Who We Are

We (Marcos and Veronica) met and married while serving at a boys’ orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1975. We ministered there for several years, during which time our three biological children were born. 

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In 1981 we founded Olive Tree Ministry and moved to Porvenir. We were young and full of faith. Now we are just a bit older and just as full of faith! God has proved Himself faithful and awesome. And we choose nothing less glorious than simply to invest our lives in the Kingdom. 

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Early days of ministry

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When we first moved to Porvenir, we were struck by the number of teens involved in drugs, drinking, and generally tearing up the town. As the small town offered no activities or alternative hang-out spots for these kids, we opened the El Olivo Youth Center with table games, movie nights, and workout equipment.

 

Much of our first decade in Porvenir was dedicated to an open-door and open-ear policy at the youth center, and many young men and women came to know Christ through that early mission. Several went on to follow the call into ministry and are now missionaries or leaders in the local church.

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Marcos’ testimony

 

I was 19, a hippie, a socialist, wandering and wondering. God did an amazing thing to grab my attention and set my path toward Mexico. I hitchhiked into Tijuana on a cold March day in 1974. I spoke no Spanish and spent that first night on the streets, sleeping a few hours in the back of a fire truck, and being just plain lost.

 

The next day I found the orphanage I had heard about during one of my hippie hitch-hiking adventures. Although they knew I was coming, they were in no way prepared for this afro-topped, scrubby, not-recently-bathed product of the 60s who walked in looking like the first cousin of Bob Dylan and Keith Green.

 

I had never previously heard the Gospel, but the orphanage director, Juan, shared Christ with me every day for six weeks. He told me about heaven and hell, sin and repentance, justification, and salvation. None of it made an ounce of sense. I was unimpressed.

 

Then, one night (Good Friday!) Juan happened to mention that Jesus wanted to live in my heart. Wow! I had never heard anything quite that cool. It was perhaps too good to believe, but also too good to ignore in case it was true. I took the risk.

 

My life changed that night. Being born again on the mission field, becoming a missionary was a rather natural process. I was already on the field! I was discipled by Pastor Von, who regularly went to Tijuana to minister to the poor and orphans. Von was mostly about missions. It’s what I learned, and also what I saw in scripture.

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Our family

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An essential area of our ministry has been to welcome children into our home. We have a family of fifteen kids, twelve of whom were just loved into the fold. Only the two youngest are still at home, the rest are mostly serving the Lord in different parts of the country.