Following are the wonderful people and ministries that God has brought into our lives over the first eight years of short term trips and the following six years serving full time. Please imagine Bob Barker reading these brief bios…

the Vida Nueva, Nueva Esperanza (New Life, New Hope) Children’s Home serves as a home away from home for children in the smaller villages surrounding Parras. Most of these sweet kids are from broken families or have no family at all. In the case of every child that is or has been in the home, the people caring for them are unable to adequately provide clothing and nutrition, much less pay for their schooling. The kids stay at the home during the week and go to school. At the end of the week, the children are reunited with their families and go home to keep their family relationships and cultural ties strong. Public education in Mexico isn’t free, but through donations, Vida Nueva is able to pay the way for the kids to go to school and have their basic physical needs met. The children who are at the home can go to a doctor when they are sick, have a bed, hot food, clean clothes, and warm water, are allowed an education, and can find the love of Jesus because of this beautiful ministry.

Candelario (Cande – KAHN-day) Nataren and his wife Carmen have a passion for children and discipleship. When we met them, they ran a weekly Bible club out of their garage with several middle and grade school aged children in attendance. The church we currently attend, La Huerta, is a direct result of their labor, and Candelario is the pastor. Candelario and Carmen desire to reach the children to open the hearts of the parents. Cande has trained about 25 men in Parras who have gone out among the outlying villages and planted churches. We are so excited about his heart for the salvation of the lost! Cande and Carmen have three adult children and one upper teen aged son, Josue (ho-SWEH).

Iglesia Cristiana Bautista La Huerta (The Garden Baptist Christian Church) is the church plant that sprang from the children’s weekly Bible club that Pastor Candelario held. The church has since outgrown his garage and is now meeting on it’s own property in Western Parras. La Huerta is an extremely mission minded church and is currently sending members out to conduct weekly outreach/church services in three neighboring villages.

We have recently become acquainted with two other pastors in town: Enrique (Kike) Fid and his wife Elizabeth are currently serving in Monte Horeb. Pastor Lalo and his family have a church plant in one of the villages around Parras.

Armand Lombardo is a fabulous story-teller from Mississippi. The Mexico Outreach Center (25.4367, -102.1362) is his baby, and with the help of the congregation at Crossgates Baptist Church of Brandon, MS, and his background in construction, it has become a reality. The Mexico Outreach Center (or MOC) serves as a dormitory for short-term mission teams, and was designed to be a vocational training center for locals, with a workshop, garage, and car paint booth. It also contains a large conference center with full commercial kitchen. There have been numerous teams hosted and outreaches held in the past.

Pedro and Alma Martinez are the current caretakers and long-time partners of the MOC. They are both Mexican born, but lived in Mississippi and attended Crossgates Baptist Church for a time. It was there that they got to know Armand. They moved to Parras for a while and then lived in central and southern Mexico to attend seminary and plant churches. They moved back to Parras eight years ago. Pedro and Alma have two children, an adult son, Daniel and Andrea their high school aged daughter.

Emigdio (Migui- MEE-gee) and Marta Perez are the former caretakers of the MOC. Marta has a big heart for the lost. She was the one to first mention La Constancia to us back in 2015, and they led our team out there in 2016 to minister to the people and have a three-day Bible School. Marta and Migui continue to go minister to the people there as often as they can. Migui and Marta have four adult children.

We have also worked with two other churches: Monte Horeb and Iglesia Bautista Betania (Bethany Baptist Church) helping them with Vacation Bible School and assisting an American Medical/Dental team with translation.