|
Pastoral Changes mid-2009
The Dios Es Amor Mission in the La
Planicie neighborhood of Tijuana has a pastor again after another two
years without one. ESM (Estudiante al Santo Ministerio) Beimar
Santizo and family moved from the Cristo Viene Church of Mexicali
last July, to be received with joy and open arms by the congregation of
Dios Es Amor. Beimar had pastored
Cristo Viene since he and wife Laura graduated from seminary seven years
ago. This past summer Pueblos Hermanos missionary Bill Soldwisch
witnessed him doing some very fine work with two mission teams, and he was
welcomed to Dios Es Amor with the youth mission team of St. Andrews,
Pleasant Hill, CA the first week of August. The men of the congregation had
been fixing up the manse, but with the St. Andrew's youth they were able to
put in a beautiful tile floor over the motly concrete one.
Pueblos Hermanos Co-coordinator Rev. Enrique Romero was
commissioned by the Presbytery to pastor the Monte Sinai Mission
in Tres de Octubre neighborhood of Tijuana, along with his work
starting home Bible studies to plant a new church. Rev. Job
Alameda, President of Pueblos Hermanos and founder of the Dios Con
Nosotros Church on the Otay Mesa of Tijuana, was commissioned by the
Presbytery to pastor the Monte Sion (Mount Zion) Mission in
the Villa Urrutia neighborhood of Tijuana. Both missions, about 1.2
miles from each other, were started by the Korean missionary Luis Lee and
have now been turned over to the Presbytery in anticipation of his
retirement next year. Both missions are peopled primarily by
immigrants from the south, the State of Chiapas, on the border with
Guatemala, who have come to Tijuana to work in the maquiladoras,
factories and construction.
Just Coffee roasting in Tijuana and push to build sales
in the West.
Tommy Bassett, the businessman-coordinator who helped organize the Just
Coffee cooperatives, tells us that the effort of the Just Coffee cooperative
to roast coffee in Tijuana and distribute from Tijuana/San Diego is moving
forward, after many problems and road blocks, mostly from both the U.S. and
Mexican governments. They have received a grant to have a sales
representative on the West Coast who will soon be contacting people to
generate sales of the new harvest which begins in a bit. It's been a
long saga, trying to get the Tijuana/San Diego processing and sales point
going; we hope to see real progress real soon.
(Changes in Mexican law require exporting the coffee
through a formal arrangement with a customs agency and minimal payment of
$500 for each exportation (no matter how much coffee is involved). So
it is essential to build up enough sales to be able to ship 300 to 500
pounds at a time. For more information or orders contact Tommy at
tommy@fronteradecristo.org
or cafetommy@mac.com (yes, he has a
new Mac laptop) or calling (520) 249-1692
Or contact Just Coffee directly at
www.JustCoffee.org , or toll free at
(866) 545-6406.
October, 2007: Coffee drinkers who want to have a more just relationship
with coffee growers can now purchase organic, shade grown, high mountain
Arabica coffee from Chiapas, Mexico, roasted by the coffee growers
themselves in a Presbyterian facility in Tijuana. The Just Coffee
Aguila Cooperative has been receiving green beans from the El Aguila
community of Cacahoatan, Chiapas to roast and send on to consumers in the
U.S. and Mexico for two months now. Efren Hernandez, a member of the
community, underwent six weeks training at the Just Coffee facility in Agua
Prieta to learn to work the high tech computer controlled roaster as well as
manage the record and book keeping. Jeremiah Howe, former Pueblos
Hermanos intern, has taken over the promotion and marketing. Coffee
can be ordered with Jeremiah Howe, 619-805-9001 or email
jerobety@yahoo.com.mx
Just Coffee Office Equipment and PH projector stolen –
Late Saturday night, August 25, 2007, thieves managed to remove the security bars
from the 15 foot high window behind the Mt Horeb Mission complex and break into
the Just Coffee offices, stealing all the new office equipment they had just
installed – computer, laser printer-copier-scanner, DSL modem, and the
digital projector of Pueblos Hermanos which had just been used in a
presentation there.
|
La Planicie (Dios Es Amor Mission)
Pastoral changes in mid-2005,
|
|
Home Televised
Evangelistic Campaign November 9-11, 2006
Most churches in the Mexican Presbytery are preparing their members to
host evangelistic meetings in their homes November 9-11. Called Mi
Esperanza the campaign sponsored by the Billy Graham Association has
purchased time on the Television Azteca network to broadcast two half hour
and a one and a half hour program. The churches are training their
members to invite friends, relatives, neighbors, work and class mates to
their homes to see the programs, and then share their personal testimonies
and invite folk to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. In the Nueva Vida
Congregation in El Pipila, pastor Efrain Romero has 12 families (although a
few are single men) preparing to host these events. Then Sunday,
November 12, the church members will bring those who have opened their lives
to Christ to church with them. This type of evangelistic campaign has
been tremendously fruitful in different South and Central American
countries. Please be praying for the church members and pastors as they
prepare and carry out this outreach.
Pastoral changes in
mid-2005
The Northwest Border Presbytery of Mexico moved several pastors in July,
2005, to help invigorate both churches and pastors with new blood and new
vistas.
Pueblos Hermanos Co-coordinator Rev. Enrique Romero moved from the
Nueva Vida Congregation in El Pipila, Tijuana, to the Dios Es Amor Mission
three miles north in La Planicie, which had suffered another set-back as
their student pastor was removed by the Presbytery a year earlier.
Pueblos Hermanos Mission Team Coordinator Efrain Romero finished our
Tijuana extension seminary and was made pastor of the Nueva Vida
Congregation he had helped his father build up the past eight years.
After a few months the congregation has been able to make the transition of
accepting him as pastor instead of pastor's kid, youth leader, music
minister. Rev. Devir Perez finished his three-year term at the
Jesucristo el Buen Pastor Congregation in San José
de Cabo and became pastor of the Dios Con Nosotros Congregation in Otay,
Tijuana, just in time to preside over the construction of its new sanctuary,
which Rev. Job Alameda had prepared as he left this church he had
planted and developed to become pastor of the Bethel Congregation in Tecate,
25 miles east of Tijuana. Rev. Francisco Juachin, finishing his
three-year term at Bethel was commissioned by the Presbytery to the Buen
Pastor Presbyterian Church in Aleman, Tijuana, the oldest Presbyterian
church in Baja California.
The pastor commissioned by the Presbytery to
go to Sam José de Cabo, the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, was unable
to go, and a third Romero, Benjamin Romero, recently graduated with
his masters from the Presbyterian Seminary in Merida, Yucatan, was called in
September of 2005.
|
|
