Struska Escritos

December Prayer Letter

2011-12-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

Our family has spent the last six weeks traveling from Mexico to Wisconsin and back. We spent time in five states, visiting and speaking at churches, sharing what God has been doing in Mexico, and getting to see some family & friends as well. It was fun, as well as encouraging, to be able to meet with people that we haven't seen in years. We were blessed by many, but one of the things that blew us away was the completely packed trailer we brought back home with us, full of donations for ministry. Primarily, these donations came from our sending church, Faith Community in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin - although many came in through visiting family and friends along the way as well.

God did amazing things through a challenge/update Ron gave to our church family at Faith. This challenge was born out of the song “With Everything” by Hillsong and was something that we all need to hear. Many hearts were touched, and in numerous different ways. Some were moved to think about whether or not they are honoring God with everything ñ their possessions, their time, etc. Some were encouraged and affirmed by God about something they have already stepped out in faith to do. Others were challenged to come or invite their whole families to come and serve in Mexico. There are so many awesome opportunities out there. For some, it may be serving in Mexico, Ecuador, or Africa. For others it means financially supporting those who are called to go into full-time missions. Are we holding tightly onto our money, our job, our stuff - or do we hold them with an open hand and ask God to do with them as He wills. Do we ignore that desire or prompting to go on a short-term mission trip because we are concerned about our finances or our safety?

Something else that “blessed our socks off” (to quote a fellow missionary) was talking to a couple who are close friends of ours and are considering full-time missions. They are completely open to what God may have in store and are considering serving next summer in Mexico. Are they calculating every penny they will need, worrying about not having a job to come home to, or wondering if they are not up for the challenge? No. They have sensed a call by God to serve in a capacity that they wouldn't have even imagined a few years ago. And they have made a choice to move forward until or unless God closes a door. That is a possibility, but either way we are encouraged by their faith and have been reminded of an invaluable lesson.

A huge thank you to everyone that we have met with on this trip and to each of you who've donated in some way to the ministry in Mexico. You are an encouragement to us beyond what you know.

Feliz Navidad/Merry Christmas!

October Prayer Letter

2011-10-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Mexico!

We have had an amazing summer and start to the fall season. Three homes were built for families in need in 2011, as well as a number of construction projects. A few of them included improvements and repairs on a church, replacing a floor in a pastor’s home and putting up a fence for a local family. Our prayer is that God will continue to send teams willing to be used by God to share the Gospel and the love of Christ through this ministry. Many of you have partnered with us in this ministry through your prayers, and we ask you to continue to do so.

Our Summer

One of the highlights from our summer was having two students from our sending church intern at the ranch. We have known Nate & Laura for a long time. They were both in the college class we co-taught before coming to Mexico, and Kristy was also their youth leader through high school. Both of them worked hard this summer and we are very proud of their accomplishments & dedication. Our other amazing interns this summer (from the U.S.) were Brianna & our good friend, Jessica. For the very first time at Rancho YUGO, we had two Mexican interns for the entire summer. We are praying about Kristy’s involvement in this program for next summer as we look at improving the internship program here by making it completely bilingual.

Another highlight from this summer was observing the way our children continue to jump into ministry with both feet. Whether they’re helping to build a home, lead songs or games for children’s ministry or work in the camp kitchen – they not only work without complaining (most of the time), they often volunteer to help without being asked. We are thankful for the servants’ hearts the Lord has given them. Will is 9 years old now and sometimes feels as though he cannot contribute as much as his big sister (who is now 13). We helped him to understand that a big part of his job is to build relationships with the Mexican children. Whether we are doing construction, children’s or sports ministries, there’s almost always children his age hanging around. Last summer Brittany had the opportunity to share the Gospel to children using the Evangi-cube. This summer we were very proud of her when she, on multiple occasions, had the same opportunity, but did so entirely in Spanish.

We're Coming to Visit!!

We’ll be heading to Kansas for the wedding of one of Ron’s brothers on October 22^nd. After that we’re off to Wisconsin and Illinois to spend time visiting family, friends and churches. We’ll be staying through November, however our main focus will be to raise the rest of our financial support. In order to continue ministering in Mexico full-time, we must raise 100% of our support needed. We look forward to seeing many of you soon!

With Hearts for

Mexico

,
The Struska Family

Ron, Kristy, Brittany & Will

Catchin' Up

2011-10-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's already October! Here are a couple of updates to get you caught up on what's been happening here in Mexico:

AUGUST - WEEK II

This was our last official week of outreach for the summer. There were two teams scheduled to come to the ranch this week, but God had other plans. After both teams cancelled, new plans fell into place. Ron and I had the opportunity to work with the interns for the week, as the Intern Coordinators had other obligations to fill during that time. Monday and Tuesday we painted buildings at a local school.

Wednesday through Friday we did children's ministry at a new church plant in East Tijuana. This was very special for us, as the church we ministered to was Calvary Chapel Vista del Valle, which was started in January 2011 by fellow YUGO missionaries Jose Luis and Cindy Pesina. Brittany shared the plan of salvation using the Evangi-cube and William did a great job getting to know the children and keeping them involved in games and craft time. Both of them helped wherever needed, including helping to lead songs and taking part in the dramas that illustrated the days' Bible lessons.

Calvary Chapel Vista del Valle

Games

Snack

Leading Children to Christ

Puppet Show Reinforcing Bible Lesson

Craft Time

Drama

Bible Memorization

August - Week I

2011-08-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

The first week of August was our largest week of the summer. We had teams here from California, New York, Massachussets and Alberta, Canada. Here is the highlight video from the week:

July - Week IV - "Mexicano a Mexicano" Week

2011-08-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

This was our third year having a week designed for the Mexican youth to come and do ministry in the local churches. They came to do exactly what the American & Canadian teams do, only without interpreters. Multiple youth groups came together and formed five teams to minister to five different churches.

Inviting local children & youth to the church and to play soccer.

Children's Ministry: Which for this team
included leading this child to Christ on Day 5.

Sports Ministry

Women's Ministry

Our two Mexican interns, Claudia & Rossy, were given a lot of leadership responsibility with the children's ministry. They led the ministry training meetings each morning and were in charge of their team's children's ministry on the field. God is using them in tremendous ways this summer.

Claudia (2nd from the left) explaining this day's drama for Children's Ministry.

Rossy (middle), also explaining this day's Children's Ministry drama.

Here is the highlight video from the week:

July - Week II - Home of Christ & Together Community Churches

2011-08-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

We were so blessed by these two churches this week. It was great to renew friendships with Home of Christ Church. They are such a great team! It is a joy for the staff to be here and do everything we can to enable them to minister through the local Mexican church.

We also had the honor of hosting Together Community Church for the first time. What a priveledge it was to serve alongsiide them this week and build a home for a family in need.

This family of six had been living in one bedroom of a friend's home for about four years. They overstayed their welcome and needed a place to live. Just over a year ago, this woman's husband left to go find work and never returned. She has been working hard to put food on the table ever since. Praise God that they now have a home of their own and are not living on the street. We continue to pray for the salvation of this family and the seeds that were planted during this week.

Here is the highlight video from the week:

June - Week IV -- Hilmar Covenant Church & Individual's Week

2011-07-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

This week was an amazing beginning to the summer ministry here in Mexico. Hilmar Covenant Church came and blessed a Mexican church and neighborhood in colonia Francisco Villa in Tijuana. They are always a great team to serve alongside and just fun to be around!

June IV was also our Individual's Week Home Build. Even though there were a couple of cancellations, it was amazing to see the group of people God put together for this build. We grouped this build with a project through another missionary from our church, Calvary Chapel Rosarito. He knew of a family in the church that was about to lose their home. There were so many ways God moved - from providing them with a piece of land donated by a non-believer, to temporary housing in a trailer, and then the many who donated the funds and materials to give this family of four a home. It was to be larger than the usual homes we build and include a bathroom and kitchen.

God used a missionary, his son, two people new to Tijuana interested in missions, the six YUGO interns, some staff, and a few individuals (along with our family). He also sent a group of people the Saturday before the build who helped frame the house. (Due to some other construction work, the house will be completed next week, so stay tuned for more photos.)

Here is the highlight video Kristy put together for the week.

