Baja 1000

We went to the Baja 1000 race to share Christ with the people. There were thousands of people there, alot of Americans, but mostly Mexican.

I had some very divinely apointed encounters. A man came up to me and thought I was someone he knew, but then realized that I wasn't, but he still wanted to talk to me. I shared the Gospel with him and prayed with him. I had very fruitful conversations and I was able to share Christ with everyone I talked to. One man that I talked to is from Israel, and is a Rabi. We talked for a while about the Torah, and Jesus, and he told me he believed in Jeshua Ha Meshiac, and told us he would attend our church on Sunday. Seems like he might be a messianic Jew, but I'm not sure.

Thanks so much for everyone that has been praying for me and ministry here in Mexico, I know it's the only thing that has kept me here.

I'm heading to the states for Thanksgiving, and we only have 2 more weeks before I'm heading back home for Christmas. I'll probablly not be posting any more blogs concerning Mexico.

God bless you all for your support! The Lord has done great things at this campus, and I'm confident many more lives will be changed through this school.

In Christ's love,

~Paul

San Vicente Trip

9 Students from the campus, including myself, traveled down south to a city called San Vicente this weekend. We arrived Thursday night, and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

On Friday night we had a youth outreach, with John Greer as the main event. He did an awesome BMX (biking) show for the kids on some ramps we set up. The kids were totally stoked about that. After doing that for a while, he stopped to share his testimony with all of them, and then did some more riding.

At the end I got a chance to get up and share my testimony and the Gospel with all the kids there and pray for them. It was really awesome, there was a group of kids there that didn't know Christ and had been coming to a first offender's group because they got caught with drugs. I felt like God really used John and I to clearly share the Gospel with them.

That day the rest of the team went out to a labor camp to try and identify what indigenous groups there were living there. Once they were identified by using tape recorders they would get them gospel recordings of their language on tapes and bring them back to the labor camps. They were able to find 5 people that spoke indigenous languages, and we were able to get them tapes of the gospel in their dialects. There are over 290 languages spoken in Mexico, of different dialects and indigenous languages, its taken decades to get gospel recordings done for them all.

We met with a group on Saturday from New Tribes mission that is starting a church plant amongst the Trique. Their language is extremely difficult because it's tonal. This team has been learning the Trique language and culture for 4 years, and they still haven't even started the church. It takes a lot of dedication to learn their language and culture before you can really communicate the gospel to them well. We prayed for their team, and met up with a Trique family and enjoyed a meal with them.

There are so many indigenous groups of people in Mexico that don't have the Bible, or even a written form of their language. Thankfully people have taken the time to write the Trique language, and translate the Bible. The problem is there is hardly any Trique people that can read. So the challenge is to start a church and pass on the words of God through oral presentation. This team from New Tribes is dedicated, and is willing to spend the rest of their lives to reach the Trique's with the Gospel.

I was incredibly moved and challenged by their passion and dedication to Christ, and their love for the Trique. May God stir many more hearts to to go and reach the unreached, to seek and save that which is lost.

In Christ's love,
~Paul

La Mission

We just cruised north to a city called La mission to visit an orphange. I drove my car with a few girls from the school, Naomi, Brianna, and Laura. It's actually the biggest orphange in the entire northern Baja. We played soccer with a bunch of kids, played with toys, colored books, played with play-doh, and all that fun stuff. I totally was having flash backs to being little.

I spent some time hanging out with a kid that had some mental problems, and it just really was breaking my heart. It's hard to look at a hundred kids that don't have parents. I was trying to think about how their stories must be really crazy. They haven' t had as many visitors because teams haven't been coming down because of all the violence with the drug-lords. So I think we were able to bless the kids just by hanging out with them and loving them.

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" James 1:27

In Christ's love,

~Paul

San Vicente

Yesterday we traveled down south about an hour and a half to a city called San Vicente. It's in the desert with a population of like maybe a few thousand. The first thing we saw driving into the city was people cruising down the streets on horses. It's super rural and old school town, i've never been to a place more authentically Mexican.

We were there to help with some outreach to some youth, they were having a bunch of kids from the town come and play some sports and games and just try to build relationships with them. They played alot of soccer of course, it's Mexico.

Driving through the town we saw a park and decided to go and share Christ with the people there. We handed out a Bible and some tracts and shared the Gospel as best as we could in Spanish with the people that were there, was pretty cool, we ran into a guy reading the Bible who was a police officer, he wasn't even a believer he was just reading it to his kids, and we were able to share how important it is that he believes in Christ.

We met an awesome young lady named Tina that grew up in a labor camp, she's an indegenious native american, and she had been through alot of rough times, but Christ has changed her and brought her through everything and now she wants to go to Africa as a missionary, she has a pretty amazing testimony.

