The Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Mazatlan
SUNDAY 8:30 a.m. join us for coffee AT 9:00 a.m. ENGLISH SERVICE , 11:00 a.m. SPANISH SERVICE
During the high season (approximately October to May), tours of the various Vineyard ministries are offered weekly to Mazatlan visitors. We start the tour by meeting at the main Golden Zone church to prepare sandwiches for the people who work at the dump; an experience that will change your life. These sandwiches and some water are taken up to the city dump where the tour group hands them out to the dump scroungers. Then we take the visitors to some of our colonia churches and feeding centers to show and explain our various ministries. Each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10am to 1:00 p.m. Please be at the church a little before the departure time. Meet at the church at 9am to help prepare sandwiches and fill water bottles.
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Pastor Fred & Debbie Collom
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Children's Feeding Center
Vineyard Hard at Work
Serving Mazatlan's Poor
Each Thursday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., The Vineyard Missions Tour of Mazatlán, we’ll show you our clinic & childrens feeding center & our missions work in the poor colonias. Please be at the church a little before the departure time.
Saturdays from 8:30 to 12:00 p.m. we feed 700 needy children at 5 different locations. If you would like to participate please join us.
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School's
In
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| As Fred Collum of the Vine- yard Church drove his big van through the tight, chaotic traffic of Mazatlán streets, his eyes constantly darted from the rearview mirror to the side mirrors looking for errant pedestrians and kamikaze motorcyclists trying to squeeze between the two lanes of traffic. “You know,” he said pulling out to pass an old, weary municipal bus struggling to negotiate a hill, “to us gringos, everyone looks needy. We keep our ears close to the ground to find those really in want.” |
| Those discerning ears led Fred and his congregation to Las Tres Palmas, a hill-side community of shacks located across the highway from Mazatlán´s thermal electric plant. As Fred drove off the highway onto a deeply rutted, dirt road, the van shook and lurched. “This is why I go through shocks every six months,” he commented. Halfway up the hill, he stopped in front of a building with a corregated tin roof, corregated tin siding and cinderblock foundation. This was Tres Palmas School. |
| The inhabitants of the Tres Palmas village make their living scrounging the local dump for saleable items. The Vineyard first began working in the area by providing a school scholarship program. Money for school, uniforms and supplies was out of the question for the families. The program has been a success, with 90 children being sponsored (for a mere $125US a year donation). But they noticed the smaller children were being ignored. |
| “The families used to take the little ones to the dump with them. But the kids were killed by the bulldozers. Some sent their children to the nearest school in the next town, which involved the kids walking along the highway. The kids were killed on the highway. So they left them at home all day while they picked through the dump. We thought, let´s give these kids a chance,” explained Fred. |
| Through donations, the congregation was able to build a one room school two years ago, and even installed bathrooms. When they opened their doors, 22 kids were in line to start. When the children began to faint with startling regularity, they realized that because the parents left at the break of dawn for the dump the children had not eaten all morning. So they began a feeding program to provide breakfast for the students. |
| They originally ran into a problem getting teachers. The Mazatlán government said Tres Palmas was out of their jurisdiction and refused to provide teachers. The Tres Palmas district said they were indeed covered by Mazatlán, and also refused to provide teachers. They finally circumvented the stalemate by obtaining two student teachers on practicums. Today the one room school is partitioned into three classrooms for children from 1st to 3rd grades and enrollment has grown from 22 to 40 children. |
| “Our next project is to build more classrooms on that vacant lot,” Fred explained pointing across the dirt road. “We´ll do it the same way we built the school, poco a poco.” |
| As Fred drove the van back down the precarious road to the highway, it was recess time at Tres Palmas School. And like all children everywhere, they came charging out of the classrooms full of energy and ready to play. |
