Greetings from Mexico,
This past weekend I had the honor and privilege of hosting our very first “Supporter Missions Weekend” here in Rosarito. 10 of our supporters traveled down (which included both individual supporters and the missions directors of our partner church in Irvine, Voyagers Bible Church) to witness what God is doing here in Rosarito! We had an amazing weekend, and in this update, I have asked one of our supporters on this trip (who also just happens to be my dad Mark J ) to share his perspective of this Missions weekend!
Our “GO TEAM”, comprised of people from five different churches, met at the Voyagers church in Irvine, got acquainted; loaded our bags, and we were off for Mexico. Knowing that the devil would do all he could to complicate our trip, we prayed for safety and God’s blessing on our adventure. Sure enough we experienced trouble with a tire tread separation, and a weak battery. Russ Mangum was our driver, and we were all impressed with how effectively he handled every problem.
Arriving in Rosarito, we checked into the Casa Del Descanso Missionary compound. Mike gave us a quick tour of the previous three church building locations, and then we were off to the world famous Puerto Nuevo lobster village.
Of course, the lobster surf and turf dinners were great, but the highlight of the evening was hearing the life story from Mike’s assistant pastor, friend and right-hand man, Jesus Ochoa. From his gang banger youth days, Jesus spent over half of his first thirty years in prison, a place where he met the Lord, was trained by prison ministry pastors and grew into a great spiritual leader.
Saturday morning, we first had a fabulous breakfast at another of Rosarito’s beach-front restaurants. Next we bounded aboard the bible-bus for driver Mike’s “backroads of Mexico” tour to visit two of their more recent church plants.
The first was to the community of Las Delicious, literally translated, the delights. Pastor Martin was on Calvary Chapel Rosarito staff for five years before he completed the church-planting course, and started his church three years ago.
Starting with only a handful, this young church plant has already hit 120 for Sunday services. They are now buying ground, and have begun construction on their new church building. Martin is an incredible leader in a VERY difficult community, and God is blessing his work.
Mike continued his “Most bumpy roads of the world, Mexico edition” tour, as we traveled farther south from Rosarito to the lovely beach community of La Mission.
With the beautiful beach crammed with local and tourist surfers, only two miles inland we found the newest church plant amid abandoned camper shells, giant boulders, hillside washouts, and treacherous roads. There we met pastor Rob, a contractor and pastor with a heart for God, and the gifts and skills to back up his dreams.
Rob, seen here with Mike, has built a successful men’s home in Hemet, and now has about 35 men working to build this facility. Recently completing the beautiful sanctuary, they had over a hundred people at their first service. The construction work is progressing nicely, and the team was able to contribute funds to provide the tractor for the excavation for the day we were there.
Finally, whether you were able to travel down on this trip or not, all of this spiritual fruit is yours! Thank you so much for partnering with our family prayerfully and financially!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests:
#1- Pray for that God will bless our next church planting team that we are sending out to Mazatlan later on in August!
#2- Pray that God will continue to provide for the financial needs of our family and ministry! (If you know of anyone that might be interested in partnering with our family financially, please read the information below and kindly pass this update to them! Thank you! )
For our personal support, checks should be made out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Vincent support” in the memo section. For special projects, checks should also be made out to Saving Grace World Missions or SGWM, with the project name in the comments section. Use the enclosed envelope or mail directly to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873
For your convenience, you may consider giving through electronic funds transfer or direct deposit. Simply go to our mission’s website, or insert this web address into your web browser, www.sgwm.com/wp2010/ministries/calvary-chapel-rosarito/ Next, click on the “become a financial partner” button and fill out the information. If you want your gift to go to support our family, please write “Vincent” in the “purpose of gift” section.