Mission Base Update

 

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The last six months have gone by pretty fast. In January we started our first new building on the base and that was, and is exciting. The site preparation didn't go exactly as planned, but after some hard work and air hammer rentals we got some big rocks broken up and moved out to make room for the new storage facility and bedroom. Each team to come to the base this year has joined us financially and physically, in the continuance of this build. At present we are prepared to pour the floor in the ground level with a team from Grande Prairie who will be here in July. From there we plan on pouring the ceiling/floor above and then finishing the main floor to start functioning for storage. In the meantime we have started a bit of preparation work on what we're calling "The Bunkhouse" at this time.This will be a multifunctional building mostly geared at housing mission base volunteers, staff, and team overflow until the dorms are built.

When we started excavating for the new building we suddenly had a lot of material available so we started to build gardens in the backyard. We still have a ways to go in developing this part of the property, but things are starting to look pretty nice back there. We do need to import some good soil as some of the plant life we desire, like fruit trees, aren't doing to well in the gray dirt. The desert plants are doing very well in it though.

That is a banana plant in the right foreground of the picture. We also have a mandarina, which is a large, super sweet orange and a limon (this is a small round lime) tree in the garden.

The vision for the backyard, which has an amazing view overlooking most all of Ensenada, includes a hot tub, an amphitheater, more gardens, and even a swimming pool.

We have had seven mission teams come to minister with us in the first half of 2010. Five of these came from Canada, one came from the USA, and one team, the first Leaders Orientation Mission in January was made up from both countries. The teams have been diverse in size, age and gender, and no particular demographic would stick out in the statistics.

All the teams have been eager to serve and I believe none have gone away disappointed. Salvations have been many, reaching over one-hundred for some of the team's week of ministry. Evangelism is the heartbeat of this mission base and many of our outreaches see confessions of faith.

Ministries remain diverse and we have seen expansion into more men's and a ladies rehab center, a new orphanage, street ministries, and into the Score International Desert Race Series.

Food & Beverage Report from Cindy

The Monday feeding programs continues to thrive. There are normally around 50 people that come to the mission base each week and join us for lunch, but we have had upwards of 90. Now that school is out I suspect that attendance will go up. While I was away in Canada, Richard expanded the “in the community” part of this ministry by more than doubling our mobile feeding capacity. We have the equipment now to send two mobile teams out into the neighborhoods. Due to the costs and labor involved we only do this mobile ministry when a mission team is here. While this makes for so much more work, it is still a labor of love.

Dina, Maria and I continue to grow closer and closer. There is a kindred bond between the three of us. I appreciate and hold them dear to my heart. I continue to learn Mexican dishes, local favorites, and family recipe secrets from my “chicas”, and I turn I am teaching them dishes from my collection of recipes.

Everything seems to be running smoothly and I am thankful that a second fridge was donated to the base by the team from Barrie. It has been a huge blessing. I am still praying and hoping for a dishwasher one day. The big commercial stove continues to be a blessing, especially when we have a large group.

I have had several encouraging requests for a Mission Base Cook book, so this is now in the works and we look forward to it being available soon. The proceeds from the cookbook will help fund Richard and I as missionaries. Thank you for your support: Cindy

Johnny Sanchez, missionary and Mission Base Coordinator, continues to be a valuable member of the mission base team. He has lots of fun while working with the teams and even with his busy schedule and responsibilities has begun to develop a puppet ministry. Johnny has been in training to lead the teams in ministries and has already started taking them out on his own.

We will be joined soon by Adriane Rosenfeld, coming to serve at Victory House Baja as a full time missionary. Adriane spent November, December and January with us as a missions volunteer and has been working towards her return ever since. We look forward to her expected arrival sometime in August.

The missions volunteer program is pretty full for this summer, with six scheduled to serve, but there are a lot of openings during the rest of the year.

After having a meeting in May with Dr. George Madden, dean of Victory Bible Colleges International in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we should be seeing some college interns doing their work experience here at the mission base in the new year. We also spoke about back to back youth evangelism missions next summer. These are exciting times!

Seven more teams are booked in to make a missions visit to Ensenada during the second half of the year. We look forward to working with you all and are very excited to see what God has in store for us while we walk together in His fields.

PTL! God's favor is upon us and His time of visitation is now!

Richard & Cindy Allan
Mission Base Directors