October 2022

Newsletter

Success and Failure?

Ysidro and Obed are two teenagers in the Vencedores Youth Rehab Center. They both came to us with a drug addiction and behavioral issues. When Obed was an infant his mother sent him to live with his great grandmother. When he was a teenager his grandmother had health problems and Obed became a little difficult so she sent him to live with his mother and stepfather who both use drugs. Feeling abandoned, he started using drugs and became rebellious. His mother sent him to the rehab center but never visited him despite repeated visits to her home to explain the importance of her participation in his recovery. Obed finished his time in the rehab and asked to live at the church. He is attending the school at the church and recently made a decision to follow Jesus.

Ysidro’s parents are believers. He had friends that used drugs and eventually became addicted to crystal meth at the age of 11, ending up living on the streets. His parents asked the director of the Vencedores Rehab Center to pick him up and he was placed in the rehab. His parents visited regularly and Ysidro made a decision to follow Jesus. We discipled him and he flourished. He decided he wanted to stay on at the rehab after his time was completed. Sadly, he had a crisis event and left rehab and was soon using meth again, probably initially thinking to himself he would only use once. Quickly the drug took control of his life and, in a drugged state, he robbed a store with a gun. When the police arrived, he shot at them and was arrested. He is now in prison facing the probability of a thirty year sentence. It was an incredibly sad turn of events and we felt a great sense of loss and failure. We continue to minister to the family who now faithfully attend and are ministering in the Xochimilco church where the rehab is located. Seeing what happened to Ysidro, his brother, Bryan, quit using drugs and got a job. Ysidro attends services in the prison and is no longer using drugs.

It is sometimes difficult to measure success and failure… perhaps we won’t really know until we stand before the Lord one day what successes and failures we had in ministering for Him. Until then, we take solace in the truth that the only true failure is not obediently following Him and, in His love, ministering to those He sends our way. So, daily, we continue to do our best to faithfully accomplish the work He has called us to and leave the rest to Him.   (Note: images “cartoonized” to protect identities.)
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Compassion

Compassion is a ministry that works with different groups of people, such as the elderly, orphans, refugees and persons in crisis, often meeting physical needs to achieve spiritual fruit. A large part of the ministry is a volunteer chaplain program in the hospitals. The chaplains minister in a number of ways, one of those being working with families that have a child undergoing cancer treatments. Most of these families have moved from Southern Mexico to Baja to work in the fields, are always very poor and often part of an indigenous group with Spanish as their second language, and live in camps that are many times are like little slums. We believe the high number of children with cancer from the camps is related to pesticides that are sprayed on the crops. Many of the doctors believe that, since the parents lack formal education they are unable to understand and know next to nothing about the treatment or dying process, counseling is very important. This is where Compassion can come in to provide prayer, education, and counseling services through every step of the process. They can also assist with different needs such as medical equipment, food, clothing and, a place to live.

One of the families that Compassion had the blessing of ministering to was Veronica, a single mother, and her son, Edwin. Veronica came from an indigenous group in Southern Mexico to work in the fields of Baja California where she received the diagnosis that her only child, Edwin, had cancer. She and Edwin moved to Tijuana for Edwin’s treatments where she was ministered to by Compassion volunteers, receiving Jesus as her Lord and Savior and being discipled. Sadly, little four-year-old Edwin did not win his battle with cancer and was welcomed into the arms of our Savior. Veronica eventually returned to live Oaxaca in Southern Mexico but now with the hope that, one day, she will see Edwin again. Compassion volunteers have kept in touch with Veronica and continue to minister to her and, in November, Calvary Chapel St. Fe will send a missions team to Oaxaca where Veronica will work with them as a Zapoteto translator.
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Violence in Tijuana

For the fifth year in a row, Tijuana maintained its position as the world’s most violent city with the world’s highest per capita murder rate.  Sadly, a very large part of those murders are youth killing youth.  Recently events occurred in Tijuana that received international news coverage and many people have contacted us concerned about our welfare.  In short, there are two major cartels that operate and battle each other in Tijuana. Some members of one of those cartels were arrested in Southern Mexico and the cartel responded by going on a violent rampage in Southern Mexico and Northern Baja. Stores were attacked and vehicles burned on the principal transportation routes in Tijuana. The cartel’s goal was to shut down the city from Friday until Monday morning resulting in the public transportation that the majority of workers use to get to their jobs being shut down, causing most businesses to close due to lack of workers and out of fear of the cartels doing damage.  Once the sun set, for those businesses that did open, most everything shutdown, even the Chinese food restaurants!  There was a sense of fear among the people and the military and police filled the streets.  Similar events in Southern Mexico have led to the murder of many civilians though, thankfully, there were no deaths in Tijuana due to the cartel’s rampage this time.  At no time did we – Donna and myself – feel we were in danger nor were we fearful.  In fact, Donna had to drive from Tecate to Tijuana and her only comment was that the trip was really quick because there wasn’t any traffic! In a classic “your never know” turn of event, a couple days later she had to cross the border to go to the bank in California. When she left the bank the intersection was sectioned off and full of police cars because there had been a shooting. You’d think she would have been safer in California with all that was going on in Tijuana but we were reminded, once again, you never know what is going to happen but He does.  And, because of this, the safest place is always to be found just where God wants you to be at any time.
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Praises

Maru, the sister that oversees the ministry of Compassion, recently had brain surgery to remove a tumor. The surgery was a success and she is recovering much more quickly than expected.
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Prayer Requests

• Please pray for the mission team going to Oaxaca on November 28th and returning on December 5th. They will be ministering in villages in the Zapoteca region.
• Roberto, the pastor of the church in Pueblos Magicos, has slowly been loosing his vision. Please pray for his healing.
• Drug use in Tijuana is rampant among the youth, especially the use of crystal meth. Please pray for the youth in the rehab and our outreach to the youth in communities Touch Baja churches minister within.
• The inflation in Mexico has made it difficult for the church members and the ministry. San Diego and Tijuana are an economic unit, which means most food and non-food items cost the same or, in some cases, more in Tijuana, while labor remains cheap and wages low in Mexico. Please pray for this economic need.
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