Easter Sunday Celebration

2011-05-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

For Easter Sunday at Calvary Chapel Rosarito, we had a combined outdoor service with over 1000 people in attendance. What an awesome way to celebration the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! Ron ran sound and Kristy sang with the worship team.

We also had some worship time with our church's mariachi band.

The sanctuary was packed with children for worship, a puppet show & more. After the service they also had a resurrection egg hunt with tons of candy for all the children.

It was an awesome day of fellowship and worshiping the Lord! Although there was comida gratis (free food) after the service, we went out for chicken with our friends Pam & Jess, so they could eat at their favorite place before returning home.

May Prayer Letter

2011-05-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Our family was incredibly blessed to help serve in Mexicali the third week of April with a team from Maryland. Some of our jobs during the week included sandwich crew (making picnic lunches for the teams) and grocery shopping. Brittany was on the KP team in the kitchen, Kristy shot photos, as well as made a highlight video for the week, and all of us are helped out on the home build Ron helped lead in a nearby community. The home was for a family of five, left homeless by last year’s earthquake. The house is 16x24, a little larger than we usually build in Rosarito. José, the person in charge of the construction ministry in Mexicali, will be finishing the house by painting the interior and stuccoing the exterior. (For more details and photos click here.)

We’d like to remind everyone about the Individual’s Week Home Build this June. The dates are June 26th – July 2nd and the cost is only $850 (including transportation to and from San Diego). There is still room for a few more people. Remember that this is a great way to participate in a mission trip this summer if you do not have a team of your own. This week is designed for individuals to come and join others from the U.S. and Canada to form a team together and bless a Mexican family in need. The week is open for you to bring your spouse, child(ren), friends, or just come on your own. Construction experience is not needed. If you can swing a hammer or use a paintbrush, there’s a spot for you! This week is perfect for anyone that is interested in learning more about this ministry or bringing a team to minister in Mexico. Please contact us today. We are asking for registration forms by May 15th to help with the planning and logistics of this week.

In March, Ron led a Canadian team in the building of a comedor (feeding kitchen) in East Tijuana. This comedor will be used for a breakfast feeding program for children in a very poor area of Tijuana. Often times, children are sent home from school for their inability to focus and pay attention. These feeding programs give the children a much needed, healthy meal to help them get through their day. This feeding program is run out of a local church. The comedor was actually built as an addition onto the church, in order for it to be used for other church events when not in use for the feeding program.

We want to thank each and every one of you for your faithful support of our family. By supporting us through your prayers and finances, you are partners with us in this ministry. We truly value your partnership more than words can ever express. In our last prayer letter, we asked for prayer concerning our finances. Almost exactly one year ago, we took a leap of faith when we moved to Mexico with less than 50% of the financial support we needed. Due to the generosity and faithfulness of many, previous financial gifts had accrued in our account and we were able to supplement our income. These gifts were able to carry us through our first ten months on the field, but we have now had to make serious adjustments to our budget to only allow for the bare essentials. Our current incoming monthly support has also dropped 20% since we arrived in Mexico. In light of this, we would like to introduce a campaign to help continue this ministry God has begun and used to bless so many lives. This campaign is to find 40 families and individuals that are able to partner with us at $20/month for two years. We are asking all of you, our family, friends and co-workers in Christ, to prayerfully consider joining us in this ministry. Simply fill out the enclosed card and send it to the address above. There are many ways to give, including check, electronic funds transfer, or even online through PayPal. Thank you in advance for your support of this ministry. It is our prayer that God will bless this ministry, that Jesus will be revealed to those that do not know Him, and that all the glory will go to our Lord and Savior.

With Hearts for Mexico,
The Struska Family

Ron, Kristy, Brittany & Will

Goodbye Tom & Patti - You Will Be Missed!

2011-05-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Tom & Patti Coles have served in Mexico with YUGO for just a couple of months shy of ten years. Tom, a former general contractor, has been serving in construction ministry. He has worked on numerous buildings, including Grace Children's & Babies' Homes, El Faro, homes for Mexican families, as well as numerous buildings & projects at The Ranch, and so much more. Patti has served as the Camp Cook, as well as Intern Coordinator, working in Women's Ministry, and countless other areas. We pray that God will continue to use them in amazing ways as they begin new ministry and a new chapter of their lives.

A Little More Color at the ROC

2011-05-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

Last year a team from New Life Community Chruch in Clovis, CA blessed the YUGO Ranch (ROC) with some much needed paint. Our classroom and kitchen buildings were painted. (They also have a team ministering at Grace Children's Home while they are here.)

This year we were blessed by them once again, and we are really starting to blend into the Mexican culture a little better with our bright colors! We no longer need to describe the location of our bathroom buildings, as they will clearly be called the red and blue bathrooms now.

Easter Outreach Highlight Video

2011-05-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

Easter Outreach - Mexicali, Mexico

2011-04-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

The team from Maryland came to Mexicali and blessed the socks off of the local people! The majority of the team ministered at a church in Quintana Roo. They had a great turn out of children, youth and women. They also held evening services and paid a visit to the construction site one day. Here are some photos from their ministry:

Sports Ministry

Children's Ministry

Women's Ministry

The construction team built a home in La Puerta. This is the fourth home teams with YUGO have built in this area, as it was among the most heavily damaged areas by last year's earthquake. This home was built for a couple, Ignacio & Leticia, and their three children. The first photo is of the construction crew, Leticia (holding the cross), their oldest son, Nacho (Ignacio Jr.), and their pastor (far right).

Photo (of a photo) of their home after the earthquake.

Hannah Ford sharing with Ignacio & Leticia's two youngest children using the Evangecube.

The family cooked for us a few different days. This photo on the right shows

Ignacio (left) and his friend preparing a meal:

The team handed out salvation bracelets to everyone, including family, friends & neighbors. Here is Laura McGrain, YUGO Missionary, translating for our speaker for the week, Richard Sharp, as he explained the symbols on the bracelets.

Praying for the family receiving the home:

Left: Cross presented to the family; Right: Construction Ministry Coordinators, Ron (Rosarito) & Jose (Mexcali)

Jose will be in charge of finishing the home with stucco for the exterior and painting the interior.

There was also a Mexican team that did ministry in La Puerta, at a church only a few minutes from our building site. This first picture is of this church's building after the earthquake (taken last week). The pastor of the church would like to see more people in the area receive homes before rebuilding the church.

Will spent four days on the construction site working alongside Ron, and one day in Quintana Roo with the team doing sports ministry (while Kristy took photos). He was also "Encouragement Lad" for the week. He got to help hand out encouragement cards during chapel.

Brittany helped in the kitchen most of the week. She helped every day with breakfast and all the other days, except for two, that she spent at the construction site. She also had the privilege of helping to lead worship with one of her favorite singers, Hannah Ford, by playing keyboard and singing.

Mexicali Outreach Week

2011-04-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today kicks off the Easter Outreach Week here in Mexicali, Mexico, where it promises to be in the upper 90's all week. Praise God for the sunshine!! (Even though Ron and Will wouldn't mind being back in Wisconsin where it is much colder right now.)

This week we have a team coming from Redeemer Lutheran Church in Damascus, Maryland. They are bringing along an extra crew to build a home for a family that lost their home in last year's earthquake. We will bring you more details, and of course pictures, when we have them. Ron will be helping lead this home build with Jose, a Mexicali local that is heading up the home building in the Mexicali area. This home will be constructed of lumber, as opposed to the styrofoam blocks and cement. It's not July (last July when we were here it was averaging about 110 degrees), but it is still very hot - especially for those coming all the way from Maryland. Please pray for the construction team. Pray that they will stay healthy, be able to finish the house, and that they will have opportunities to share the Gospel with the family, as well as their extended family, friends and neighbors. The children will of course be helping wherever needed. They were a huge help with the cleaning and getting the outreach center ready. Brittany will be helping in the kitchen with KP duties. Kristy will be taking photos and shooting video at both outreach sites and putting together a video for the week, as well as helping out at the construction site.

Please pray for the evangelistic team as they go out into a colonia (community) to minister. There will be children's (VBS-type), women's and sports ministries. Pray for a lot of children, women & youth to come out. Please pray that the team will have a positive impact on the church and that they'll be able to clearly communicate (mostly through translators) the message of salvation through their Bible studies, songs, messages and testimonies.