This was also a scouting trip because on the 14 of November we are bringing down most of our school to do some outreach and stuff there.

I really liked it here, the church has a really big building, and they also own a big ranch with a huge warehouse full of skateramps, basketball, soccer, and all kinds of stuff so the kids really love coming and hanging out there.

Pray for all these children, they are building relationships with these kids and trying to disciple them. Pray God does great and mighty things in this town.

Also recently around this area where I'm living 120 people were murdered, alot of them were police officers and government officials. There is alot of violence and turmoil in this whole region right now, and I would just ask for your prayer that God would stop the violence and bring peace, and stop all the evil that is happening because of greed and drugs.

In Jesus Christ the only savior,

~Paul

YWAM Skate Ministry

On Friday night we were in the city and had the oppertunity to witness to a group of kids on the street. We have had many oppertunities to share Christ with kids in the city, and with some surfers in San Miguel.
We had met a few guys from YWAM (Youth With A Mission/Juventud Con Una Mision) surfing in San Miguel a few weeks before, and I had heard that they had a skate ministry. I was praying about going out and checking it out, when on Friday night I went into Starbucks and met a guy and started talking to him, and it turns out he's the one over seeing that skate ministry at YWAM. We talked and I decided it was definately God's will for me to be a part of this ministry. So I went on Saturday night and checked it out.


Was so cool to talk to all the kids, even though I don't speak much Spanish I was still able to communicate the gospel and the love of God. I hung out with them all afternoon, and it was so encouraging to get to know these kids. I met some amazing brothers and sisters at the YWAM base and we spent the rest of the evening sharing our testimonies of God's grace in all our lives. I met awesome brothers and sisters from Switzerland, Japan, India, New Zealand, Britian, Canada, and Germany. This was the most encouraging night I've had since I've been here. They invited me to their church and I visited it this morning and loved it.


We will be meeting out there at the YWAM base on Thursday nights for a home group that was started to disciple the skaters that want to come. We also will be teaming up with YWAM in doing a weekly Friday night outreach to the red light district here in Ensenada.


It was pretty exciting when I was leaving at around 11p.m and I locked my keys in the car, and it started raining. They got me a coat hanger and I couldn't get the lock to open, but I saw my key on the seat, so I was somehow able to hook the key and pull it up through the insalation. Everyone had come out to spectate, and it was pretty exciting once I had the key hooked and was able to pull it through the door everyone was so stoked about it.


We're going to be going to the skate ministry every saturday night and helping out. Also on Wensday they have a community meeting and worship night at the YWAM base so i'm going to that on Wensday. I'm so stoked about what God is doing here in Ensenada, I feel the doors are begining to open and i'm so ready and willing to walk through them right now. I've gone through the last season of brokeness and pain, and I'm just praying that this next season will be one of joy.


Thank you for all your prayers, please keep us lifted up in prayer. I haven't talked to Becca in a few weeks, which has been tearing me up. Please keep her team in your prayers as well.


In Christ's love,
~Paul

Ensenada Outreach

Gloria Dios! Today was a great day here in Ensenada. We did our first outreach in the city as a school. We headed downtown with a guitar, a Cajon(box drum) that I made from scrap wood, a bike, a bunch of tracts and Bibles in Spanish, and the Holy Spirit. We saw God touch lives today, was awesome. We were able by God's grace to share the gospel with many souls.


We had the cajon, and the guitar and we were just worshipping God in the main town square here by a corner with foot traffic. People were stopping and listening and wanted to talk to us. We handed out alot of Gospel tracts, and had very fruitful conversations. My friend John was riding around doing some BMX tricks and sharing with alot of kids.

Today was just filled overflowing with joy for me. Sharing Christ with people is the most satisfying and exciting thing we can ever do. There were a lot of conversations that I had with people from all stages of life, an older man that had spent many years in prison, a group of younger skaters, some scene kids, and everything in-between. Everyone we shared with was open, and received our literature and many were interested in visiting our church here.

This outreach was so encouraging, the hearts of the people here are so incredibly open. Everyone we share with is like a sponge ready to learn more about God, and willing to discuss spiritual things. It's a much different environment then I'm used to, but I love it.


We will be probably, Lord willing, doing another outreach next week. There is a huge bike festival in town and there is going to be thousands of people there, sounds like an amazing opportunity for us to share the Gospel. My friends Tale and Adriel will be trying to make it next week, so we pray God will make this outreach even more of a success then today's was.

"Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the house-tops."- Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:27)

Ensenada September 06, 2008

Thought I'd give you all a picture of a few of our local amigos. This rattlesnake was on our porch of our dorm (on the right) one morning. My room mate Carlos killed it with a 2by4. I've seen like 10 Tarantula's, I got this picture of one on the dining hall door.

