling with addictions. Our church has been gathering every other week to play soccer with the local youth. It has been awesome. We are inviting the community to come down to where we live, about 15 minutes away, to come have a day of fellowship and fun. Our ultimate hope is that we would plant a home church in the area. How exciting!
Starting July 7, 2019 we will have two services on Sunday, please keep our leaders and faithful servants in prayer as we step out in faith. We also teamed up with a Doctor to have a medical outreach. We have trained 15 people from the body to participate and are hoping more come to serve. That will be June 10th, 7a.m. We will be doing the outreach in a local swap meet, called a Sobre Ruedas. We have a space to put up 4 tents and are expecting the Lord to save many!
We were blessed to celebrate all of the moms on Mother’s Day and our good friend, Timothy who is moving back to the states. Please be in prayer for the Lord to direct his next steps in serving the Lord.
Jamie got a new job at Hel-THe and although the minimum wage in Mexico is $8-10/day, she is blessed to have some extra money as she is praying about her plans for the future. Brian is working hard at finishing up High School and working while RJ continues to play sports any chance he gets. Mackenzie celebrated her sweet 16 and got her drivers license. So we now have 4 drivers in the house!
The Gause family is very thankful to have a community of believers that supports us in the mission field, meeting both our physical and spiritual need. We have been so blessed to represent our Lord as well as those who support us. May the Lord bless you and guide you as you minister to the least and the lost.
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