Nueva Vida Congregation, El Pipila, Tijuana

Together with a team from the Sa-Rang Community Presbyterian Church of Anaheim, CA, the Nueva Vida folk put on an extravaganza of music evangelistic campaign, attended by forty-some adults and many more children, it included three different Christian singers as well as the Nueva Vida Praise Band.  The Sa-Rang folk, arriving in midmorning, had prayer services, went door to door throughout the community inviting people to the event as well as to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (they have cards with Spanish phrases and sentences written in the Korean alphabet with the translation at one side which they had practiced and used with different people they met).  They also provided support for the publicity posters, fliers and the love offerings for the singers, the congregation covering the refreshments and other expenses.

Two weeks later, Thanksgiving Thursday, Friday and Saturday, a team from Ambassadors' Fellowship worked with the congregation inviting people to an evangelistic movie, concert and preaching each evening.  The Nueva Vida youth voted to forego the scheduled Presbytery youth rally in Mexicali (which rallies they usually attend without fail) to be able to stay and help with the evangelistic outreach.  The last evening instead of a movie the congregation put on a play, which went over very well.

The exciting thing is that that Sunday four new families and a couple other new individuals came to morning worship for the first time, a direct result of the outreach, some of them have just accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.    (Return to Top)
 

A nice two bedroom, two story little house has been built in the front of the Nueva Vida lot (where the garden used to be, we've had to have trade offs).  The men of the congregation are putting in the hot water heater and finishing the last few details to enable a church family to move in and provide the constant human presence in the church facilities which will greatly improve the church's security and keep burglars away (the empty church facilities have been broken into and robbed about every three to nine months over the past several years - see below for the "log" that broke the camels back).    (Return to Top)

Seminary graduate Felipe Hernandez arrived June 15, with wife Laura and their two children, traveling from the Maná Mission in Mexicali where he served more than three years (and where Laura was secretary of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Mexicali for four years).  The arrived at 5 pm Friday, then began working at 9 am Saturday with the arrival of the mission team from the Sa-Rang Community Presbyterian Church of Anaheim.  The next Saturday, after getting to know the congregation a bit, they help host and work a week with the 20 person mission team from Sequoyah PC, Knoxville, TN, moving forward with the house project and a vacation Bible school for the community. Then he took his family for a one month vacation to visit home in Chiapas and Tabasco., their first trip home since leaving for seminary five years earlier.  (Felipe explained to the Presbytery committee calling him that he would accept the call only if the family could proceed with these vacation return home plans that they had been making for some time.)  They returned in late July and have been hard at work since.   (Return to Top)
 

Felipe & Laura Hernandez

In November, 2006, thieves using hydraulic jacks to break through security bars and doors, stole all of the church's PA system, musical instruments, computers, sewing machines and the like.  There seems to have been a break in every three to six months, sometimes being thwarted by the alarm system and alert neighbors, often being contained to just a few items.  This time was horrendous, and the congregation decided to convert the old septic tank area and garden into the foundation for a care taker's house (casa de guardtemplo) to provide a constant human presence in the church facilities, the best security system throughout most of Mexico.  Noé Solano and Eri Avalos helped Pastor Efrain design a two bedroom two story structure to be tied to the existing "little house" that had been the church kitchen up until a couple years ago.  The men and youth of the congregation filled in the septic tank, compacted it, removing a ton of debries, and prepared the forms and rebar for the foundation, which they poured with help from the men of La Jolla PC one Saturday. 

La Jolla youth built the first floor shell during Easter week 2007.  Men of the congregation led by Noé and Eri continued building a bit at a time, puttingon the second story, till June a mission team from Sequoyah Hills PC, Knoxville, TN spent a week helping them finish off the plumbing, insulation and starting the dry-wall.  Another team from Bethel PC, Grants Pass, OR helped some more in July, and two couples (with three grand children) from St. Andrews, Pleasant Hill, CA finished the electrical work, spackling, etc.
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In September four members of the congregation joined Pastor Efrain and the mission team from Lake Grove Presbyterian Church of Lake Oswego, OR in traveling the 165 miles to San Luis Rio Colorado (across from Yuma, AZ) to help that mission put on a three day evangelistic campaign.

