19-Back to San Diego-"Mexican Ministry" Roots

The root of the "Mexican Ministry of the Assembly of the Body of Christ" dates to May 9, 1978. This is the day a tape was sent to all the elders asking for money to be paid for a man named Luis in Mexico. This matter was introduced as catalyst to  "open a new ministry for every one of us".  The tape was recorded in San Diego just before I left to Grants Pass to finish school. At the very end it names me as the contact person but I did not actually remain in San Diego long enough to fulfill that role, nor was I even aware at the time the tape was made my father was placing me in that role. It appeared to be an afterthought of his the next day.  I might have assumed that role if I had remained  in San Diego but, with the direction the “Mexican Ministry” took, I am quite certain I would not have continued for long.

The entire tape is 26 minutes long so I provide a synopsis in bullet points below. You may listen to it's entirety at this link: LINK TO ENTIRE TAPE

• Tape purpose: To open a new ministry for everyone.
• My father became close to man in Mexico named Luis, age 29, from Nicaragua. He took a trip with him from Tijuana to Ensenada.
• On this trip Luis told a story in confidence about leaving Nicaragua after the 6.2 earthquake in 1972. He had, per his report, intended to enter the U.S. while the border was open for disaster evacuees. Luis stated he got a Visa to Mexico then hitchhiked from Mexico City to Tijuana. He discovered the US border was closed to evacuees so he allegedly became stranded in Mexico.
• Luis is presented as an honest man who speaks English, Japanese and several other languages. He now works in Mexico, established himself in Tijuana; married, had a child, then lost his citizenship in Nicaragua because he had been away for five years. He alleges he became a man without a country and stated he had to lie on his marriage certificate about his age, place of birth, father's name and even falsified his name to get married. (Note: Luis never stated what his real name was and there were a few, including me, who questioned the validity of his story. A check of Nicaraguan law showed one does not lose citizenship by being away for five years. The only way citizenship is lost is when a person voluntarily gains a foreign citizenship other than with a country Nicaragua has a dual nationality agreement with.)
• Luis wants help to become a citizen of the US so my father spoke with a US attorney. This could only happen if Luis had $40,000 or could find a job no one else could do. Neither is possible for him.
• Luis wants instead to become a Mexican citizen so he can get a passport to enter US and get a job. It is a long process, very costly and since there are lies on his marriage certificate it is not possible without a Mexican attorney.
• My father found a tourist public defender in Mexico with ties to the Mexican Government who can bribe officials to have the marriage license changed to eliminate the four lies. If not fixed, Luis could allegedly be jailed.  Luis is considered by my father to be a responsible citizen, not a  smoker, drinker, and happily married so this may be possible.
• The reason for the tape is to ask for $2000.00, maybe more, to have this attorney pay off four Mexican government officials and have the marriage license corrected.
• My father states he prayed about it and “the Lord showed him” the ABC had learned about tithing and offerings but now God wants to use this opportunity to teach the ABC about alms.
• My father feels this is an opportunity to minister to Luis, have him become part of the ABC and then, through Luis, get acquainted with other Mexican men and families who may want to associate with the ABC.
• To help Luis the money cannot, allegedly by scripture, be used from tithes or offerings, it must come only from alms. If people will send money for this my dad is confident "the Lord will bless the whole congregation."
• It will take a year or two to complete the process but the attorney first needs at least $2000.00 retainer to get started.
• Luis's wife is allegedly  “impressed with my father and the honesty in his face”. My father states God is moving in the Mexican area and they are dealing with another family too. They plan to spend the night at this family's house. Another man volunteered to become an interpreter if my father begins to teach in Mexico.  (It is interesting to note that no one in “The Mexican Ministry” ever took the effort to become fluent in Spanish.  Instead more money was always asked of the people to hire interpreters.)
• Afterthought on tape: My father said he couldn't sleep after making the tape and paced the floor all all night. He discovered there was an error on the tape and stated alms are to be given only in secret and should never be made public. We are commanded to tithe he stated and are expected to give offerings he commented and we are blessed in these things through our obedience. However it is only in giving alms we will truly be blessed. Alms should be given quickly, he stated, before the right hand knows what the left has done.

From my many experiences with my father calling and asking me to go begging for more money this tape seemed just another shakedown. The ABC was becoming wealthy and my father was even talking about the eventual purchase of a jet to fly up and down the coast to teach. The bus became a series of larger and larger and wealthier homes, the Casa Grande being the final one before my father died.

I know little of what happened in San Diego the two years I was away at school. By the time we returned in May 1980 "The Assembly of the Body of Christ" group in San Diego had become much less Navy.  Most of the guys had fulfilled their enlistments, many had married, and most of the original "San Diego group" had moved on to other cities. In their place, a smaller group of "just plain working folk" existed. While there were a few "new babes", most living in San Diego now had either moved in from other areas or been around a while. This made the San Diego group mostly self-sustaining and my father, freed from having to assist with the daily activities of the church in San Diego, and all other areas, focused his efforts out of the country now, in Tijuana Mexico.

The bus was permanently parked now at the San Ysidro RV Park in South San Diego; just one mile from the Mexican border; and my father had purchased a park model trailer that sat next to the bus giving them much more room to live. This permanently ended their cramped living style in the school bus. Jon and Lavonne maintained their bedrooms in the dual lofts in the bus and my father and Yvonne used the trailer as their primary living area.  The downside was that LaVonne now had very little oversight and her drug habit was completely out of control.  David North, his wife and family also moved into the RV park as well and were assisting with the newly forming "Mexican Ministry."

Gilbert Larson formed a new group in Denver Colorado; Bruce Leonard moved to Vancouver Washington from Seattle and started meetings in both Vancouver Washington and Portland Oregon; across the Columbia river. Grants Pass still continued meetings after I left but was in a slow process of separating themselves permanently from the ABC. A few of the ex-Navy guys from San Diego moved to Belfair Washington and  began civilian work at the Naval Shipyard. They had a very small meeting with just their families and this group never gained much in attendance beyond just those few families.

My first introduction to how the "Mexican Ministry" operated came about a week after we arrived in San Diego. My father invited us to go along with him on his “rounds” in Tijuana. I had been to Tijuana many times as a tourist but my father now had certain shopkeepers; in a mall area below the main boulevard; he visited several times per week. During these visits he would talk with them, pray for their businesses and he had, it seemed, become good friends with many of the people in the mall and a few shops on the main street above as well. 

In the next post, we settle into San Diego again and life takes a lot of turns.

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