Tijuana Partnership

Tijuana is a growing city with people from Southern Mexico coming for the jobs in the north.  New colonias are constantly being built. As such, we've partnered with a church planting network headed by Juvenal Gonzales.  The network has touched over 20 of these new colonias all around Tijuana.

Juvenal Gonzales came to know Jesus in 1987 after being told he had only eight months to live, due to a failure in his lungs. He gave his life to Jesus, not to get his lungs better, but because he heard of Jesus' love and sacrifice for him.  He began to serve God out of this love, getting seminary training in San Antonio, TX, and then in North Carolina.  In North Carolina, he was ordained as a pastor and started a vibrant ministry.  In 2006, his family was called to work in Tijuana, to pursue a vision that they were honestly quite afraid of.  They would be leaving the comforts of a great church, a great job for Maria (Juvenal's wife), and great friends.  But they made the move, and have been blessed to see God at work.

The Gonzales family serves together.  Maria, a RN at Scripps Chula Vista, does many things for the church planting movement.  The three children- Sarai, Neftali, and Ishmael- are all actively involved as well.

Ethnos has partnered in the following capacities since 2008:

- Prayer

- Periodic trips (ranging from seasons of monthly visits to quarterly ones) to join the church plants in the colonias for outreach.  The outreaches have included kids camps, medical and nutrition clinics, and helping with worship services.

As we look ahead, Ethnos looks to continue with Juvenal to start new churches and gatherings throughout the city.