NEWSLETTER: FEBRUARY, 2008

Yesterday afternoon after work I was climbing into my SUV, ready to drive across Tijuana and up to the border toward home. As I started my engine, Aaron called to me, "Hey von, the 'Federales' (Mexico's Federal police) are shooting it out below us and so you'll need to take a different route to the border." Good advice!

So it took a little more time to hit the border yesterday. Indeed, the "Federales" were blasting away at a big drug cartel house. Bullets were flying everywhere. The Cartel had executed six men inside the house and were holding off the Federal police as best they could. Everybody in the neighborhood was being told by radio, TV and a big helicopter to shut their windows, lock their doors and stay inside while the shootout continued. And they did.

At times like these you don't mind taking a little detour.

There isn't a day when we drive Tijuana that the "Federales" aren't present in some form. Men dressed in black with black masks covering their face and holding loaded automatic weapons isn't the most positive picture. Every time a big federal pickup, loaded with six armed men seated in the back, passes you on the road, you are reminded that you're no longer in the USA. The "Federales" are known for their philosophy of "shoot first and ask questions later".

Today the "Federals" found another Cartel house in Tijuana. Under this house was a large underground basement which housed a training center (school) for new Cartel recruits. Rifles and pistols, boxes of ammunition, human looking targets. Yes, the Cartel is alive and well in the center of Tijuana. Of course there is the Mexican Mafia too, but that story will wait for another day.

On occasion I'm asked, "Is it getting any better in Tijuana?." The truth is "No." In fact, I think it's growing worse. In the poor barrios factors like family breakdown, immorality, poverty and drugs combine to create an environment of hopelessness and desperation resulting in even more violence. To be honest, in some cases there is really no reason to live, leaving more and more teens and men to become eager candidates for the Mafia and Cartel.

Kids who grow up with no purpose but survival. One young man told me "I want to live fast, die young, and make a good looking corpse!" That pretty well defines the darkness we work in.

Thanks once again for your prayers, not only for our ministry, but for our safety as we work the dark side of Tijuana. The rewards are great, the dangers, very real. We are grateful that we can count on you as part of our team.

For all of us in Tijuana, Pastor von

P.S.
NEEDED NOW! The boys in our areas sure have bad shoes, compounded by the rain and mud and their colds make us ask where can we get shoes? Any of you have slightly used boys shoes we could have? Winter in TJ has been real cold and wet! One boy at a time will help.


Pray for our kids ... We specialize in reaching the lost.