In August seven members were received into the church, five by adult baptism.  Five more are preparing to become members in December.

In 2006 the church was divided into cell groups for discipleship growth and leadership development, four groups: single men, single women (who gather together to be the youth group), married men, and married women.

The congregation continued to take on more responsibility for planning and carrying out the three to four evangelistic campaigns the church has each year.
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Evangelistic Event Reaches Adults and Shows Solidarity of Congregation
New Christian Shares Her Faith
Home Bible Studies Reach New People
New Believers Baptized
Worship Team, Praise Team, Music comes alive
Mariachis
New Worship-Area Fellowship Hall

Evangelistic Event Reaches Adults and Shows Solidarity of Congregation:  Saturday and Sunday Oct. 18 & 19, the Nueva Vida Congregation in El Pipila put on an evangelistic campaign in their neighborhood together with a six person mission team from the Lake Grove Presbyterian Church of Lake Oswego, Oregon.  Two fantastic things happened: adults actually showed up (that church has always had a hard time getting adults from the community to attend their functions, the children come easily, but adults always resisted), 5 new adults who had never been to anything at the church, and another dozen who have come to one or two things but do not attend church services.  The other thing was that the members of the congregation were everywhere working to make the campaign happen, rather than the bulk of the work being done by the pastor’s family – there were ten ushers, five people out on the street in front of the open air assembly inviting in passersby and giving them a tract,.  When more people arrived, three young men jumped to bring more chairs.  When it was time for the four people who had accepted Christ as their savior and Lord for the first time to come forward, four people from the congregation joined them, and then went into the other room with them and the pastor to pray with them, get their addresses, give them a New Testament.

 Saturday one adult and three children accepted Christ for the first time; Sunday, with a smaller attendance of only 50 adults plus children, six adults, four teenagers and five children accepted Christ.  All of them said they would welcome a visit from someone from the church and to have someone help them understand the Bible better.  Now the challenge is to visit .follow up and disciple these new believers.  (Totals for campaign: new believers – 12 adults and youth, 8 children, who are being visited by the pastor and church leaders.)   Return to Top 2003

New Christian Shares Her Faith: One of the women new believers had Gina at her side, Gina who had just begun coming to church this year, after resisting the invitation to events there for ten years – she let her children go to the Vacation Bible Schools that the church presented, five or more times a year, but she herself would never go.  Then something happened in her life, she couldn’t take it any more by her self, and she showed up at one of the church outreach events.  And then she just kept coming back.  “You know, Pastor,” she told my partner Enrique Romero, “I’m not coming just to be polite because you all have been inviting me so patiently for ten years, it’s that I’m really getting something out of this!”  What she was really getting is Jesus Christ living in her and giving her new life and new hope.  Weighed down with problems (how do you support three children after you husband abandons you), depressed, malnourished, she had the saddest face.  Now she glows.  And here she has brought her neighbor and friend, and has helped the friend come forward and encouraged her friend to open herself to Jesus Christ.   Return to Top - Updates 2003

Home Bible Studies Reach New People:  Early in this year, Pastor Enrique started a series of home Bible studies or cell groups, meeting in people’s home, discussing current problems that people face in light of the Bible.  Four different families volunteered, or responded to Enrique’s request, to host an meeting, each a certain night of the week.  Panchita, who is also the supervisor for the congregation’s self help t-shirt embroidery project, is very out going, very sociable, and everyone for three blocks around her relatively spacious (they must have at least 800 sq. ft) home.  So people came, enjoyed the light refreshments, and many became involved in the discussions, and began to see that God might have something for them.  More than 30 people came to know the Lord as their personal Lord and Savior out of these meetings, happily for Panchita, several were her family/relatives.   And several started coming to church.   Return to Top - Updates 2003