The Rosarito Outreach Center (ROC - a.k.a. our home) is being blessed by a team from New Life Community Church in Clovis, California this week. Our family is sad that we will not have the privilege of meeting them, as we are ministering in Mexicali this week. Half of the team will be serving at the Ranch (ROC), by doing some much-needed painting. Last year they painted the kitchen, classroom and storage buildings on the Ranch and did an amazing job! The other part of the team will be ministering at YUGO's Grace Children's Home.

One last prayer request is for the YUGO staff here at the Mexicali Outreach Center. We have a Canadian volunteer, someone from Northern California, and the rest are from the Rosarito/Tijuana/San Diego area. The heat can be a big adjustment for some. On top of that, most of the staff is already here getting things set up and ready for the team to arrive this afternoon. Last night there was a fiesta next door with very loud music until after 6:30 a.m., so needless to say much of the staff had very little sleep last night which can be a difficult way to start out the week.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please know they are very much appreciated and greatly needed! God bless!

East Tijuana: Building a Comedor (Feeding Kitchen)

2011-04-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

Ron had the priveledge of leading the build of a comedor in East Tijuana a couple of weeks ago. Comedor means dining room/area in Spanish. The purpose of constructing a comedor is to house a breakfast feeding program. This one was attached to the side of a church. The church wanted to also build a small addition for church-related events. We asked them if we could just build the comedor attached to the church and it could be used for both purposes, since the feeding program takes place early mornings on weekdays and the church would use it on Sundays, evenings, etc. They were more than happy for the idea, as they didn't want to take advantage of the comedor building the team was building.

The team that came to build the comedor also worked on other projects in the area, including a new fence for this church. The team was an amazing group of people from Canada. They are from the church of two YUGO missionary candidates, Jody & Angela. This was the first full comedor Ron has led, but not the first one he has helped with. This team of about 30 people ended up working an extra day to help get projects finished up. This was due to a malfunctioned computer system for their airline. They were delayed by a few days and instead of flying home on the same flight, they flew home on about four different flights. They handled this delay amazingly! Here are some more pictures of the build:

(Pastor Romero & the keys to the comedor)

Two New Homes Being Built in Mexicali

2011-04-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

These are two families that lost their homes in the earthquake last year in April. Ron had the priveledge of helping to lead in the build of these two homes a few weeks ago. This is a team from Arizona, and we thank two of them for the pictures (Sean & Peter). What an amazing blessing this was!! Here are a few more pictures:

March Prayer Letter

2011-03-05T06:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Mexico! It’s hard to believe it is March already. We have managed to keep quite busy. Our Missionary Training began a few weeks ago and has been going very well. It is being taught by YUGO Missionary, Mike McDonald. Unfortunately, we've had to cancel Spanish immersion due to lack of funds. We are continuing to work on our Spanish as a family through some books that we have and would like to begin taking lessons when we the Lord provides the means.

Ron has been busy handling the majority of home schooling and housework for the past couple of months so that Kristy could spend time working on the YUGO website. This is a rather time consuming project as there is a lot of information that still needs to be added. Please pray for those making decisions for future improvements to the website as Kristy is helping out with this project. Ron is now able to also focus more on the recruiting aspect of his job. Much prayer is needed as he's beginning to contact churches and pastors in California, not only for construction ministry, but the evangelistic outreaches as well.

Kristy is also working on a project for the Missionary Training we are doing with YUGO. She is recording all of our sessions and mixing a video with the PowerPoint, etc. that goes along with the teaching. This will be a helpful tool for YUGO, as well as free up Mike McDonald for teaching at the Bible school and training pastors.

Ron will be heading to Mexicali the second week of March to help lead a home build for earthquake victims. We spent a week in Mexicali for the New Year’s outreach as well. Ron cooked for the week and Kristy helped with photography and assisted in the kitchen.

Please keep our financial situation in your prayers. We will need to make a decision very soon about one of us seeking part to full-time work in California to help support our family. We know that this is where God wants us to be. This is where He wants us to be ministering right now. Adding outside employment will definitely have an impact on the amount of time we are able to invest in ministry. If you would like to learn more about partnering with us, please visit our website.

Many have shown interest in building a home in Mexico this year, even though their church may not be sending a team. We are offering a mission trip for such individuals this June. Come by yourself, bring your spouse, a friend, your family – all are welcome! The cost is only $850 & includes the cost of the house, your stay in Mexico and round trip transportation to and from the San Diego airport. The dates are June 26th – July 2nd. (If this date does not work for you, please contact us anyway as we may be adding extra individual weeks.) Come and experience a home build this summer and see how you can change hearts for Christ while providing safer, healthier shelter for a Mexican family in need. Sign up in March in order to allow time for fundraising and to allow us to add extra weeks as needed. God bless!

Build A Home For A Mexican Family in Need in 2011

2011-02-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

It is time to sign up for Individual's Week!! That's right! Many of you have expressed interest in building a home this summer for a Mexican family in need, while sharing the love and message of Christ with them, their friends, family and neighbors. Now we need to hear from you in order schedule additional weeks as needed. A minimum of eight adults is needed per team. Contact us today to register and allow yourself time to fundraise for your trip.

(Full Version:)

YUGO New Year's Outreach in Mexicali

2011-02-27T01:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, how times flies! Our apologies for the lack of updates over the past month. We have been super busy here in Mexico! Our March prayer letter will be coming out soon. Right now, we'd like to share a few pictures and a video from the New Year's outreach in Mexicali. Ron cooked for the outreach week and Kristy helped with photography and assisted in the kitchen. The children were very helpful. They jumped in and helped wherever needed. Since most of the staff for the outreach came down from the U.S., we were able to get there a couple of days early with another missionary and a volunteer (our good friend, Claudia, pictured ministering to the children below) to do a lot of the shopping and preparing for the teams to arrive. It was an awesome week with a large high school team and a college team from Michigan.

December 2010

2011-01-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Kristy had the priveledge of taking the Christmas photo for Grace Children's Home this year. They had the idea to take it in front of the new building for Grace Babies' Home, right across the street, which was a great idea. The photo includes the Paulau's (directors of the children's home), the Strutton's (directors of the babies' home), all the children, volunteers and the house moms.

We spent two weeks doing Spanish immersion in Ensenada with Pastor Ever Perez and his family. Unfortunately, we decided to postpone the third week due to a rather busy schedule getting ready for the New Year's outreach in Mexicali. Ron was the cook for the week, so he had a menu and grocery list to prepare for over 70 people, plus the majority of the grocery shopping, transporting trailers and more. We will hopefully be able to get the third week completed in January, depending on Pastor's schedule.

These two pictures are from a scenic overlook in Ensenada that Lupita, the pastor's wife, and Samuel, their oldest, took us to. Here is a picture of Pastor, Lupita and Josias, their youngest. We'll have to get a picture of the whole family together the next time we are there.

A small, sweet surprise was how green the ranch turned this winter. We never really gave it any thought until it happened. It's a nice change from all the brown dirt that normally covers the whole ranch.

In contrast, the roads look a little different.

These pictures are of the road on the ranch. The roads outside the ranch can be much worse, especially on the hill you see behind the gate. For the most part our four wheel drive hasn't given us too much cause for being concerned about getting stuck.

This is a photo of the Pesina's, a YUGO missionary family. Jose Luis & Cindy are starting a new church in Tijuana. This photo was taken on the day of Jose Luis' ordination at our church in Rosarito. Please pray for the church leadership and the outreach efforts, as this new church opens this month.

December Prayer Letter

2011-01-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Our apologies for not updating our blog for some time. We'd like to post our December prayer letter and then we'll give you an update on some of the things that we've been up to during this busy time:

¡Feliz Navidad! It’s so hard to believe that this year is almost over already – and what a year full of blessings it has been! God allowed for us to move to Mexico and be a part of several home builds – two of which were built in Rosarito. We’ve had some opportunities to help with the construction of the Babies’ Home. We have spoken at a few churches and to many families and individuals about the construction ministry. He is beginning to do some awesome things here in and through us in Mexico.

Brittany and William have adjusted very well to living in Mexico. Of course, they miss their friends and family back in the mid-west. But they are doing very well in their school work and with their music lessons. They have also been blessed with good friends, many of which they met here last summer. One difference for us, is that this was our first Thanksgiving for which we did not have turkey. A small thing, but kind of funny that we were eating fish tacos and taking a walk on the beach for Thanksgiving. However, we did celebrate Thanksgiving with good friends the following weekend.

