New Church Development in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico

First Presbyterian Church and Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church of Yuma, Arizona, have formed this ministry to partner with the Presbiterio Fronterizo Noroccidental (Northwest Border Presbytery) to plant a Presbyterian church across the border from Yuma in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora. Juan Daniel Espitia, a social worker counselor and former Mexican missionary co-director of Pueblos Hermanos, is president of the committee overseeing the ministry.  The Northwest Border Presbytery selected the Rev. Cesar Vazquez Santizo with his wife Josefina to plant the new church development.  Cesar has planted two Presbyterian churches in Mexicali.  They arrived in San Luis in July of 2002, began getting to know the place and the people, have rented a house to work from, and began going door to door through the town, getting to know people, inviting them to study and Bible and to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  As of October, 2003, there are 10 adults and 20 children meeting regularly, and misionera Gabriela Cota (graduated last June from the Presbyterian Seminary in Mexicali) is now helping Pastor Cesar and Josefina.  There is the promise land for a church and community center in a new industrial-residential development at the eastern  edge of town where all the new growth is.