2009 Sept - Summer Ministry Wrap-up

Wow!! That’s our summer wrapped up into one, little, three-letter word. It has been so amazing to be at the ranch in Tijuana for all of the summer outreaches. There is so much happening here, and yet so much work to be done! Unfortunately, there were only eight teams that came down to Tijuana from the US and Canada this year. However, this was obviously God’s plan to spark a new type of outreach here at YUGO. Four Mexican churches came together for a week to minister to three local churches. It went so well, that about a dozen of them were chosen to come back the following week to form a team and go out to another church. That makes for a total of twelve outreach teams, not including the staff outreach team. While this is a significantly much lower number that other years, there were still 127 Mexicans that made first time decisions for Christ. Praise God!! The staff outreach week is also a first here at YUGO, especially for us. Instead of just visiting teams in the colonias during outreaches, we were able to fully partcipate. The staff and interns took two weeks to prepare for our outreach week. Everyone participated in and helped with the children’s ministry – songs, games, craft, snack and skits. Those focusing on children’s ministry also prepared lessons. Kristy had the opportunity to participate in the women’s ministry and teach the lesson one day (with a translator, of course). The kids just joined right in with all the other children. Ron and Will were able to go out with the guys for sports ministry a couple of days, as well.

So, what else did we do all summer? Ron served as the head cook for the summer. He cooked two meals a day for anywhere from 15 to 129 people, and usually a third meal for staff. Kristy was able to get a taste of that job as well. During the last week of outreach, Ron was double-booked as the cook and construction project manager. So he got up at 5AM, cooked breakfast and then went out to the job site for the rest of the day. For those two days, Kristy got up at 6AM, did KP duty for breakfast, and then KP duty/cook for lunch. Needless to say, it was a very busy couple of days. If you’re wondering what KP duty is, it basically means preparing the serving tables for meals, getting out all the condiments, coffee/tea, chopping/preparing food for salads, tacos, and other meals, helping serve meals, clean-up, etc. For the majority of the time, Kristy shared KP responsibilities with one or two other people, so that worked out well. Kristy, Brittany and William also helped prepare some of the meals with Ron and the interns when needed. We also helped with the grocery shopping for the outreach weeks. The majority of our food is bought in California, because American food is more expensive to buy in Mexico. So, when you include anywhere from one to three hours of total border crossing time, grocery shopping takes up most or all of a full day each week.

There is so much more that we’d like to talk about, but it will not all fit in this letter. They would include: Ron’s hernia surgery, the waiting list for homes to build in Tijuana, the probable provision of a home for us on the ranch, several construction projects from this summer, and so much more. So for now, we would like to leave you with one more thought. We are praying for God’s wisdom in deciding on a date to return to Mexico. It will be in the near future, and will be “short-term” if we are unable to reach our full support level in time. We are praying that it would turn into full-time before it ends, so that we will be able to begin and continue the home-building ministry God has called us to do, uninterrupted by returning home to raise more financial partners. In the mean time, we will be home recruiting teams to come down to Mexico and build homes next year. If you are interested in sending a team from your church to Tijuana next summer, please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information. We cannot tell you how important your prayers are to us. Thank you to all who pray for us and give in so many ways!

¡Dios le bendiga!
Ron & Kristy