We are very excited to share with you that our whole family has started Spanish immersion!! We’re spending a total of three weeks with a pastor and his family in Ensenada, which is about an hour and a half south of Rosarito. Ron and Kristy have Spanish lessons twice a day, and the whole family is learning through vocabulary exercises, games, and just having to communicate in Spanish with a family that does not speak English. This is truly a blessing in many ways, especially financially. Most other immersion classes cost anywhere from three to six times as much. The whole family is doing quite well and learning a lot. Ron especially enjoys the times when he gets to translate something for Kristy that she didn’t understand. The family has three children: Samuel (19), Abi (16) and Josias (8). The children play very well together. Will especially loves having someone his own age to play with.

While we are staying there, the children are doing about half of a normal week’s school work each week. This frees them up to be able to learn more Spanish, yet doesn’t cause them to get too far behind in their studies.

The family we are staying with, the Perez family, is actually the same family that Ron’s brother, Tim, stayed with during his Spanish Immersion trip about a year ago. So Ron’s “new name” has become Hermano Ron, el hermano de Tim. That is how he is introduced to everyone (as Tim’s brother).

This ministry would not be possible without all of you that have partnered with us through prayer. Please keep them comin’ – we need them very much. Our family is committed to praying for all of our ministry partners. Financially, we still have a long ways to go, but we praise God for putting us here for such a time as this. We are confident that He will provide all that we need. If you would like to find out more about coming along side us in this ministry, please visit our blog at www.rstruska.blogspot.com.

We pray that you will have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!!

¡Dios le bendiga!
Ron & Kristy

November Prayer Letter

2010-10-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Last month we took a trip back to the midwest. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and friends. We also had the opportunity to visit a couple of churches, a Bible college, as well as a couple of pastors, to share our ministry. Our goals for this trip were to recruit some teams to come to Rosarito next year, as well as to grow our financial support. God is good! It looks like there are at least two teams interested in coming next year, as well as several individuals/families for our “Individual’s Week” build in June. This build is set for the week of June 26th. If you are interested in coming alone, or with a friend or family member, for this home build, please contact us for more information. Going into this trip our financial support was right at about 55%. Between new and existing acquaintances, as well as friends and family, we believe God is going to do amazing things in order to grow our financial support. We moved to Mexico in May and officially began our ministry. Our feeling is that He did not put us here to begin something and then leave a year later. We are confident that He will be faithful to supply all of our needs.

God has already taken care of all the funds for this trip. Through the sale of our dining room table, as well as a couple of other things, we had about 85% of the money needed before we left. We did not feel that we should deplete funds from our account, as we are counting on that to make up the difference needed every month. Then, while we were in Wisconsin, our trailer sold as well and that paid for the rest of our trip.

For those of you that do not receive our blog updates, we would like to share a few pictures. In August, we were blessed by the college/young adult team that came down from our sending church, Faith Community. Besides being from our sending church, this is also the class that we co-led for four years before leaving for Mexico. They built a home for the Duran family, a family of six (soon to be seven). Our second house build for the 2010 season came and went without a hitch. And so quickly, too!! That is because the house was built and mostly completed in two days (thanks to nail guns and a lot of pre-preparation). Our family, along with the family receiving the home, were able to finish up the house the next day by painting and trimming the interior. It was an awesome experience, and we were blessed to get to know the family that received the home.

If you haven’t heard much about either of these builds or what has been going on here in Mexico, please sign up to receive our email updates. We apologize for not getting a letter out to update everyone last month. However, we do update our blog at least twice a month, and with a lot more pictures, as well as videos. Just go to www.rstruska.blogspot.com and click at the link at the top of the page to subscribe.

Please pray for us as we will be meeting with a pastor in Ensenada soon about Spanish Immersion. We would really like to make this a priority for our whole family before our ministry keeps us more busy than we already are.

Labor Day Build

2010-10-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

As we were writing our next prayer letter, we realized that a blog entry was never completed and published from our Labor Day weekend build!

We had a church from Fremont, California come and build for a family of four. This family had no home of their own and was living with family members. The amazing thing about this build was how quickly it went up. We normally like to take 4-5 days to build a home. This allows for the team to get to know the family, invite them to church, and so much more. This team only had the weekend, but what an amazing impact they had! They were a huge blessing to us and the Cruz Bauza family as well. Ron spent a lot of time prepping for this build so that it would go up quickly. He precut all the studs and plates, bundling each wall separate. This way, all the team had to do was unwrap a bundle and nail the wall together - no measuring and cutting. With the help of nail guns, walls were going up about every 10 minutes.

End of Day #1

End of Day #2 - Outside Completed

The house was completed in two days, minus the interior paint and trim. Our family spent the following day painting and trimming the inside of the house with the family. They even invited us over for dinner the next day after they moved in. What a blessing!

Our Bilingual Church

2010-09-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Calvary Chapel Rosarito/Capilla Calvario Rosarito

This is the name of the bilingual church that we attend here in Mexico. We are so blessed to be able to attend this church. We loved that the gospel is presented every Sunday, at three morning services, and at every Wednesday night service as well. It is amazing to see the number of hearts given to Christ on a regular basis. There were 17 public professions of faith through baptism last month alone.

We also attended two other beach baptisms this summer, where many others were baptized - including our son, William, in June. (Which was, by the way, the only beach baptism I've every attended without my camera! :( Luckily a friend took some photos for us.)

Ron and I have both volunteered for tech ministry. Ron, of course, is running the sound board, and I am helping out with video. I was also very excited to join the worship team last month at Calvary. I've always loved to sing in worship, but that seems to be amplified even more when singing in Spanish. (All songs are sung in both English and Spanish.) I still have a lot to learn in terms of speaking Spanish, but with practice and memorization, I find the singing a lot easier than the speaking. The children love to attend children's church every week, and they enjoy their Sunday school classes as well. They both have amazing teachers. Their classes are mostly or all in Spanish, but they have both been blessed with teachers that speak English. There are at least three or more kids in each of their classes that speak English as well. They both have missionary kids in their classes, as well as some of the children from YUGO's Grace Children's Home, where all the children are taught English as a second language.

I was very encouraged when I read our pastor's blog a couple days ago. I read their September update, but realized I hadn't checked out their August update yet. Wow, am I glad that I did! I learned a lot about the intern program at the church that I wasn't aware of. We have had the priveledge of getting to know one of the interns, Sergio, pretty well. We met him last year and he has shared his testimony with us. But in this recent update, there were more details about the background of a few of the other interns at Calvary. God is really using this internship program in amazing ways. It is a two year program, which includes attending the Bible college at the church. If you have a few minutes, please click and read the August update from Pastor Mike.

Upcoming Visit to the Midwest

2010-09-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, how time flies when you are busy!! There is so much going on and we are overdue on giving an update. It seemed a bit easier during summer outreach weeks to give updates, as time is broken up into specific ministry weeks. Now things tend to run together a bit. We have been keeping very busy getting things ready for our next year of ministry. We have put together a promotional video for the construction ministry here at ROC (the Rosarito Outeach Center). We also have a new brochure getting printed, as well as business cards, prayer cards, and more. In addition, we are getting all the construction ministry (and Baskets of Love) information together to be added to the YUGO Ministries website. We are very excited about how God is moving and using this ministry!

And yes, we are heading to Wisconsin and Illinois for a visit. It's coming up fast, too! We will be flying out of California on the evening of September 22nd and returning home on October 12th. There are many things we are preparing for this trip as well. Some of them are included above in the first paragraph, but we also have presentations and slideshows to put together, etc. Once we decided that this trip would be very beneficial for our ministry here, we timed it so that we would be able to attend the wedding of some good friends in Wisconsin. That said, there are three main reasons for our trip:

1 - To update and share what God is doing through the construction ministry in Mexico with family, friends and churches.
2 - To recruit teams from the U.S. to reach out in Mexico through building homes, various construction projects and other evangelistic opportunities.
3 - To spend time visiting family and friends, as this is our only planned trip back to the midwest for the next year.

