October 2025
Encouraging and Strengthening the Brethren!
“…always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:10-12 )
Did you know that a “missionary” means “one who is sent” ? Our family was trained, prayed for and sent from our sending church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace in Yorba Linda! The work that Claudia and I do at Calvary Rosarito in Mexico mostly focuses on counseling and ministering to the local congregation. We often post pictures of the large bilingual women’s study and my much smaller men’s discipleship group! But one of our favorite ministries is to the pastors and their wives who have planted churches!
We initially moved to Tijuana in 2021 to be a part of a large, healthy church in Rosarito coming alongside Pastor Mike and Sarah Vincent. As is to be expected, our service to the body of Christ (aka, the church) has evolved and now includes visiting the various church plants several times a year.
Claudia recently visited two churches the past two months: Calvary Cocoyoc in Morelos (south of Mexico City) and Calvary Hermosillo, Sonora. Claudia has a passion to serve and encourage pastor’s wives. This consists of organizing women’s conferences, leaders workshops or whatever the pastor’s wife thinks will encourage and strengthen the ladies of her local church! The second element in these visits is to spend some one on one time praying for and loving these women because they need and deserve it! After I returned from one of my trips with my pastor, Claudia realized God was calling her to minister to the pastor’s wives! So, Claudia’s focus on her last two trips has been to these special ladies!
A broken arm!
I love cycling! I switched to mountain biking for safety since the hills are safer than the streets…or so I thought. I cycle with my friend Wilson in the hills south of Rosarito as often as possible. It’s a great time not only for exercise and stress relief, but of friendship and just enjoying the beauty and quiet outside of the city. Unfortunately, there is a section on our route with some rather territorial dogs. One big, fat, brown dog started chasing my friend Wilson on a steep downhill and didn’t notice me coming up from behind… I hit the dog at a dangerously fast speed, went down hard…and my left hand didn’t want to work… On the brighter side, I am right handed anyways! The doctors had to do surgery and I suppose I have a few more weeks to heal! When you walk around with a cast on your arm, folks ask what happened? Then I tell them. The next question is usually, “was the dog okay?” Dog lovers, I tell you!
Pura Vida!
Since my arm wasn’t bothering me too much, I continued with my trip to Costa Rica! Pastor Mike Vincent, Pastor Tony Carranza from Calvary Maranatha Mazatlan and some friends and I visited a young couple who used to attend our church! Pastor Chris and Rachel Arista have been there for ten years! He reached out a few years ago as he wanted some training and mentorship on church planting! We have been partnering with them for a while now and finally got to visit and facilitate their first church planting conference! It took MANY hours to travel from Tijuana to San Isidro de Perez Zeledon in southern Costa Rica, including driving over the mountains in our rental car. On the 6 hour drive (with a few pit stops and photo ops) our brakes faded away! Imagine how surprised we were having to stop and let the brakes cool off! The folks at Capilla Calvario Palabra Viva told us, “oh we’re not surprised. That’s why they call that road “death highway!” All turned out well and our driver learned how to drive with the transmission in manual mode instead of riding the brakes!
Costa Ricans are wonderful people in a beautiful country, that’s reflected in their national slogan “pura vida”! We made many friends and hope to return next year!
Pastoral Ministry
I have the privilege and honor of bringing God’s word and peace to people in times of pain and suffering. I learned from my previous Pastor, Peter Pastorelli about the great and solemn duty we have as pastors to help families lay to rest their loved ones. In previous updates, I have described the great joy of officiating at weddings (one of my favorite things to celebrate!)! However, it is at funerals where we come face to face with eternity! Pray for my friends and their extended family as they wrestle with an unexpected death. I generally don’t report such things, but in our city and across Mexico, it is a common part of life.
Returning to our Romans 1:10-12 Bible passage..
We have had the great privilege and honor of encouraging fellow Christians all over Mexico, Central & South America! Paul the Apostle loved doing the same! I love the phrase he uses in verse 12: “…that we may be mutually encouraged.. ” That is what happens on these trips. Now, one last thing. We don’t charge these churches for our visits. It is our joy to bless them at our expense. We never want to be a burden to these young churches. We want to do the opposite! And as you support us, you too participate in this blessing!
Praise reports!
- MDVP women’s bilingual study 80 women per week attending in person and online!
- Men’s discipleship group growing to 20 per week
- I thank God I only injured my left arm!
- Officiating at 2 funerals
Prayer Requests:
- Keep our relationship with God #1 priority
- MDVP women’s bilingual study
- Paul’s discipleship group
- Some sick friends and grieving families
- Families grieving the loss of their children
- Church’s Ongoing property dispute
- Cristian’s community service every weekend
