I know that I normally write about our Mission Adventures Ministry and occasionally through that I talk about building a house with a team but I don't know if you fully understand the impact our Homes of Hope ministry has on the families that receive them.  

Below you will find a video of a family in Tijuana that received a house in November through the generous donations of TRICO Homes in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  This house was built by Schulich School of Engineering, also from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  This video tells the story of the Ochoa family who received this house and what their life was like before and viewing their new home for the first time.   Disclaimer: This story is very moving so take some time to grab some tissues and allow it to load. It is also in Spanish with English subtitles.

The need is great and many families are like the Ochoa family.  Every week teams made up of families, schools, churches, and Fortune 500 CEOs, with ages ranging in teenagers, children, and adults come to Ensenada & Tijuana, Mexico to provide adequate housing for these families but even more than that, they bring hope.  Hope for a future, for a purpose, for life, and hope for prosperity.  

For statistics of the need and the impact, please see the chart below.  Enjoy this story? Make sure you check out other stories of the transforming power of God through the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) ministry, Homes of Hope by clicking here.

These past few weeks have been so busy!!  I feel like I've been going non-stop and at times I felt like a chicken with its head cut off, not cool. 

So this year, 2010, marks the 50th anniversary of YWAM.  Loren and Darlene Cunningham, the founders of Youth With A Mission, are celebrating all year long by visiting various locations around the world.  Several bases are hosting these 50th Celebrations and our Tijuana Del Mar campus was one of them.  As you can imagine, this was a HUGE honor for us.  Just a few short years ago, during my DTS in 2006, we were honored to host Loren and Dar at the DNA Conference (a look at what makes us YWAM and our Foundational Values) and they were on-site to break ground on our newest property.  How cool is it that just 4 years later, here they were again, on that same property now with dorm buildings, an amazing welcome center and worship hall hosting over 400 YWAMers and guests.  

This is a huge honor for us but at the same time, it was a lot of work to prepare for all of these people coming and we were literally working to the last minute on getting things ready, including the building that we would be gathering in each day to worship together and sit under the teaching of our founders.  At one point, as we were setting up the registration area, the staff were still putting up the finishing touches on the desk and the Tijuana Del Mar sign on the wall, it even had blue painters tape holding the pieces in place at the beginning of registration.  All in all, though, the campus looked wonderful and we were so thrilled to be able to share this experience with so many YWAMers young and old, past and present.  Check out some pictures of our Celebration below.


The day we got back from the 50th Celebration, my housemates and I moved about 2 blocks down to our new home.  I am going to be honest, I really didn't want to move.  I really liked our spanish-style house built probably in the 50's, wonderful hardwood floors, open floor plan, large rooms, nice little sun porch, huge back yard, wonderful detailed arched windows and door.  It was so beautiful.  There was even a black & white enamel stove matching much of the furniture in my mom's house that I love so much.  But alas, we had to move into some apartments around the corner because of various reasons.  I tried to find the good points about the new place and here is what I have come up with:  the floors are easier to clean because of carpeting (you just vacuum instead of sweeping and mopping, it is all in one step), we have a dishwasher (instead of us being the dishwasher), much more counter space and cabinet space in the kitchen, and we are surrounded by co-workers and friends. I'm sure there are more wonderful things about the apartment but they are overshadowed by the missing of the other house.  


I will post pictures as soon as I can so you can all see my new pad.