The fall is the ideal time to begin planning your mission trip to Mexico. If you or someone you know are interested in planning a trip for any of the following: men's group, youth group, adult Sunday school or Bible study class, college group, sports team, a group of families, etc., please contact us. We would love to get together, give you some information and answer any questions you may have. There will also be an "Individual's Week" at ROC next summer. If you would like to come to Mexico and build a home, but you do not have a church or group making a trip this year, consider coming on your own. Bring a friend, spouse, or other family member with you if you'd like.

August I

2010-08-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

This was such an incredible week!! Not only were there eight teams here at the ranch - but one of them was from our home church! The Sold Out (college/young adult ministry) from Faith Community Church in Fort Atkinson, WI came to Rosarito to build a home. As much as we would like to go on about them right now, we;re going to put that off for a moment and give you an overview of the week.
We had teams from California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois and Maryland here last week! That includes the girls' soccer team from Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA. They've been coming every year for the past few years, doing construction projects. This year they worked on backfilling the retaining wall for the future dorm building on the ranch. Galilee Korean Church from Glenview, IL had a team that ministered at Pastor Martin's church. They also had a construction team that did some roof repair in the community. Needless to say, it was a big construction week. Five other teams went out into different communities and ministered through children's, sports and women's ministries. It was an amazing week!

The teams ended up taking pictures of themselves and turning them into Kristy to make the slideshow, since she was building with our team all week. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge, but it worked out alright. However, it will not be the preferred method in the future. Here is the outreach highlight video from last week:

August I - Sold Out Team from FCC

2010-08-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Now, back to the FCC team. We were so blessed by our team coming to minister with us in Mexico!! A team from FCC came in 2008 to build a house as well. The difference between these two builds was that Ron was not fully in charge of the '08 build, so he wasn't able to choose his materials for the house. This time he was able to make upgrades, do a little price shopping, etc. It's very exciting to be able to begin getting everything put together.

Besides getting blueprints put together for the model house that we would like to build here, we had one other major focus. That was to figure out how to help a team that is building a home have an evangelistic focus toward the family, as well as their friends and neighbors. Well, let's just say this team didn't need any help in that department! They brought gospel bracelets to give to the children - and there were lots of children! On two separate days they used an interpreter to explain what the colors on the bracelets meant. Every day they were out there playing, talking, interacting, painting, and playing soccer with the children. There were also a few adults that we had the opportunity to build relationships with. Two of them were raised mostly in the States, so they spoke english very well. Jose was a man that stopped by because he was curious about how we were going to build the roof. He lived down the road and is planning to build a small guest house for his parents to live in, but had never built a roof before. We invited him to observe/help out all week so that he could ask questions and learn a few things. So he did that for part of the week when he wasn't working. This opened up lots of time for conversations about what we believe and why we were here. On the last day a few of us had the opportunity to meet a man named Gerry, who also grew up in the US. We had a long conversation about various things, including Satan, nightmares, Jesus being the only way to get to Heaven, and more. It's so cool to see how God places people around the job sites that you can bless and witness to.

They worked so well as a team when they were here. There was a little bit of concern as to how the guys that had more experience with building were going to work with those, especially the girls, that had little or no experience. So on Day 1, Ron put about six girls on framing and they framed the first three walls by lunch time. Most of the guys painted trim and siding during that time. We may never know if this was a necessary move, but the whole team was very encouraging to one another all week long. Unfortunately, we had one person get sick in the middle of the week. On the last day in Mexico, all but three of the team and our family were sick. Most of them got sick overnight at the hotel in San Diego. We were kind of thankful, though, that this didn't happen earlier in the week or we may not have been able to finish the house.

July IV - "Mexican to Mexican" Week & Mexicali Build

2010-08-10T01:08:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, last year we kicked off a new type of outreach here on the ranch. Youth from all around Rosarito & Tijuana came together, formed teams and ministered to their peers. They held children's, sports & women's ministries in local churches. This year, we also had some friends from Mexicali join us, including some that were able to minister this past spring during the Mexicali outreaches.

We spent the first three days of this week in Mexicali, building a home out of the styrofoam blocks that we told you about earlier. It was quite an experience! We learned a lot about these new materials and what it would take to put together teams to build with them. Funds are being raised to build these homes in Mexicali, so please let us know if you have any interest in helping families get safe houses to live in.

July III

2010-08-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it may have been an off week here on the ranch, but it sure was a busy one! Ron helped pour the foundation for the house we're building for August I.

Also, thanks to a new, dear friend, Kristy and the children were able to go to the San Diego Zoo with the interns and some of the other staff members.

We will be in Mexicali from Monday through Wednesday of this week building a home. Hundreds of families in Mexicali were left homeless after the earthquake this past spring. If you haven't heard, we will be testing out some new building materials. There is a company that makes styrofoam blocks used with cement and other materials to build homes. They have given us the blocks to build ten homes in Mexicali. This will be the first home that YUGO is building using these materials, so we are going to help build. This may be something that we will continue to be a part of. Please pray for us as we are going from days averaging about 70 degrees, to days averaging a little over 100 degrees. (We plan to build during the cooler parts of the days.)

Unfortunately, this means that we will miss the first half of "Mexico to Mexico" week here at the ranch. This is when local churches send their youth to come, form teams, and minister to other local churches the same way as the Americans and Canadians do when they come to ROC. When we return, Ron will be busy as he finishes getting everything ready for the build next week. The lumber will arrive on Saturday. Kristy will have to use Thursday and Friday to shoot pictures and video of the outreaches, and then get the slideshow ready for Saturday morning. So basically, it's going to be a very busy and exciting week!! And the following week - the team from FCC will be here and another home will be built!! Praise God!

July II

2010-07-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

Last week was another amazing week!! We had a team here from San Jose, CA. The YUGO staff and interns also formed a team and ministered to Iglesia Torre Fuerte. All in all a tremendous week of children's, sports and women's ministries. Here is the highlight video from the week:

Brittany has done a great job learning to use the Evangicube, and had the opportunity on Thursday to present the gospel to the children, with a translator of course. William also practiced a lot, but has not gotten the chance to present it yet.

This week we are spending a lot of time preparing for our build the first week of August. If you have not met the family we will be building for, please take a few minutes and check out our previous blog entry. This will be Ron's first build since the home building ministry officially began, so he is going through sets of house plans, material lists, etc. to figure out exactly how he would like to do things. We will update more at the end of this week.

Meet the Family

2010-07-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

The week of August 1st we will be building a home for a local Mexican family. We'd like to share a short video and introduce them to you.

The father has been out of work for a few weeks. He may have a lead on a new job, but it wouldn’t start until about August. This family of six – soon to be seven - lives in a house that is 16x16, made of old garage doors and has a dirt floor. The three older children sleep on the bed, leaving only floor space for mom, dad and the little one. The land for the new home been prepped and leveled by Sr. Duran, and the foundation will be poured soon.

Please pray for the Duran family and the team from Fort Atkinson, WI that will be building for and sharing their testimonies with them. If you have a group that would like to come, build a home and share Christ with a Mexican family in need, please send us a message.

June IV - July I

2010-07-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's July already! The last week of June was awesome!! We had a team from California that week, The staff and interns also did an outreach to a local church with the worship band that was here.

June III

2010-06-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome first week of outreach for the summer! Many Mexican pastors, young men, women and children were blessed, and decisions were made to follow Christ! Kristy had the opportunity to visit the team in the field while taking pictures. The team, from California, did an excellent job! We also had a group of guys from Georgia come and build a retaining wall to prep the area where the next dorm building will be put. Kristy also put together a slideshow for them and cooked staff dinners for most of the week. Ron is still keeping plenty busy fixing things up around the ranch.

We took a few people over to Grace Children's Home for a tour to see how things are run over there. Remember that across the street, Grace Babies' Home is under construction. We also took a tour of this seemingly quick-rising structure. It's awesome to see the progress on the home. When we left Tijuana last September, there was nothing but a foundation. We are anxious to get over there and lend a hand.

This week most of our staff, the worship band and interns are forming an evangelistic outreach team. They will be ministering to a local church in place of a team that had to cancel recently. Ron will be continuing his work around the ranch and Kristy is starting to get back to work on the wooden signs. We are eagerly waiting for materials and for a representative from Lazarian World Homes to take us to Mexicali and build a home. We may not get much notice, just load up and head over to Mexicali for a few days. Although we are hoping it will be during an "off week" so that we don't miss things going on here.