New Believers Baptised:  In mid-July four adults, Gina among them, and seven children were baptized.  Francisco was one of the adults, a middle aged mason, he had brought his family of wife and five daughters from the fields of rural Sinaloa (the Mexican state along the Pacific coast about 500 miles south of Tuscon, Arizona) to Tijuana to seek a better future for his daughters (“if they stay in the village their only future is to become the wife of a small farmer).  His wife, Lupita, very quiet, submissive, shy, and two of the daughters, lively young women, soon became part of the church, but Francisco was always waiting for them at home, would go to the church event and even a worship service once in a while, then maybe a little more often.  This past year Pastor Enrique asked Francisco to be the chief mason building the 44’x33’ multipurpose social hall=sanctuary, working together with Enrique and his son-in-law, Noah as contractor.  During the lunch and rest breaks they would talk, then work, and this close association provided a wonderful chance for Francisco to see that this God thing and this church thing was much more than something just for women.  He saw that Jesus Christ is for him, and invited Chrst into his life.  He began to give his testimony to visitors, this man who had hardly ever said anything in church, or anything to more than three people at a time. 

 One young man Luis Manuel who lives eight blocks from the church happened upon it in his walks through the neighborhood, and out of curiosity stopped by.  The music and the message picked his interest even more, so he began to come back once and a while.  Then in the middle of August he happened by when the young adult mission team from Belaire Presbyterian Church (near UCLA in Los Angeles) was visiting, working with the congregation.  He was enchanted by the encounter, dialogue, relationship building with North Americans (that’s what Mexicans call U.S. citizens), young people his age, who would have ever thought that he could talk with them, and discover common ground, and even become friends.  From then one he has been attending almost every Sunday.   Return to Top - Updates 2003

 Worship Team, Praise Team, Music comes alive:   Efrain Romero has developed the Nueva Vida Praise Team the past two years, with lots of practices, performing leading the congregation, learning new songs, getting new instruments and new musicians.  The church purchased a used drum set, so little Victor (who has become a handsome teenager this past year) graduated from the bongos to a full set.  At least three guitars plus a bass guitar, and Jonathan Romero ties it all together with the keyboard, and then from three to eight singers, depending on who’s been practicing and who’s busy teaching the children.  For the Evangelistic Outreach in mid October, Efrain found more professional musicians to add depth to the sound, and pieced together the PA system to get a really decent sound (which only carried one block – his dream is a newer, better larger system that will carry three blocks at least – “If the neighbors won’t come to us, we’ll bring our music and our teaching to them”.  

The church received  a new Fender bass guitar last August as a gift from the mission team from the Providence PC of Fairfax, VA. At that time no one in the church could play bass.  Then an expert, Hiram, arrived from Chiapas with his wife Neli, who is now giving classes to the children.   Return to Top - Updates 2003

Mariachis: This last year a group of eight young men from Chiapas found the Nueva Vida Church in El Pipila.  They had come north to get jobs, which are sorely lacking in their home towns.  But they also are Christians, mostly Presbyterians, and they had formed a mariachi band in Chiapas and as they attend worship in El Pipila they sometimes bring their instruments and share their praise of God through music.   Return to Top - Updates 2003

New Worship Area-Fellowship Hall: In the midst of lives being touched, the church maturing and ministering, new facilities have been added to the mission complex in El Pípila.  Thanks to a generous grant from the Providence Presbyterian Church of Fairfax, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.) work began on the multipurpose social hall in spring of 2002 (spring last yea), the shell was up and dedicated in early August last year with the mission team from the Providence Church.  The room measures 33’ wide by about 44’ including the kitchen.  Above the kitchen is a second story with double paned windows overlooking the social hall-sanctuary, a favorite place for the children to climb and look down on everybody, if they only get permission from the adults.  The high ceiling (12 feet) large windows and skylights give an open and airy, open feeling, such an improvement over the hemmed in feeling of the old multi-purpose room with its lower ceilings.  The kitchen is graced by a large commercial gas range (6 burners, two large ovens) from Westminster PC of Escondido and cabinets donated by the Providence PC visiting mission team of last August (when they finished the insulation and hanging ceiling as well as installing the cabinets).   Return to Top - Updates 2003

