September 2019 Newsletter
Greetings to all our dear family!
May I start off by thanking each one of you for your prayers and support! Our Lord works through each of you to expand His ministry beyond measure.
I would like to jump right in with a short testimony of Fabian who is 34 years old and has been with us now five months! He came from Chiapas Mexico which is at the south end of Mexico!
He came to Tijuana with his wife and 4 children and immediately started working almost from day one! But he started having problems with drugs and started getting into trouble. One day D.I.F came and took away his children and the local authorities gave him some choices. That if he wanted his children be given back to their mother, he had to leave the house and he had to go seek help!
So, he decided to leave his home and began to wander the streets and to make matter worse he was arrested that same night! He was held in jail for 3 days. In the meantime, his wife and children moved back to Chiapas.
Now each week, La Roca staff visits the jail to meet people being released. Felipe and Arturo were on site as Fabian came out of from his 36-hour incarceration. Fabian requested a ride to Otay. Instead Felipe and Arturo told him about the church and the shelter. Fabian asked if they had room for one more and they offered him a ride to the shelter where Fabian requested assistance. He stayed at the shelter for 5 days learning about the recovery discipleship available at the ranch.
Fabian was showing interest in the ranch program. One day while talking to Phillip, he asked about what it would take to get into the ranch discipleship program. Phillip explained it was about acknowledging his personal need while accepting Help and direction for others. But most importantly, it was also about Knowing the truth that would set him free and this truth was in Jesus Christ Himself.
After church on Sunday, Fabian was on the bus with his bag of personals heading for the ranch! It is now 5 months later at the ranch and Fabian knows where he is going! After finishing the onsite ranch program, Fabian is looking at seminary. “I have never read the Bible before, but now I’m hooked!”
Fabian came in from the ranch to volunteer on the painting project for our Mission Center. He shared his story with me and I wanted to pass it on to you!
He was very sincere as he talked about finishing the program and going to seminary! I told him he needed to get back to the ranch and finish the program! I apologized for the detour and thanked him for his service!
Fabian has been in contact with his wife and she is more than willing to come back to be with him and restore their family!
Please pray for Fabian, as he stays focus in what God is calling him to do!
Many of you might not know, but nearly all of the men in our program are supported by La Roca. They don’t pay a single cent! I know many prefer to help children. But the biggest gift a child can receive is his father! I am particularly sensitive to this because I never knew my father and have had 5 step fathers.
So thank you very much for your faithful support and prayers! This is what makes it possible for La Roca to serve our faithful Lord equipping people like Fabian to do what God called us to do! Throughout the years we have helped hundreds of men get off drugs and get back with their families!
Many people who go through our programs become associates working with us in many areas throughout our Tijuana community. Others become volunteers and continue to grow into the La Roca family.
We could not do what we do, if it were not for faithful brothers and sisters as yourselves! We know the only way our work gets done is by the collective effort of all of us coming together to make up La Roca family!
As we write this letter in September, time is becoming a major factor for the opening of our Sonora ministry! We might have to move it into the first weekend of November. We will give you an update in our October newsletter. We are very grateful for a very generous donor who has made possible for the construction of all our buildings!
We are now seeking additional funding to support the operation of the new ministry. We are putting together a feeding program for the children, but now we will be seeking new funds to help maintain the operations expenses for the feeding program for the children and the seminar school with the books and materials, and last but not least the recovery center! And the purchase of the food and the payments of our utilities, like our gas and electric and so on!
We have made a good impression and the local food bank which is an hour away is willing to help us! So we will be looking at around a 99 cents per child and adult per day! Once we open, we will start a way to sponsor a child! Or a student in seminary or a father who needs help to get off drugs!
Also we will be needing a fifteen or twelve passager van for Sonora, to help with the transportation of the children to breakfast and them to school! Also we will be holding our raffle live on Facebook the last Sunday of September at 11:45 am, tune in to see who the winner is!
I know together and with God leading this opportunity we are going to transfer this town for Christ!
Also let us hear from you if you would like to help us bring his family back to Tijuana and team up with the La Roca family.
Again thanks for taking the time to read this letter, and thanks for your prayers and support! Together with Christ there is not limits!
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!