Just a little over a month and our college team from WI will be joining us to build a home. We are very excited about that. We will be trying some things out for that week with some changes to the outreach schedule, etc., to see how we will want them to run for the future. If you have a youth, college, Bible study, or really any type of group that would like to come down to Mexico and build, either in the spring, summer or for New Year's week, please contact us. There are so many opportunities from home building & other construction projects, to the children's home & the children's/women's/sports ministry. There are a couple of buildings planned to be built on the property here at the ranch. Some funding and materials have been provided already to construct a kitchen/dining hall. We mentioned above that a retaining wall was built last week for the new dorm building. All that is needed are teams willing to donate their time and funding to help with portions of these projects. We are very excited to see how the Lord is working!

"O Week"

2010-06-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

Last week was Orientation, also known as "O Week", for the interns here on the ranch. This is a very busy week for them and staff alike. Everything on the ranch needs to be rearranged, cleaned, organized, etc. Ron spent the week fixing things, as well as a day helping one of the missionaries, Tom Coles, working on closing up a house that a team built and didn't quite get finished. Kristy helped get the YUGO Store stocked and ready for the summer and began working on making new wooden signs for all the buildings, etc. Brittany and William have been pitching in wherever needed. They've been a tremendous help.

One highlight from last week was that Kristy and the kids spent a day in Ensenada with the interns and summer staff. The interns had to do a scavenger hunt around a few block radius in downtown Ensenada, right off of the harbor. The kids enjoyed helping, while Kristy and Pam, the cook in training, tried not to help - due the fact that they both have some Spanish knowledge, as well as knowledge of the area. The idea was for the interns to learn to use their Spanish in order to ask questions, navigate around town, purchase some small items, etc. It's a good learning tool, and all in all a good cultural day for everyone. While there, we of course had some amazing fish (and shrimp) tacos! They are very well know for their seafood in Ensenada, and this was our first time experiencing it. We also took a short boat ride on the ocean. This was very enjoyable and was the first boat ride on the ocean for all of us. There are a ton of seals along the coast there, as well as covering one entire doc in the harbor. Oh, and walking through the fish market was a rather enjoyable experience!

One of the things we learned more about at the Ensenada Outreach Center while down there, is their "Baskets of Love" ministry. This is a ministry that Kristy will start up and run at TJOC. There are several different types of baskets. Some of them include food baskets, Moses baskets and gift baskets. The food baskets are mostly given to families when a house it built for them. Teams purchase the baskets of food and sometimes sponsor that family for a year, giving monthly or bimonthly gifts of food. The gift baskets are also given to families who receive a house. The gift basket includes dishes, silverware, bed linens, pillows, etc. The Moses baskets are for babies, filled with clothes, blankets, etc., and are purchased for families that pastors see are in great need. We are really excited about beginning this ministry, especially since it sort of coincides with the home building ministry.

This week is our first week of outreaches for the summer, so we'll have an update for you at the end of the week.

Ensenada Week

2010-06-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

We recently spent a week in Ensenada, which is about an hour and half drive south from the ranch. Together with a team of families from Memphis, we built a home for a Mexican family. The family consisted of a woman, her two children, her sister and niece. It was amazing to get to know the family a little bit, especially the children. The mom worked every morning, so she wasn't always around. When she was, she helped with the construction of her home, so that was really neat.

Ron worked closely with Juan, a pastor that works with YUGO as a foreman for houses being built Ron was able to learn a few helpful hints from that. It was also great for us to just see how another YUGO camp runs. It was helpful for figuring out some scheduling decisions for the ranch when there are building teams, for seeing how things run when there are multiple houses going up in one week, etc. Five houses were built that week in Ensenada, with a total of eighty-four homes going up this year. We are so excited for the day when we have multiple houses being built in the Rosarito/Tijuana area during the year, and Lord-willing, multiple houses going up every week during the busy seasons. We praise God for this awesome opportunity!!

June Prayer Letter

2010-06-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it! We purchased a

7x14 trailer, put just about
everything we own into it, and
moved to Rancho YUGO in
Tijuana. It’s difficult to let you
know exactly what we will be
doing initially. We will be
spending a week in Ensenada

at the beginning of this month. While there, we
will be observing the operations at the
outreach center as multiple teams are there

building homes. This is something we are

really looking forward to – anticipating the

day when we have multiple builds happen-
ing at the same time in the Tijuana/Rosa-
rito area. But for this year, there is still
only one house scheduled to be built in
August (by the college/young adult team from our church in Fort Atkinson). There are still about fifty families on a waiting list for a home.

We are looking forward to field orientation and missionary training with the Hooples. This will include orientation to the Mexican culture and to the neighborhood in which we will be living, as well as training classes. YUGO outreaches in Tijuana begin on June 21st. Ron will be teaching the “Crazy Love” series to the interns that he taught to our college/young adult Sunday School class. Besides that, building the house in August, and other misc. construction projects, we don’t have all the details on what we will be doing for the summer. Of course, the home building ministry will be our primary focus. As it is just getting off the ground, we will be turning our attention to publicizing the ministry and recruiting teams. At the same time, we will figure out how God wants us involved at the bilingual church we attend in Rosarito, as well as other possible ministry extensions of YUGO.

Before we left, we had

the opportunity to spend
some time with family and
friends. We had a very
nice send-off from our
church, including a
commissioning prayer,
cake, and t-shirts for all
four of us that people
signed – very memorable!
We were given a large,
unexpected gift from the
missions committee at our
church that we used
toward the purchase of
our trailer.

As you can see, our blog
is officially up and running.
We must apologize if you’ve
experienced any confusion
in attempting to sign up - but
we've worked out all the
bugs. You can receive our
weekly(ish) and most current
updates through our blog via
e-mail. If you have not
received an update via
e-mail up to this point,
please click here.

Sold Out (college/young adult) ministry from FCC

Brittany, Will, and a few cousins on our visit to Illinois.

New Address & Contact Information

2010-05-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to pass along some information to everyone. We've had a lot of people asking for our address, etc. We also just go a new home phone number. Our cell phone numbers have stayed the same, however while in Mexico we only have BlackBerry Messenger and Nextel Direct Connect (Push to Talk) services. Phone calls and texting only work when we are state side. Here is our contact information:

Mailing Address:

301 W 28th St.
Suite L
National City, CA 91950-8724

Ron's Cell: 608/322-7612 (110*522335*7-Nextel)
Kristy's Cell: 608/322-7650 (110*522335*6-Nextel)
Home Phone: 619/730-6764
Fax Number: 815/572-5482

Home on the Ranch

2010-05-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know, our home in Tijuana is called the Tijuana Outreach Center, or TJOC for short. However it is also referred to as Rancho YUGO, or "the ranch". We arrived here yesterday after an amazing border crossing. We pulled into the border crossing at Otay to declare what we were bringing over the border - all of our possessions. They asked us to take some things out of the trailer so they could get a good look around. We handed them a list of all the major items, as well as details about what was in each box. God totally worked it out. They could charge us up to 25% tax on whatever they deemed the value of our belongings to be. They ended up charging us only $74 on all of our life possessions (which includes all of Ron's tools), that packed our Suburban and trailer almost as full as they could get.

We had a wonderful welcome from some of the missionaries in Tijuana. We arrived at a clean apartment, stocked with a bunch of groceries and necessities to get us started. There was also a hot lunch ready, dinner in the fridge and tons of help unloading. We discovered our first black widow spider that made its home underneath the end table in the living room. We are "looking forward" to our first run-ins with rattlesnakes, scorpions and tarantulas. This morning we attended our bilingual church, Calvary Chapel Rosarito, and had our first authentic Mexican tacos with friends afterwards.

It is great to be home. We are looking forward to the many ministry opportunities. Please pray with us as we begin to find exactly what God will have us do. As we are just beginning to get the construction ministry up and running here in Tijuana there will be time to spare. Some things are inevitable, like maintenance on the ranch and tech ministry (hopefully music ministry also) at church. There are so many other opportunities, like baking for the prison ministry, possibilities with breakfast feeding programs, the children's home or the infant's home being built - not to mention the construction possibilities in Mexicali. Very exciting stuff!!

Crossing the Border

2010-05-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Well, we left Phoenix a little early and arrived in Chula Vista, California a little while ago. We will be attending a friend's boot camp graduation from the Marines tomorrow in San Diego. We've been advised not to cross the border into Mexico on Friday afternoon, so we will cross on Saturday morning. Please pray with us that the crossing goes smoothly and that it will not cost too much. We will be crossing at approximately 11am Pacific/1pm Central.

