December 2022

Newsletter

Touch Baja: A Look Back… And Forward

As we wrap up the year and look toward 2023, we thought it might be good to take a look at what we God has accomplished in and through Touch Baja over the years as well as some of our plans for the coming year. From the start, Touch Baja’s vision has been to reach people with the gospel that others were not reaching. Believing the best way to do this is through church planting, from which outreach and evangelistic ministry can happen, Capilla Calvario Xochimilco was our first church plant, being established on the old site of the city dump. At that time, there was extreme poverty and an incredibly high crime rate with no church in the area to stand in the gap.

Since that time, Touch Baja has partnered with Capilla Calvario Xochimilco to plant:

• Capilla Calvario Granjas Amparo Sanchez
• Capilla Calvario Santa Fe
• Capilla Calvario Leandro Valle
• Capilla Calvario Pueblos Mágicos, a church plant out of Capilla Calvario Santa Fe.
• In the coming year, Touch Baja will be working with Capilla Calvario Xochimilco and Capilla Calvario Granjas to plant a church near Rosarito in a large community that does not have one yet.

In addition to church planting, Touch Baja has been blessed over the years to see many outreach ministries spring forth and grow out our church plants. These span the spectrum of need within the communities and include the following:

• Vencedores: A youth rehab program operated out of the facilities of Capilla Calvario Xochimilco. The rehab is a nine-month live in residential program working with youth from 12 to 17 years old that have drug addiction and behavioral issues and is presently limited to 10 youth due to limited space. We are excited to announce that a new property with a four-story unfinished home has been donated to house the rehab program and we will be relocating the ministry there in 2023, which will increase the number who can be in the program.
• K – 12 schools: Thousands of children cannot go to school because there is insufficient space and, when they can go to school, we have found that in Mexico schools are much more “woke” than in the U.S. Touch Baja stepped into this gap by first partnering with Capilla Calvario Santa Fe to start a K-12 school, Calvary Chapel Education Center, with 34 students presently. Subsequently, with Capilla Calvario Xochimilco, Leon de Judah School was established and presently has 24 students. These two schools are having huge impacts in their respective communities. For instance, the school at Xochimilco is being used by the Lord to effectively reach out to an area of the community very resistant to the gospel, Trencheaso (“Devil’s Pitchfork” in English). As the Lord leads, we are open to more schools being established in the years to come.
• Breakfast Program: Run out of the school that exists at Capilla Calvario Xochimilco and reaches out to an extremely impoverished area of the community below the church. On average, we see 40-50 children, teens and adults fed each day, Monday through Friday. In 2023, Touch Baja and will be working with the Capilla Calvario Granjas Amparo Sanchez to start a breakfast program there.
• Compassion Ministries: A ministry out of by Capilla Calvario Santa Fe that assists families with limited resources who have children who are cancer patients in the local hospital. This ministry has over 30 volunteers who are used of the Lord to ease the burdens of these families. We also have an on-going partnership with Spectrum Ministries for several years, working with them to assist the poorest of Tijuana and helping them with physical and spiritual needs. Additionally, Spectrum does outreaches in various communities and Touch Baja is able to help equip churches they work with to do evangelism during the outreaches.
• Asilo Casa Alberque Agtamgama: Touch Baja assists in a home for elderly men in Tijuana with approximately 45 individuals.
• We have a property outside of Tijuana where we are building a facility for a discipleship school that will be used for young men from the churches and those that leave the Vencedores rehab and another partner rehab ministry (Centro Juvinil Edificadores Del Reyno with approximately 80 youth at any one time). The facility will also be used for other discipleship events as well. Our target is for a 2023 start for this equipping ministry.

As we reflect back over the past year and years, we are encouraged and blessed by how much Touch Baja has grown and how it has been mightily used by the Lord to reach so many with a touch of His love and grace. We hope you are encouraged as well! Your support, whether it be through prayer, finances or even physically working with us on the ground, has been and continues to be an invaluable tool the Lord uses to touch the Baja! We have seen so much accomplished, yet we are more aware today than ever that there is so much more to accomplish as the Lord leads.

