All Entries Tagged With: "Tijuana"

The New Dump – A Ministry Opportunity

Greetings;  For all those who have a heart for the working poor, here is an update on the new dump site. It is miles from the old location and it’s miles of dirt roads which is too far for anyone to walk. It takes more than one hour to get there and those who use to work at the old dump site now have to take shuttles to reach this new dump. Because of the distance many have to eat what they find, not having the comfort of home being close by.

There are from five to three hundred people working at one time. Many, because of the distance, have to bring their children with them. They build small shelters which protect them from the sun as the adults work. Very few live there because of the distances from the city and stores, there are no schools and their children stay in the shelters build by the parents with out much to do!

We here at La Roca, would like to build and establish facilities to open up a daycare and medical care for then. This will also include good clean drinking water and some food and most important schooling while they wait for their parents.

Would you please consider helping us in this great need? At this present time, there is nobody or organization helping because of the great distance. La Roca could be the first to take this challenge to heart and make a difference in many people’s lives.  In His Passion, Carlos and Rossy Montoya

House of Grace “Sponsor-A-Child”

In James 1:27 it says, “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” And that is what we do. We always have our doors open for those who need help. Many of the children we have here at the House of Grace have come from homes with abuse and neglect. From parents who do drugs, or who are in prostitution or who’ve abandoned them when they were little causing them to grow up in orphanages.

New Church Location – Help Us Worship Here

Here are pictures of our new Church location.  This new church location will help us bring together our organization by bringing our offices, bible school, counseling and of course our Sunday school all under the same roof. Also this new location would allow us to expand beyond where we are now.  We house 40 men per night, with this location we could expand to over 100 per night.

The building that we are in now can only hold our current congregation of 160 people, with the new location we could seat up to 500 people. This location will allow us to have our own parking. But most important, we would be able to reach our community by having the space to teach English, computer classes as well as to have a daycare. This would allow us to better serve our community in which God has called us to.

The price of this location is $219,000.00, with a 30 percent deposit which equals to $65,700 and $1,257.14 dollars per month.  Please pray how you can help trust God in using you to help us acquire and move into this location.

Our kids have to walk down stairs and cross the street to go to Sunday school, rain or shine. This new location would help us grow by keeping our children under the same roof.  So would you all help us pray for God to move on His people to keep expanding His kingdom. Carlos

“Tijuana today is no different–’dangerwise’–than Los Angeles”

I have been visiting Tijuana regularly for over 10 years as part of a Los Angeles based medical ministry called Healing Hearts Across Borders.  HHAB is affiliated with La Roca, which was founded by our friends, Carlos and Rosie Montoya.  As a clinical psychologist, I am not exactly an impulsive risk-taker by nature!  But I can tell you that , or any other American city.  I am saddened by the sensationalized news reports in the U.S. which exaggerate the dangers of crime in Tijuana, and terrify Americans who would otherwise be coming to visit.

I just returned from our quarterly trip (February, 2009) and life goes on as usual in Tijuana.  Just as in Los Angeles, there are areas that you are wise to avoid!  But it is absolutely safe in general, and I encourage folks who would otherwise visit to discount the American new stories of some kind of rampant lawlessness in the city.  It is a vibrant place, and the poorer citizens are penalized by the drop in tourist business!

Dr. Suzanne Lake

“We have nothing to fear except fear itself.” L. Turner, DDS

Dear Carlos: Thank you for giving me a guided tour of Tijuana City on our last visit. I did not realize that our Media reports of the clashes between Drug organizations and the authorities had had such a devastating impact on fragile businesses in Tijuana that depend upon US tourists. You showed me store after store that had closed because tourists had perceived that they were in danger in coming to Tijuana. The result is that many other “casualties” have occurred like wage earners losing jobs, and the slowing of economic progress that is so vitally needed.  It seems that the “Collateral damage ” caused by sensational  US media reports is much greater than that of the drug lord’s violence itself. I regret that the zeal to grab our attention to sell “stuff”in the US, or to make a headline, drives irresponsible editors print only the sensational fear invoking stories. It would be refreshing for them to print a more balanced assessment of the situation. I walked the streets just last Saturday and neither I nor my friends felt we were in any danger. I am very glad that the Doctors, nurses, medical students and friends that filled our bus this last weekend and crossed the border and work with La Roca, understood the meaning of this statement. “We have nothing to fear except fear itself.”  It is an unfortunate irony that  the people of Mexico should be hurt because their government is cracking down on drug traffickers, who are in business largely because people in the US use drugs.

Thank you for encouraging us all to come, thank you for helping us in Healing Hearts Across Borders to preserver in humanitarian our efforts and to realize that the forces that were making us fearful were the real  enemy, cultivating an even greater distractive force.

Godspeed, Lloyd Turner DDS