Vacation

2010-05-18T10:54:00.001-07:00

We are packed, loaded, and close to the border! We're spending about five days in Phoenix on our way to Mexico, for a little relaxation and family vacation time. Praise God that even though we got a bit of a late start, we've made it this far problem-free with the trailer. The weather here has been very nice - in the 90's but with very little humidity. We are enjoying the time next to the pool. William has already completed his school work for the year, and Brittany will be done in about a week. They were a huge help with getting ready for the garage sales, packing and loading – and of course all too eager to put schoolwork aside for the most part during those few weeks.

Follow Our Blog!

2010-05-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the confusion everyone, but our last post seemed to make things a bit puzzling. You can use the link in the posting below to sign up to receive our prayer letter via snail mail or let us know you are praying for us. However, to sign up to follow our blog and receive weekly(ish) updates and current prayer needs, please click on the "Follow" button to the right or click here.

Let Us Know You're Praying For Us & Snail Mail Listing Only

2010-04-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Click here to sign up to be put on our mailing list if you are not receiving our prayer letters in the mail. You can also click there to let us know that you are praying for us. We mail out about six to nine prayer letters per year. This is also the only way to receive our prayer cards when they are sent out and other special mailings. (This link is not to sign up for our blog.)

Here We Go

2010-04-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t heard, our home in Janesville, Wisconsin has been rented out. The house had been for sale for just over a year. Then in March, we felt the Lord leading us to put the house up for rent. We received quick confirmation from Him when the house was rented out in just over a week’s time. We will be taking a few days to visit some family along the way, as well as a few days of family vacation time.

You may recall the possibility of a home opening up for us on the ranch in Tijuana. Well, the Head Cook that Ron filled in for last year will be returning this summer, so we are very excited about that. We will be staying in the same three bedroom apartment where we resided last year.

What will we be doing when we get there? We will be starting the home building ministry, as well as leading some other construction teams and working on various YUGO construction projects. During outreach weeks, we hope to be used in other ways. We are excited to share that the first week in August, there will be a team of 14 college students/young adults, including two adult leaders, coming to Tijuana to build a home. This team was formed from the College/Young Adult ministry that we have worked with for the past five years at our home church – Faith Community. We are also planning to visit Ensenada for a week at the beginning of June, to see how they run their construction ministry. Please pray for the ministry opportunities that have opened up in the Mexicali area, approximately three hours away from Tijuana. You may recall hearing about a 7.2 earthquake whose epicenter was right near Mexicali at the beginning of April. (Large enough that it was felt in Tijuana.) Hundreds, if not thousands of people, have been reduced to living in tents or vehicles outside of their homes because they are no longer safe to live in. Ron has been asked to pray about being part of this outreach opportunity. Please pray with us as he takes this under consideration.

You may be wondering how we are able to go to Mexico without having our full financial support raised. Technically, we will be going under a temporary status with YUGO. They still require full-time missionaries to have 100% of their support raised. Make no mistake, we do not plan or hope to return to the States in order to raise more support. Due to the generous giving of family and friends, from both previous gifts, as well as ongoing donations, we will be able to spend some time beginning our ministry there. Our prayer is that God will use this to grow our prayer and financial partners. If you, your church, or small group would like more information about partnering with us in this ministry or about sending a team to Mexico, please contact us.

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¡Dios le bendiga!

Ron & Kristy

2009 Nov - What's Up/Summer Ministry Wrap-up II

2010-04-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

We praise and thank God for all of you that know how much we need your prayers. This can be a difficult time, as we continue to raise support to get on the field in Tijuana, especially after having had a taste of the ministry this past summer that God will have for us there. It’s not just about building homes for people in need. It’s about people that don’t know Christ and the doors that will opened through the building of these homes – not just the people that will receive the homes, but their family and friends as well. It’s about being a part of the evangelistic outreaches in so many different ways. It’s about working along side others (interns and short-term team members alike) as they get a taste of what it’s like to serve God as they step out into another culture. It’s about the relationships we make as we attend church and serve with other Christians at the church in Rosarito. The list goes on and on. This is just a glimpse of what life will be like for us in Mexico. It was amazing to see all the opportunities and possibilities, and how things just started to fit together, like a puzzle.

One of these ways was His provision for a home. As you know, Ron filled the temporary position of Head Cook for the summer. Unfortunately, the person he was filling in for, and her husband, have had to leave the mission field. This is a great loss and they will be severly missed. However, because of this, there is an empty, three bedroom house on the YUGO ranch in Tijuana with our name on it. This is a huge blessing, as we will be able to jump right into ministry without having to build a house for ourselves. So why not leave now and head down to Tijuana? Well, first of all, we own a home in Wisconsin. This is the biggest factor. We are very seriously considering moving to Tijuana in the spring. However, we feel that moving and having to pay a mortgage is not a wise use of the money God will provide for us. Especially when we are only at about 40% of our monthly financial need. All of that to basically say that we have a new home waiting for us in Mexico. Please pray with us that God will sell our “old” house in Wisconsin. His timing is perfect. He has a team of partners out there providing prayer and financial support for us. He will reveal to those He would have yet to join the team. So please pray with us that their hearts would be open.

As previously mentioned, when we were in Mexico this past summer, Ron was having some pain that he thought might be a pulled muscle. It turned out to be a hernia (not related to his back, but most likely a birth defect he has had his whole life). After much prayer, we decided to go to Cruz Roja (Red Cross) to have it looked at. Shortly thereafter, Ron went in for surgery and everything went very well. He spent a few immobile days recovering from surgery, followed up by several weeks of more recovery. Things have been healing up very nicely. Unfortunately for Ron, this came right at the time the interns were suppose to spend a week on construction projects. Originally we had hoped to build a house this week, but there was not enough funding. But God used this opportunity to give us the chance to bless three families with repaired or replaced roofs. Kristy and the children were able to go out with the interns and staff that week, while Ron stayed home recooperating.

There are currently 55 families on a waiting list for a home in the Tijuana/Rosarito area. Eventually, we would like this ministry to involve pastors going out into their communities and finding people in need of a home that don’t attend church. However, we need teams to come down and build homes for both the church and non-church members that are currently on the list, before we can work on expanding the ministry. If you have a youth group, college group, or any adult group that is looking for a mission opportunity or team-building trip of any kind, please contact us. We would love to talk to you about opportunities to serve in Mexico.

YUGO Ministries has now combined their California offices into one new location. Please pray for them as they continue to organize and consolidate.

¡Dios le bendiga! (God Bless)
Ron & Kristy

2009 Sept - Summer Ministry Wrap-up

2010-04-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Wow!! That’s our summer wrapped up into one, little, three-letter word. It has been so amazing to be at the ranch in Tijuana for all of the summer outreaches. There is so much happening here, and yet so much work to be done! Unfortunately, there were only eight teams that came down to Tijuana from the US and Canada this year. However, this was obviously God’s plan to spark a new type of outreach here at YUGO. Four Mexican churches came together for a week to minister to three local churches. It went so well, that about a dozen of them were chosen to come back the following week to form a team and go out to another church. That makes for a total of twelve outreach teams, not including the staff outreach team. While this is a significantly much lower number that other years, there were still 127 Mexicans that made first time decisions for Christ. Praise God!! The staff outreach week is also a first here at YUGO, especially for us. Instead of just visiting teams in the colonias during outreaches, we were able to fully partcipate. The staff and interns took two weeks to prepare for our outreach week. Everyone participated in and helped with the children’s ministry – songs, games, craft, snack and skits. Those focusing on children’s ministry also prepared lessons. Kristy had the opportunity to participate in the women’s ministry and teach the lesson one day (with a translator, of course). The kids just joined right in with all the other children. Ron and Will were able to go out with the guys for sports ministry a couple of days, as well.