In late January - early February of 1993 Tijuana  suffered severe rain storms (receiving two year's average rainfall in two to three weeks) and flooding (10,000 people had to leave their homes in Tijuana).  Many families in the El Pipila neighborhood did not yet have storm resistant housing and the trailer was opened as a place of refuge.  Students from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo brought to Tijuana by Ben and Carolyn Weir on a study tour with Pueblos Hermanos were mobilized to help pack in drinking water and staple foods as the few stores in the neighborhood soon ran out of food.  After the storms the congregation meeting in the trailer tripled in size to overflowing, and the Pazos and Soldwisches worked to help them consolidate and develop their faith.

In the spring the corner stone was laid for the mission center, which had been designed by Deacon Abraham Osorio of the Dios Habla Hoy Presbyterian Church and construction began with men of the congregation digging the trenches and holes for the foundation.  That summer mission teams helped a bit with the digging and a lot with cutting, bending and tying steel reinforcing rod assemblies for the foundation. 

In June, 1993, the Pazos left Tijuana to become the Mexican Co-directors of the new Presbyterian Border Ministry that covered Nogales, Sonora to Hermosillo 200 miles to the south (it is now called Compañeros en Cristo  and covers the whole state) and the new church planter of a Presbyterian church in the beautiful city of Hermosillo.  After two months Elder David Pech of the Dios HablaHoy Church with wife Yolanda and family was named lay pastor of the mission.  The Peches worked hard and the mission grew.  After a year and a half the foundation was finally finished and then covered with dirt. 

A highlight celebrating the new foundation being covered and thus a wide area unencumbered in which to put on events, the River of Life (Chinese) Community Church from Los Angeles sent a mission team which did a Chinese Cultural Variety Show with evangelistic messages and skits which attracted a large audience.  Tarps were laid down on the ground in front of the trailer for the stage and chairs were set up over the new foundation of the multipurpose building to be.  Bright costumes, strange music, the fan dance and the lion dance, magic, Chinese songs, a demonstration of Chinese martial arts kept the attention of the large audience.

The shell of the building was finished over the next year- it was inaugurated before it had a roof with an elaborate quinciniera (15 year coming out party) celebration of Mayra Inyigues of the congregation. Mission teams continued to come and help with the building and putting on vacation Bible schools. 

In October of 1996 David was removed from the pastorate by the Presbytery and the mission was divided and torn apart - he did not go gracefully.  After a very short interim of leadership by the Soldwisches, the Rev. Juan Pablo Angulo came from Ciudad Juarez to be interim pastor for six months  - he did an excellent job of beginning the healing and reestablishing some stability in the congregation.  The Presbytery named Rev. Enrique Romero pastor in June of 1997, who led the mission in growing into a congregation (minimum of 25 members), carried out a strong children's ministry both with and without mission team help from the US), regularized the land titles under the name of the Presbytery, added a multi-purpose fellowship hall-sanctuary with kitchen, and carried on a vigorous series of evangelistic campaigns.  In July, 2005, his son Efrain, youth group leader, Sunday school teacher and minister of music for the congregation and newly graduated from the Presbytery's extension seminary in Tijuana, was named student pastor for a year, which was renewed in 2006.

In April of 2007 Efrain Romero was called by San Diego Presbytery to pastor its downtown Iglesia Hispana Presbiteriana de San Diego.  In its April meeting the Presbytery commissioned seminary graduate Felipe Hernandez (then serving the Maná Mission in Mexicali) to the Nueva Vida Congregation.  He and his wife Laura and two children arrived in early June, just in time to receive a one day mission team from the Sa-Rang Community Presbyterian Church of Anaheim, CA.