As For Me and My House

Brian Villarruel has been on staff with YWAM San Diego/ Baja for almost three years, serving in different capacities as well as staffing Homes of Hope builds. Throughout this time the situation of his family loomed in the back of his mind. While he was spending his days building homes for other families, his mom, Rocia, sister, Michelle and her children lived in another part of Tijuana in dire circumstances. Crammed in a small shelter, built over 35 years ago, their kitchen would flood every time it rained. They prayed and waited for a miracle but had issues making ends meet each month and didn’t have enough to pay to be able to get the proper paperwork to own their land.

Brian’s grandpa had first moved to Tijuana from the south of Mexico, 40 years ago, looking for a better future, all 7 of his kids ended up in drug use. One day, someone handed them a card for a Christian rehabilitation center- Brian’s mom and one of her sisters decided to enter and it turned their life around. They encountered God and were able to get clean! 

In all the ups and downs and even in the midst of a global pandemic, the Villarruel family held on to hope and God showed up for them in a miraculous way! After getting the rights to their land, they received one of the first Homes of Hope that we were able to build after almost 7 months of not being able to build any homes. 

At the dedication of the home, Brian led the family in declaring scripture, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).  What a beautiful declaration. As they dedicated their lives to the Lord, they were claiming a new future, rather than a future plagued by drugs and poverty- they were claiming a future brimming with hope.  

Sustaining Hope

This year's #GivingTuesday is next week and we would like to invite you to be a part of it. Here at YWAM San Diego Baja we are in the business of giving HOPE. While 2020 has thrown us all some major curve balls, we are more convinced than ever that HOPE is a powerful force to sustain us, even in the most difficult of times.

This year because of your generosity we were able to give 4000 life sustaining food packages to families in Baja California as well as train 159 world changers through our University of the Nations program!

We want to continue bringing hope to those in need but in order to do that we need your help!

This year we find ourselves with a budget shortfall due to the cancellation of all our teams once the pandemic hit. In response, we have created a Hope Fund that will help us sustain our ministry and to give us the ability to continue meeting the needs of the communities around us.

Would you consider giving to the Hope Fund this Giving Tuesday? Your gift will help us in 3 areas:

1. Baja Food Relief - we want to continue serving the hardest hit communities in this time providing much needed food to those who have lost their income.

2. Student Scholarships- this is a great time for young people to be trained to make a difference. We are able to host students on our ywam campuses and we want to help our students from Mexico with a scholarship to cover their room and board while they learn with us. We believe that the young adults we are able to train will go on to be world changers!

3. Sustain- Help us keep the doors of YWAM San Diego/Baja open for service so that we can be equipped and prepared once we are able to operate at full capacity again.

Please join us in giving this #GivingTuesday - December 1, 2020 to see hope sustained here in Mexico! 

Waiting and Hoping

“She came to me crying and she couldn’t even get the words out. I thought something terrible had happened. But then she told me that they were approved for a Home of Hope! I joined in with her crying as I hugged her.” Brenda De la Paz, recounting a special moment with her 14 year old granddaughter on February of 2020.

After 6 months of paperwork, the De la Paz family learned they were going to receive a Home of Hope. Everlin, the oldest daughter of the family, was ecstatic. The concrete slab was poured and the anticipation grew as the wood and supplies for the house were dropped off the second week of March. Tragically, the number of cases and general awareness of COVID-19 was rising in the US and Mexico. Stay at home orders were put into place and quarantine began. In March just before our Homes of Hope staff and volunteer team could build their home, we were forced to shut down.

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In March, as Covid-19 forced everything to come to a halt, the supplies for their future home were picked up and saved for use on a later date. The De la Paz family settled back into waiting for their home to be built. 

As they waited, they lived in a makeshift- one room structure with a roof compiled of metal sheets and leaky tarps. Israel, the father, was able to continue on in his job as a truck driver during the quarantine, but that meant leaving his wife and 3 children alone for long stretches of time. Israel shared,  “When I was working and my family was in the provisional housing, I struggled with anxiety. I would call my wife everyday and make sure everything was okay. When I checked the weather forecast for Tijuana and saw that it rained I would call her to make sure that the roof wasn’t leaking. Sometimes my father in law would be able to help, or I would have to fix things when I got home from two weeks of trucking. But once I got home we were all squished together. My kids didn’t have any space for their homework, nor my wife had space to cook. I felt that my family was better off with me away, and not taking up their space.”

On September 7th, after a six month pause, a team of our full time YWAM SDB staff dawned their new Homes of Hope facemasks and began the construction of the De la Paz family home. Following COVID-19 protocols and safety measures, our staff were so excited to be hammering, painting, framing, and building again! As we stood in a circle, passing the keys around, the beauty of the moment was tangible. When Israel and Perla were handed the keys to their brand new home, with tears of gratitude they said “God’s timing is perfect.” When asked what she was looking forward to the most about having a home, Perla had tears in her eyes as she shared, “The thing I am most excited about is our family being together, and everyone having their space. I don’t want my husband to feel that way anymore.”

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WANT TO HEAR MORE STORIES OF HOPE?

Join us for a complimentary online event,

An Evening of Hope, on November 19th at 5:00 pm, PST!

We could all use some extra hope right about now and here at YWAM San Diego/ Baja we are still very much in the business of hope, even in these crazy times! To that end, we are so excited to announce that we will be hosting a second Evening of Hope on November 19th at 5pm PST. During our time together, we will hear from special guests Ken Blanchard, Steven Curtis Chapman and Bob Goff, as well as hearing from some of our YWAM SDB staff members about how we are finding hope here in Baja Mexico and how you can partner with us to see hope abound! We had a fabulous time sharing with you at our last Evening of Hope and we are looking forward to another evening with fresh content and new special guests!