Spring 2024

Dear Friends & Family,

2024 has been a busy year so far with many Family Serve activities and events.  We continue to "bloom where we are planted" in San Diego with a weekly foodshare distribution for people in our Golden Hill/South Park Neighborhood. Doug picks up the food from the San Diego Rescue Mission and the weekly events are so well attended that we are typically out of food in the first ten minutes! With the growing need, we will continue our weekly outreach and are considering expanding our reach even further in the future.

In April, we started gardenshare events for people in the neighborhood who have expressed an interest in receiving organic produce grown by Doug in our A Street yard. These events are off to a great start, and each person is able to harvest produce as they desire from our garden.  Our mission is to strengthen communities one person at a time and we believe that sharing our "bounty" with others does just that.

Also, locally, Jennifer continues to disciple young girls with her King's Daughters meetings at City Tree Christian School in Downtown San Diego. She is blessed to have Camelia Stout as a volunteer for the last several years. This quarter, they celebrated the New Year, Jesus' love, His million little miracles and this month's theme is Jesus' love is like Springtime.  The girls love to worship, read God's word, create and serve others. 

Further away from our homestead, we have been busy with outreach activities in Baja California.  We have visited both Tecate and Francisco Zarco six times this quarter. We received a huge donation of clothing, shoes, toys, and baby furniture and  items in February and just now completed sourcing it to many in need. We gave one single mom the supplies necessary (table, racks, etc.) with enough items to sell to the community as a way of supporting her family.  We distributed 25 food bags monthly to the community in Francico Zarco and at their request, we started teaching them English, monthly on Sunday afternoons.  Our first class was attended by over 30 people of all ages. Every weekend we visited we were met with rain, but we made it work and the motivation of the students is contagious. We are also very excited to see the progress on the local church (Piedra Angular) we have been supporting with their building expansion. Every time we donate resources, members of the church immediately volunteer their labor and time to work on the new building.  It is coming along so nicely, we are praying that it will be completed this year! Completed or not, the Lord is growing the church as they love the surrounding community.  We will attend a baptism of several new members at the end of April. God is on the move. This is Pastor Javier "dancing for joy" as he praises the Lord for His provision.

We also updated our website this quarter to include donations for St. Paul's school in Liberia. They are in great need of finishing their high school science lab.  All donations will go directly to buying the needed equipment for their high school.  They are now a distinguished high school in Liberia so this will be an important step to maintaining their academic rigor. 

We are very excited for what lies ahead this summer and would love your support in any way you are able.  Jennifer will be joining other women in South Africa in July with Amor's Women of Strength. They will be building housing for women and children and will continue community work that they started last year, specifically helping local women learn to sew washable sanitary pads. We also are planning now for summer youth events in both San Diego and Valle de Guadalupe.  We will host the Kingdom Builders Camp again at City Tree Christian School and will also hold a similar camp for the children in the Valle de Guadalupe.  We will also  distribute backpacks and food to the local children. And, we are also super excited to be planning a field trip to the zoo in Valle de Guadalupe for a very large family who lives in Tecate.  This is almost a two hour drive and will  involve renting transportation and entrance fees.  We are so excited to make this come to fruition.

Next quarter, we will host two couples for Sip and Serve and are excited to share the Valle with them.  We would love to have you join us whenever you are able.  You can also email us if you have any interest in volunteering with Family Serve in any capacity.

Thank you for your prayers and your support. We consider you the "family" in Family Serve and are thankful for all you do!

Blessings,

Doug and Jennifer McCain