The Pastors

Pastor Ricardo

I grew up in a family where going to school did not matter because, to work in the fields or watch over cattle, you did not need an education. I finished elementary school and started to watch sheep and cows. At 13, I started smoking marijuana, and I wasted my teenage years. When I was 20 years old, I got married, and then had two daughters.

Following the birth of my daughters, my marriage ended, and I began to live a lonely life full of hate and resentment. I lived on the street day and night. I did not shower or cut my hair or beard. I ate from trashcans, and could only think of suicide, as my life was not worth living like that. One unforgettable night, I looked to the sky and asked God to help me and give meaning to my life. He came and changed my sadness into happiness. I started going to church where my life was restored by Jesus, and He had a trophy prepared for me.

Pastora Rossy

I grew up in a family where religion was not taught to us. We did not get advice from our parents. All the time, there was fighting and yelling. We did not see my parents ever hug or kiss. All they did was fight. My parents told me that I would only attend junior high, that they would not pay for me to go to any more schooling after that. I graduated junior high with a “D” average. I would see my friends going to school and I had to stay home, and I was not happy.

Without my parent’s permission, I got a scholarship to attend high school. I graduated from high school with good grades. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could do it. During my summer vacations, my grandmother invited me to Ensenada, and I happily said yes. I had cousins my own age who lived there and who I hadn’t seen in many years. I thought to myself, I’m going to go out to clubs with my cousins and it will be exciting! To my surprise, once I arrived in Ensenada, I discovered that all of my cousins were Christians, and they did not invite me to go to clubs. Instead, they invited me to go to church, and there I met my Lord. When my parents found out that I had converted, they were very angry. In time, in the course of a year, both of them came to the Lord too. It was in that church that I met Ricardo, and three years after meeting him, we got married.

About Our Ministry

We began our ministry as the children’s leaders and youth and marriage counselors. After that, we felt a calling towards becoming pastors. We prayed and asked God to confirm this calling and to show us the place where we needed to serve. In 2007, He showed us the way to El Durango and we fell in love with this community and decided to live here. There were only 12 houses in the whole community and no electricity or running water. In the years we have been here, with the help of others who felt called to support the effort, we have built a kindergarten and a temple.

Living in the community has helped us get close to and see the necessities of the families here. Knowing the problems that the community faces helps us to work with the families on what they really need. We are focused on working with the children because they often face physical, verbal and sexual abuse. We have an after school program at El Faro, the community center, that provides tutoring, counseling, encouragement and classes to help build self-esteem, grow their relationship with Christ, and keep the kids safe while their parents are still at work. El Faro has been a great blessing to many families.

We also work with married couples. We encourage them to come to this work without their kids, and we share with them simple tips to better their relationships. We have seen them grow as parents as well as improve their marriages. We believe that healthy, happy marriages raise happy and healthy children. We also help adults get a better education by tutoring them so they can get better jobs. Some of them don’t know how to read or write when they come to us. We are happy pastors to know that God has had mercy on us and is using us in His ministry.

We hope that through all of the different activities and offerings for families, they will come to know Christ. We want to see kids graduate from university and have careers. We believe that these children will grow up to be leaders in the church who are prepared academically and spiritually. We don’t want to see our community’s children end up in gangs or using drugs or alcohol. We don’t want to see what happened to us as kids happening to the kids in our community. We know that God is good, and He will help us achieve this.