So, what else did we do all summer? Ron served as the head cook for the summer. He cooked two meals a day for anywhere from 15 to 129 people, and usually a third meal for staff. Kristy was able to get a taste of that job as well. During the last week of outreach, Ron was double-booked as the cook and construction project manager. So he got up at 5AM, cooked breakfast and then went out to the job site for the rest of the day. For those two days, Kristy got up at 6AM, did KP duty for breakfast, and then KP duty/cook for lunch. Needless to say, it was a very busy couple of days. If you’re wondering what KP duty is, it basically means preparing the serving tables for meals, getting out all the condiments, coffee/tea, chopping/preparing food for salads, tacos, and other meals, helping serve meals, clean-up, etc. For the majority of the time, Kristy shared KP responsibilities with one or two other people, so that worked out well. Kristy, Brittany and William also helped prepare some of the meals with Ron and the interns when needed. We also helped with the grocery shopping for the outreach weeks. The majority of our food is bought in California, because American food is more expensive to buy in Mexico. So, when you include anywhere from one to three hours of total border crossing time, grocery shopping takes up most or all of a full day each week.

There is so much more that we’d like to talk about, but it will not all fit in this letter. They would include: Ron’s hernia surgery, the waiting list for homes to build in Tijuana, the probable provision of a home for us on the ranch, several construction projects from this summer, and so much more. So for now, we would like to leave you with one more thought. We are praying for God’s wisdom in deciding on a date to return to Mexico. It will be in the near future, and will be “short-term” if we are unable to reach our full support level in time. We are praying that it would turn into full-time before it ends, so that we will be able to begin and continue the home-building ministry God has called us to do, uninterrupted by returning home to raise more financial partners. In the mean time, we will be home recruiting teams to come down to Mexico and build homes next year. If you are interested in sending a team from your church to Tijuana next summer, please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information. We cannot tell you how important your prayers are to us. Thank you to all who pray for us and give in so many ways!

¡Dios le bendiga!
Ron & Kristy

2009 April - Adios

2010-04-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Seven adults. Twenty-one youth. Three 15-passenger vans. Dangerous, rocky dirt roads. Traveling in the mountains - about 15 miles in 8 hours one way. Fog. Overheated engines. Van stuck in the mud. Hiking a section of road in case a van falls off a cliff. Scorpions. Black widow spiders. Sunburned eyes. Failed attempt at making adobe bricks. Digging. Moving dozens of wheel barrows full of dirt. This was our first experience in Mexico – August 2004. Yet somehow through all of this, God grabbed a hold of our hearts. He let us know at the same exact moment, that He wanted us to come back to Mexico some day.
He had a plan for us to go to Tijuana, Mexico someday, and this was when he began revealing that plan to us. Through a series of events, we know where he wants us, and now we know when. He wants us in Tijuana this summer, working in the kitchen. But He also wants us to stay there and begin a home building program. Not so that we can just give away houses to the Mexican people. So that we can invite teams from the US and Canada to be able to share God’s love and message through building a home for someone in need, the way we experienced it last August. So that the families in these homes will be given the opportunity to minister to others and share this love and this message with their family and friends. We will also have the opportunity to assist with at least eleven weeks of evangelistic outreaches, where hundreds of youth and adults go out into various neighborhoods to share the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

God has called us to go to Mexico, but what if God has called you to stay home? You can serve by sending. Last month we asked you to begin praying about the commitment cards that we are enclosing with this letter. If the Lord has laid it on your heart to give a monthly gift, we ask that you would listen. At this point, we are in need of about seventy people/familes to partner with us financially at $25 per month. What if you can only give $10 per month? We can’t tell you how much that would be appreciated. God will use any amount that you feel you are able to give. If thirty people are able to partner with us at $10 per month, we would only need fifty seven partners giving $25 per month instead of seventy. Some may be able to give $50 or $75 per month. We know that some are not able to give at this time. Yet we also know that $10-$25 per month is very manageable for many households. Please spend a little more time in prayerful consideration on how you can partner with us. We ask that you would continue to keep us in your prayers. If you have any questions, or would like to hold a meeting in your home for us, we would love to talk to you.

We would like to personally thank all of those that have already partnered with us financially. Thank you for letting God use you in this way! We thank all of you for your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Ron & Kristy

2009 March - Summer Position/House for Sale

2010-04-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

So…have you heard? The house is going up for sale. Ron is taking a leave of absence from work. We are going to Mexico for the summer! Okay, maybe I should start from the beginning.
We received a message that there was a need at the Tijuana Outreach Center for a head cook for ten weeks this summer. The full-time missionary that normally fills this position had to take a temporary leave of absence. We tossed around the idea of going down to work for the summer, and even half-joked about Ron quitting his job. But then we actually put some real thought and prayer into it. In order to fill the position, one would have to raise their own support – we’ve already got a head start on that. Ron would have to quit his job and find a new one when the summer is over – until he found out that he could take up to a 90-day leave of absence. We would have to leave the house for almost three months and pay a mortgage while we’re gone – or we could put the house up for sale.

So, there you have it. After much prayer, we spoke with a couple of people from YUGO to work out the details. We would not be considered full-time missionaries, because we do not have our full support raised. Ron will be filling the temporary position of Head Cook. He is definitely more comfortable managing a large kitchen than Kristy is. We are not certain what Kristy will be doing. There are a lot of options, one of which is Food Prep Coordinator. It basically entails the serving and cleaning up aspects of the meals. We ask that you would join us and pray how God will use Kristy this summer. Other opportunities may include worship team or photography, but will mostly likely involve menotoring and workly closely with the summer interns for both of us. They were very excited to learn that we have been working in college-age ministry, and that Kristy has been working with high school youth. That’s the same basic age group of the interns, so it sounds like God kind of knew what he was doing getting us prepared.

Ron will also have the opportunity to do some construction work. He may be working with a team of interns on a construction project the third week. This does not change the fact that we are raising support to go full-time in construction ministry. This is just a temporary position that we are filling. However, we pray that it would be in God’s timing that our financial support would be raised in full by the end of the summer. Finding a buyer for our house in Janesville is the other major prayer request. It would save us a lot of money over the summer, and it would also mean we wouldn’t have a house to sell when we officially go to Tijuana full-time. Ron is taking the leave of absence from work to ensure that he would still have a way to earn a living, if we need to come back to the states for a little while. Taking the leave does not guarantee him his current position if returns home. It guarantees him a position with the company, we just don’t know what position it would be, or where it would be located.

We have heard from many people that they are waiting to make a commitment to partner with us financially until we are ready to go. Our hope is that you will consider making this commitment in the near future. We ask that you would begin praying about this decision now. Next month we are going to include commitment cards with our letter. So please join us in praying for our house to sell and our support level to be where needed in order to go full-time in Tijuana by the end of the summer. We thank all of you for your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Ron & Kristy

2004 Sept - God's Calling

2010-04-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to go to Mexico on a ‘construction’ missions trip. We were asked to be leaders on a trip with a group of Sr. High kids. Little did we know that the reason we were going was not so we could introduce missions to the youth we were leading, but so the Lord could re-introduce missions to us. As our trip progressed, the pieces started to all fall into place. We were finally able to see the beginning of a very interesting puzzle that, as we look back now, we can see the Lord has been working on in us for over a year. We both began to realize our desire to be involved in missions. As I saw it, there was one problem: I am not what could possibly be considered a ‘traditional’ missionary. Our gifts both lie along the lines of ‘Helps and Administration’, not ‘Evangelism, Sheparding, Teaching’ etc. As we continued to talk, I told Kristy that I would love to be able to “coordinate teams to do work projects, lead short term construction trips and supervise building projects”. I told her that would be great, but, “nobody does that”. Well, my search took me to where most research is done these days - the internet. Within 2 minutes, I found an organization based in California that was looking for someone to fill the following position “Construction Coordinator - Recruits, directs and coordinates North American work crews in building churches and homes for the poor in Mexico. (Must possess good leadership, management and communication skills. Prior experience in leadership and/or training is helpful. Some administrative and organizational skills are needed.” This position is based in Tijuana, Mexico.
Well, I asked for it, and God put it in our lap. We have decided to pursue this opportunity, and see if it is where God is leading us. We have begun the application process with YUGO Ministries (www.yugo.org). If we are accepted and the Lord continues to lead, we will begin the process of raising support. We are not sure if this is where God wants us or not, but at this time the doors are flying open for us to pursue this opportunity.

We are sharing this with all of you to enlist your prayer support. Thank you in advance for keeping us in your prayers as we continue to seek the Lord’s will. We will keep you updated as things progress. If you have any questions or input, we would love to hear from you.

In Christ,

Ron & Kristy