On Friday, April 11, 2008, at 5:00 P.M., about 45 of us met at the back parking lot of Harvest Christian Fellowship. With many veterans, as well as some first-time missionaries, we all got our gear together with excitement and anticipation for what the Lord was going to do this weekend.
With our vehicles loaded, and our cars lined up in formation, we all gathered around in a circle for a short devotion given by James Flores before leaving for La Mision, Baja California, Mexico.
Just before the border, we stopped for dinner at the luxurious Scottish restaurant commonly known as McDonald’s. This was the last American meal until we returned. With the greasy burgers and fries downed, we headed into a time of prayer, and then into our cars and onto the border.
Attacks usually come when we seek to preach the gospel and this trip had its share of challenges. Officials, who said we needed a special permit for the items we were carrying to the outreach, stopped us at the border. We were stuck for a moment, but everyone prayed, and asked the Lord for favor with the government. God graciously put his hand upon us. We were allowed to carry on without even paying any fees or taxes. God is sooo good!
We successfully made it to our destination, Door of Faith Orphanage; our home for the weekend. This is an amazing orphanage that is run by an American couple. Some have called it the Disneyland orphanage. It is alive with happy children and it has the Lord’s blessings all over it. They house around 120 children.
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Saturday morning, many were up at dawn, full of excitement and anticipation. We had a quick continental breakfast and devotions, again by James. Our destination was Sauzal, a community near Ensenada. We had permission from the Chief-of-Police to close off the entire street and set up this outreach. U-turn for Christ Ensenada was already there, setting up the stage that was built and brought down one week prior. The band’s equipment was in place.
Calvary Chapel Rosarito, with Pastor Juan Flores, joined us and was able to bring skateboarding ramps for the youth. We set up two bouncers, a bike repair station, children’s ministry with face painting, balloons, and much more. We also fed the community to attract as many as we could.
Every child who attended was able to receive a raffle ticket. We had donated bikes, soccer balls, learning games, and hula hoops. But the big-ticket item was the donated Element skateboards. They are expensive here in the States, but are almost impossible to get in Mexico.
Pastor Nino and some of the Spanish ministry from Cosecha, who are no strangers to Mexico missions, came to help. Pastor Nino gave a message to the adults, and a special puppet show and gospel presentation was given to children.
45 people made decisions to follow the Lord at the outreach. God is sooo good!
Following the outreach, we were able to have fellowship and relax with the best tacos and have fun at the beach. There’s nothing better on a hot day than to watch the sun set over the blue Pacific Ocean. On the way back to our home base, we were able to rent horses for $5.00 for 15 minutes. What a total blessing of fun and fellowship.
That night, we lit a bonfire! This was the most blessed time of the trip outside of the victory of many coming to the Lord. We had music from Derrick and Ruben. We worshiped the Lord and I gave a message to the group, followed by a time of communion. We continued to worship followed by a time of prayer.
Some were tired and headed to bed, others sat outside in the hills around the fire and continued to worship the Lord until after 2:00 A.M. Many people were greatly touched by hearing the voice of God speak to them around the fire that night!
It has been said many times that we go down to Mexico to bless others, but it seems that we unintentionally receive the greater blessing. God seems to move in the hearts and lives of his children when we just step out in faith and serve him outside of our own comfort zone.
Sunday morning, we rose out of bed and packed up our stuff. We headed down to the local church for a special service. They knew we were coming and translated for us. It was such a blessing to hear the same songs we sing at Harvest but in Spanish! We could totally worship in English at the same time that they worshiped in Spanish. God has no bounds!
You would think the blessings were done, but as we were waiting in the long line at the border, we infiltrated the area with Spanish tracts. Thousands of people were just sitting there with nothing to do but wait around.
A woman came up to the van asking in Spanish about God. As Chris and others talked to her in broken Spanish about Jesus, standing by the van, she gave her life to the Lord! We gave her a Bible and took down her info and we prayed for her.
Thank you to all of you who prayed for us on this trip and please continue to pray for missions and missionaries around the world as we are barely scratching the surface of what we can really do!
Let’s keep the momentum going as we are truly in a battle for lost souls. And every soul saved is truly a victory!
Tyson Crandell
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Harvest Christian Fellowship and Cosecha Compañerismo Christiano will host a community outreach event on Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day. 
Cosecha, our Spanish Ministry is having a rummage sale on Saturday, September 26.