Thank you for partnering with us in His vital work in the Baja! <top>

God Is On The Move In Leandro Valle

Capilla Calvario Xochimilco sits atop a large hill in a community called Pan Americano, which translated means American Bread. At the bottom of this hill is another community called Leandro Valle but most people know it as Trencheaso or, in English, Devil’s Pitchfork. Both communities, which were started on top of and at opposite ends of the municipal dump, benefitted from large numbers of Americans bringing food, clothing, and other items to help the families living at the dump. Over time, the community at the top of the hill, Pan Americano, developed businesses centered around the trash at the dump which allowed for the families there to become more self-sufficient. But, sadly, the people living in Leandro Valle, at the bottom of the dump, chose to rely on the generosity of the Americans rather than developing any industry that could help sustain them. As we know, scripture clearly teaches that men are to work but that wasn’t happening in Leandro Valle and, as the saying goes, “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.” It became the devil’s playground and eventually gained the nickname mentioned above  – Devil’s Pitchfork. With a level of sin unmatched in Mexico, many veteran missionaries described it as a place that would make even Sodom and Gomorrah’s residents blush. Pastor Ron experienced the degradation of that community firsthand when, in the first week he worked there, two bodies were dumped behind the church’s building and twice taxi drivers refused to drop him off in the community telling him it was too dangerous to go there.

Touch Baja has been working in the community for many years with little fruit for our labor. The reasons for this are varied but one of the biggest is that when people are saved and begin to follow Jesus they usually move out and don’t want to go back. Slowly, though, we are seeing God move and make inroads into the community

Lety and Mario

of Leandro Valle. Lety’s story is one of those “God stories” that are evidence of God being on the move. She and her husband made the decision to follow Jesus and were faithful in the Bible study Touch Baja had established there but, tragically, Lety’s husband’s heart failed one night and left her a widow. Hurt and confused, Lety withdrew not only from the Bible study that met in Leandro Valle but from everything. Though she tried to push us away, we continued to minister to her and, eventually, she started attending Capilla Calvario Xochimilco. In time, she met and married another member of the church, Mario, and before COVID hit she had begun working with the children in Leandro Valle. Through her faithful service in ministering to the children we began to see fruit, not only in the kids lives but also in their parents when, as familes, they began attending services. Unfortunately COVID hit and, for a season, slowed the momentum generated by the Lord using Lety’s efforts. Once the lockdowns ended and fears waned, the children were still slow in coming back but, once the school year started, we again see the Lord’s hand moving. One of the new youth that started in the school at Capilla Calvario Xochimilco, Leon de Judah School, through Lety’s efforts is Noe (pictured on left). As only God can work things together, when Noe’s father, also named Noe, was a youth, Pastor Ron had ministered to him and helped with his fees to go to school. With elder Noe’s encouragement, the children are back in the church along with several other youth from the community.

Please pray for the community of Leandro Valle, the bible study and work going on there, for Lety and her ministry to the children there, and for God to work as only He can to see this community rid itself of the nickname Trencheaso and become a shining example of God’s love and grace to His glory! <top>

Our Schools Are Having An Impact

The first school Touch Baja has had a hand in starting, Calvary Chapel Education Center, was established at Capilla Calvario Santa Fe with the goal of working with each of the churches we have planted to see a school started in their communities if they so desired. After the second year of Calvary Chapel Education Center’s operation, Capilla Calvario Xochimilco began consideration of starting a school. As Xochimilco went through the evaluation process. Pastor Ron asked the pastor of CC Santa Fe, Pastor Jorge, who is also the director of the school, “Taking into account the considerable expense of time and money, is the school worth the effort?“ to which Pastor Jorge responded, “Absolutely!” When Pastor Ron inquired as to why he would say that Pastor Jorge responded, “Discipleship…“ and then went on to describe the incredible spiritual growth they have seen in the students, parents, and staff.