School started Monday, we have about 15 students and 7 staff. The students are half Spanish speaking and half English. It's been a challenge to communicate to eachother, but we are all learning and growing in our knowledge of the others language and culture.

I've been focused mainly on creating the networking infrastructure here, getting a server up and running, a computer lab, and getting the dorms all connected online. It's been alot of work, with alot of late nights, but by God's grace somehow it's all up and running. It's not all ideal, but it's running as best as it can with the equipment we have at the moment.

We have really low bandwith, which is causing us some problems. We run our internet through a satelite provider, but we can't get the right line of sight because of a huge hill right behind our property, so we need to move the dish to the top of the moutain and build a tower for it. That is going to be a pretty exciting project. Our list of projects is infinately long, and our budget is zero so we are just praying that some how God is going to continue providing for this school as He has been since the beginning of this project. The ground has been flattened and is ready to start building the orphanage on the other side of the campus.

We have lots of things to accomplish here, we just as for your prayer and support in what God is doing at this new Bible College in Ensenada. We are going to be leading students on the streets on Friday's to do some outreach and Evangalism, as well as leading prayer groups and missions. We are planning a mission to Southern Baja to work with some Indigenous people groups. My bro John and I are surfing in San Miguel when ever we have free time and are going to be praying for oppertunities to share the love of Jesus with the surfing community here.

I ask for your prayer for guidence and wisdom in all these things, and for my own strength as I'm feeling very weak and strained, I miss Becca terribly in Morocco, we have little to no communication. I'm just leaning on the everlasting arms and trusting God for everything.

In the Love and Grace of our Lord Jesus,

~Paul

Ensenada Mexico

I recently arrived in Ensenada Mexico to the new Calvary Chapel Bible College here. I live on top of this structure here on the right (It has walls and a roof now). I'm helping them get a new network setup here, as well as leading worship and what ever else needs to be done. Classes are starting in a week and a half so there is lots of construction and work that still needs to be done and not alot of time to do it.

So far I've seen the biggest blackest nastiest tarantula I've ever seen on the side of my wall, cows randomly come on the property all the time and we have to blast them with sling shots to make them leave. Toads, mice, rats, snakes, scropions etc. Lots of exciting stuff that can kill you here.

I'm working on leading worship in Spanish, so may the Lord help me with that. We will be building an orphanage on campus, and I'll be leading a team from here to some other place in Mexico for a week long mission trip some time this semester. Please pray for this first semester of school, that the campus is up and running in time, and that the students hearts would be ready to recieve instruction from the Word of God.

http://www.ccbcmexico.com/ See here for more information about the school.

GERMANY 2007-2008

Germany 2008.
Becca and I met this last semester in Siegen Germany at the Calvary Chapel Bible College. It was a beautiful time of studying God's word, prayer and fellowship. We both received confirmation to our call to go to the mission field. We will spend this next season separated. I will be in Ensenada Mexico helping start a Bible School there, and Becca will be in Morocco with SEND.
http://www.sendministries.com/


We ministered on Friday nights on the streets of Siegen sharing Christ with the Punk/Goth/Emo kids at the local venue. It was awesome to see many kids really interested and learning more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We built relationships with a few kids out there that really need the Lord in their lives. It was a privilege to share with them about Jesus. Our time together was wonderful and unique. I asked her to marry me after knowing her for about 3 months and dating for 1 day. God revealed to both of us in very powerful ways that it is His will for us to be married. We visited Stockholm Sweden, Prague in Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Portugal. This was a wonderful time in my life that I will cherish forever.


Thank you Lord for this opportunity you have given me to go to Europe and minister. Thanks for allowing me to meet so many wonderful brothers and sisters in the Faith. Continue to work and do wonders in Europe Lord, for the Glory of Jesus Christ, Amen.

http://www3.calvarychapel.com/ccbcgermany/ Our School


We both Graduated!

PORTUGAL 2008

Portugal 2008

We recently traveled to Faro in Southern Portugal for a week long mission in the Algarve. We stayed with the Calvary Chapel there and ministered to the international congregation consisting of many British, German, and French believers.

We spent time in God's word on the beach daily. We shared Christ to people on the streets, and at a skate park. I met a18 year old guy named David at the skatepark who I had an oppertunity to share the Gospel with. He desired to pray to recieve Jesus Christ as His Lord, and He did so. I felt this was a very fruitful trip in many ways. We led worship in German for the German Bible Study that doesn't usually have anyone who leads worship. I felt we were able to be a blessing, as well as be blessed by their fellowship and hospitality.

We spent time at an orphange playing soccer with some kids, and shared our testimonies with them afterwards. It was an awesome time, all the kids loved Becca so much.

Thank you Lord for this wonderful trip, it was such a beautiful place and the people were so loving and shining with Your love, I pray you establish them in your Grace and strengthen them by Your Spirit, in Jesus name, Amen