Great Meeting With Juarez Seminary

I am writing this from El Paso, Texas where I am working this week. Yesterday I participated in interviewing a prospective field team member for the Juarez field. Today Michael Williamson and I had the most amazing meeting at All Nations Seminary in Juarez.

We first attended their Wednesday Chapel and then met for several hours with the Seminary's President John Lee. Or "Juan Lee" as they call him here in Mexico. Amor is building serveral houses on the Seminary's campus for married students. It appears that we may be building them as soon as this June.
















Scott and John Lee at All Nations Seminary

What's most touching about us helping the Seminary with these homes is that the school is full and they had to turn away eight applicants for the Semiary this past August. They have the class rooms and other facilities but no place to house them. Imagine that, eight willing students want to study to become ministers and missionaries and there is no room for them. I felt honored that Amor could participate in serving the needs of the Seminary by providing housing for these willing servants of Christ.

We soon discovered that we had far more in common than we ever imagined. John Lee is formerly from Los Angeles, not far from Amor's first headquarters in Gardena. Tijuana was also the start of John Lee's ministry in Mexico where he began preaching in the La Mesa, Tijuana prison in 2000. Tijuana, of course, is also where Amor started.

The most amazing connection we shared is when John Lee told us how several churches in Cancun, Mexico had already asked All Nations Seminary if they would start a seminary in Cancun. Last year John Lee visited and met with these Mexican pastors in Cancun and there were some obstacles discovered that prevented them from moving forward; not having a facility to hold the seminary was just one of these issues.












Seminary President John Lee

All Nations Seminary has numerous extension around Mexico and they are now in discussions and in prayer with us to form a partnership with Amor to develop a seminary extenstion at the proposed Cancun Christian University.


The final thing I think that is worthwhile to mention is that the All Nations Seminary is located on the paved road right next to where we turn onto a dirt road to drive to our new Juarez camp. The seminary is probably less than two miles from our camp.

Google Location Of University

I thought it would be interested to see where the University is located in reference to the Cancun Airport and downtown Cancun. Here is a Google satellite map of the University's location:

New Plans For The University Received

We just received modified plans for the University from Gilberto. Several adjustments have been made to the plans including relocation of the parking lot. We will be reviewing these plans and constructing feedback for Gilberto so he can have the architect make any other adjustments that we agree upon.

Another significant change is that the parking lot includes alot of "green" areas. One of the key environmental goals of this project is to protect as much natural ecology as we can. The University is being carved out of think jungle that contains an amazing array of fuana and flora.

Its Tractor Time

I talked with Gilberto today via cell phone and he had the great news that he had put a deposit down on a 20 thousand dollar tractor. In 15 days he says the tractor should be grading the roads and land in and around the University.

Gilberto also mentioned that there is so much construction going on around Cancun that wages for construction workers has doubled. Workers are now getting as much as 300 dollars a week! His big prayer request right now is to find the workers he needs to hire to begin construction of the University next month.

Gilberto will be celeberating his birthday this July in Ohio with his son. After that he will be traveling to San Jose from June 26th to July 2 or third. He plans on meeting with Scott and Steve either in San Jose or San Diego to discuss ongoing development of the University.

One key issue is the contract that Gilberto will develop detailing how and when the property and the University facilities will be donated to Amor Ministries or one of its legal Mexican entitites.

Steve and Scott are working on getting the recent modied plans of the University printed so they can review the new plans and send Gilberto comments and suggestions.

Finally, Steve was working on fine tuning the first, what I call, beta of the University logo. I call it beta because its just the first version to be used for internal documents. Well, Gilberto had great news on this front also. He has found a firm in the Yucatan who is donating the development three prototypes of a logo for the University. These logos should be forthcoming in the near future.

Huge Development South of University

There is another huge development going in south of Cancun Christian Univeristy called "Los Arboles Tulum".

Its down by the city of Tulum, some 70 miles south of the Universtiy and inland another 7.5 miles. Its a noteworthy development as it relates to the University because its an inland project and focuses more to an ecological setting versus a beach setting. Until now all resort type developments have along the coast of the Mayan Gold Coast have been on the beaches. This 4,500 acre project has major implications for developments surrounding the University. The University itself is surrunded by a 250 acre development that is being spearheaded by the Univeristy's developer and donor Gilberto F.

A Tractor Is Needed

I talked with Gilberto today and he said he needed to buy a tractor to continue grading the land around the University. The University is located in the western/center of nearly 250 acres that Gilberto owns and is developing. The University is comprised of about 12 acres of currently heavily overgrown jungle. There is a large quarry at the eastern front and entrance of the property that is located about 1.5 miles from the main highway running south of the Cancun airport (the Cancun airport is just 12 miles north of the entrance to the Univerisity). This quarry is being excavated by a private company that Gilberto had contracted with to excavate what is known locally as "caliche", a lime based road building material. The excavation of this building material is what if funding the construction of the University buildings.

This 250 acre project is guarded by a gated security building currently under constuction. The primary road from the entrance of the properto to just about the western end the property is nearing completion as the tractor clears the road through the jungle. Gilberto stated today that the barbed wire fence around the 12 acres designated for the University is close to being half done.

Gilberto is sending Scott the specifications for the tractor he needs to complete the grading and other earth moving needs for the entire project.

The Dream

After working in Cancun doing short term mission trips with Amor Ministries between 1996-2001, September 11, 2001 was a defining moment for our work in the Yucatan Peninsula. There were 500 people tentively scheduled to travel to and build homes for the poor in Cancun in the Spring of 2002 but US families' fears of further terrorist attacks on airlines caused cancelation of all trips scheduled for 2002.










The costs of re-establishing trips and projects in Cancun again was second guested as other projects along the US/Mexico border took presidence. Steve Horrex, Director of International Relations with Amor Ministries, and Scott Congdon, Founder and CEO of Amor Ministries, continued to maintain contact with Gilberto F. from Cancun, Resort Hotelier and Philanthropist. Gilberto had always been a major part of the success of working in Cancun with Scott and Steve having been amazing blessed by Gilberto with all the resources he donated to the projects. Mission trip participants were staying at Gilberto's resort hotel and he was also donating, among many other things, one of his staff members during the work projects, a pickup truck to aid in delivery of building material, and very generous use of the hotel facilites for meetings, meals, etc.



In the summer of 2006 Gilbert met with Steve and Scott in Temecula, California where Gilberto, on a trip to visit his daugter in Yucca Valley, CA, presented his dream to build a Chrisitan University in Cancun. Gilberto presented building plans and photographs of the property and facilities he wanted to donate to Amor Minsitries. His dream was that he would build it, with God's guidance and direction, and Amor would run it.

In February of 2007 the Amor Board of Directors approved the initial feasibilility study that Scott Congdon presented and authorized Scott to develop and present a business plan for "Cancun Christian University" at the June 2007 Amor Board Meeting.














Scott and Gilberto standing in front of the
future home of Cancun Christian University