Calvary Chapel Xochimilco has seen similar results since starting its school, Leon de Judah. It is common among the poor in Tijuana for youth to drop out of school during Jr. High and, even if they don’t drop out during Jr. High, a very high number end up not going on to high school. One such youth rapidly moving to dropping out during Jr. High was Brandon (pictured on right). During COVID, he stopped listening to his classes and doing his assigned school work and, while he did attend services at the Capilla Calvario Xochimilco, his only ministry was warming his seat. When Leon de Judah School started classes back up even though the public schools were still closed, Brandon’s parents enrolled him in the school. The change in him was rapid, and he was soon fully engaged in school with improving grades. He began learning an instrument and is now on the church’s worship team and is inviting his friends to church. As one of the five students we have in high school at Leon de Judah, he tells us his desire is to get involved in youth ministry.

Through your support, more kids like Brandon are being impacted daily at the two schools and their corresponding churches. Please pray for these schools and that, as the Lord leads, we will see more established within our churches in the years to come! <top>

Meet The Staff

Pastor Jorge, Erika, Santiago (11) and Mateo (9)

As a young man, Pastor Jorge was searching for truth along with his alcoholic uncle. One day his uncle told him that he had found God at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. At his uncles urging Jorge went with him to a meeting, which ended up being a modified AA program with only four steps instead of the typical 12. The second step, “Believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” was modified and “Power” was replaced with “Jesus as Lord and Savior.” Jorge believed on the Lord and became a follower of Jesus and, though he had never had an addiction, was soon leading a group. He wanted to do more ministry but, feeling he was not equipped to do more, he took a job as a sales person in a new company that provided computer training. This company had a training program Jorge felt would equip him to better communicate the gospel so he dove into the training in earnest. Once completing the program, he quickly moved up in the company and temporarily lived in different cities where he trained groups of sales persons as he had been. Eventually, being sent to Tijuana, he heard from someone on the street about a local pastor, named Ron, that trained people to do ministry. They arranged a meeting during which Pastor Ron learned that Jorge wanted to be a missionary but, incredibly, had never attended a church service. Pastor Ron asked him to write out how he had come to follow Jesus and why he wanted to be a missionary, arranging a follow-up meeting for the next week. At that meeting Pastor Ron offered to disciple Jorge including in that offer the need for him to begin attending church services. Working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, appeared to be a insurmountable problem but when Pastor Ron asked how it could be worked out Jorge said he would simply quit his job. With no idea where he would live if he quit his job, the offer was made for him to live in a property owned by Touch Baja that has a shed like house but without a restroom. Jorge said that would be fine and a meeting was set up for the following week to move him from his beautiful apartment into the shed. Arriving at the meeting the following week, Jorge said his employer had offered him a promotion and significant raise. Pastor Ron replied, “So you won’t be quitting?” but, to his surprise, Jorge said he quit and proceeded to move into his new home. He became a ministry machine, sharing the gospel and disciplining people as the Lord provided opportunity. Believing God had greater things to do through Jorge, Touch Baja sent him to a discipleship school in Southern Mexico for a year. It was there that he met his future wife, Erika, who attended the school the following year. They were married and soon started Capilla Calvario Santa Fe where Jorge is the pastor as well as being the director of their school and leading Touch Baja’s Morocco mission. <top>

Praises

• The youth rehab ministry, Vencodores, has been given the keys to the donated building and will soon begin to finish it. This will be an incredible blessing for both the youth rehab and the church. <top>

Prayer Requests

• For the mission team ministering in Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, and for the mission trip preparations in the future.
• The completion of the new building for Vencedores the youth rehab.
• The curriculum development of the discipleship school in Carmen Serdan and for God to build and equip the staff of that school.
• The new church plant in Rosarito. <top>