Mission Update 2022: Mexico

By ChristChurch Hailsham - 3 August 2022

Written by Paula O’Sullivan

Christ Church, as many of you know my name is Paula and I am working in YWAM San Diego Baja (Youth With A Mission), I am living daily in Tijuana, Mexico. 

I came out here in March 2012 to do a discipleship school for 5 months, but I knew it would be the beginning of my life in missions long term. So i stayed in Mexico and have now been here 10yrs later, because of the faithfulness of God in every detail. I am a permanent resident here in Mexico and thanks to Jesus I have recently been able to buy a home here and the lord has used that to physically demonstrate the roots and the stake in the land that the lord has also put in my heart for living here and doing ministry. I Love Tijuana with all my heart and all the people and i know this has become home for me! 

I work daily in a community called Zona Norte, its the north Zone of the city of Tijuana and it is most know for its darkness of the biggest red light district n the whole of North America and it is known for its trafficking in every sense of the word. However we work in a ministry called Hope Zone in this community and we have our own property there and we are working with about 45 families of the local community in many different ways. 

We believe God wants to see God entered families raised up in the community to bring transformation to them and through their lives to effect the wider community. 

We have many programs and activities throughout the week for our mums, dads, kids and teens, we also work in the streets and with other ministries there! 

This last year we have been picking up the pieces after COVID and we have been coming back together in our programs to see families stringer in their faith and to a point there we are teaching them how they can start to be key for the revival of their own community! 

We are seeing our teens stand up and teach the smaller kids classes, we are seeing them come to a real relationship personally with the lord and its been amazing! 

When working in a community like Zona Norte we have so many ups and downs daily but we stay focused on God and on what he has done for us and who he is and what he speaks over our families and their lives. 

This year we can see God moving already with sending us weekly teams to come and help serve in our family fun day and our street ministry and this is something super fun! We are looking at expanding the street work this coming year and trying to focus on expanding the education class is that we can be giving our kids. Also this year we had the chance to start pioneering a medical centre form the families in Zona Norte, we have a Dr who is our friend in LA and she is donating a morning each week to zoom in with our families so that we can help them with medical issues as this is not considered a priority in Mexico but we know that God wants us to take care of our physical body too. We need a lot of prayer in this area as the problems are very complex and the more we work in this area the more we are seeing how big the need is with medical things! 

We believe that we will be able to start to build our 5 story community centre this year for our community. God has given us a vision of a 5 story building for our community to be a light and a safe place to grown and discover more about Jesus and more opportunities for our kids and families. This last 4 years we have been fund raising for this project and we are seeing the lord move in incredible ways that we would never have imagined! We are so close to being able to build and start this project! 

I am believing and dreaming for a community cafe in Zona Norte that i will run and over sea with the mums and teens, a place where people can come and feel they belong there, a place where people can come get trained in Barista and then go on and get work and also run the place! It will be an arts cafe and a place of refuge for many. This is something the lord spoke in 2017 and he has been bringing it up more and more over the last few months and reminding me to dream again. 

I have my home and i am so excited for what God will do in my home too, i have been in there for 2 months and have already had 3 visitors come and stay, one from England, one from Sweden and one from Switzerland! 

I love having a home where i can have people come stay and come visit! 

Also with the faithfulness of God during the process of buying a home he spoke that by unlocking the door of my home God would release the last 2 dreams/promises that he has spoken over my life, one of which is the cafe and one of which is to be married and have my own family!

God is faithful to his promises, I now have a boyfriend who is called Uriel, he is working on our base and he is from Tijuana born and bread!  So its amazing to see how Gods timing is perfect and so good! 

If you would like to be added to my mailing list please feel free to contact me here: Paula.ossullivan1982@gmail.com