Tomas Baca Food Pantry

Every year Jesus First gives away over 75-tons of food to people in need and homeless of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tomas Baca began a food pantry to bless families in his church when they needed help. As the years went by the pantry began to grow and accept the challenge of helping even more families. When Tomas Baca went home to be with the Lord, his family continued to answer the call. His daughter, Evelyn Gutierrez now oversees the food pantry ministry. She not only organizes the donations and food for the needy, she provides a ministry opportunity for many people to package large boxes of food for families to take to their homes. These boxes are free for families who qualify. The pantry also makes every effort to provide full size Turkey’s at Thanksgiving and gifts for the children at Christmas. God has truly blessed our church with this ministry.

Synergy Ministry
Blessing needy families and homeless with food is an example of synergy ministry. The process of getting the food is quite a project and it requires trucks, trailers, manpower, dollies, and elbow grease. Members of Jesus First bring food weekly to fill the shelves of the pantry. Many people designate offerings used to purchase food. A group of ladies who operate in the hospitality ministry prepare a meal for the volunteers. A local ministry called Uniting the Way, organizes the task of loading some of the commodity foods from Road Runner and delivering them to Jesus First in conjunction with volunteers who off load these foods. The prayer ministry joins with the pantry to make prayer available for those receiving assistance. Many people serve to sort food, form boxes, haul produce and finally clean and put the church back together again. All of this is synergy. It is amazing what God will let us do together when He receives all the glory.

Tarahumara Indians
Since 2005 we have been making treks to Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico to work with the Tarahumara Indians. We joined with Roadrunner World Missions, which is headed up by Bill Baker. In April 2005, we learned that a certain pueblo, Choquita, was suffering a severe drought and the crops that had already been planted, had not sprouted. Jesus First committed to bringing 3,000 pounds of food to help them. Over the next three trips, we were able to gather and deliver 5-Tons of beans, rice and flour. The local TBN network managed to gather over 1,000 blankets and Cabela’s sporting goods donated over 500 sweatshirts for the harsh winters. Just Sprinklers donated a trailer and used one of their diesel trucks to pull it into Mexico. Roadrunner World Missions raised the funds to pay for lodging, fuel and general expenses in delivering all the goods. They also supplied and distributed hundreds of tape recorders, headphones and copies of the Gospel of John in the native tongue of the Indians. Additionally, they supplied an overhead DVD projector and the Jesus Film in Spanish for them to show. Then they went on to provide solar ovens for the Catholic convent. God has given us a great and wonderful opportunity to work with this pueblo. In 2008 we received permission to begin teaching the Lords Prayer in the rabbinic index format. We plan to form leadership and teaching teams. They know Jesus from the Catholic influence, but their faith is blended with native lore. They do not understand the living Christ….yet.

Local Youth Missions
In 2004, as a home fellowship, the emerging church of Jesus First brought the Mike Hagen Strength Team to Albuquerque, New Mexico to reach out to the youth in our public schools. We had no facility for this kind of event so we borrowed a local church named East Gate. Over a 3-day period, we were permitted to go into 23 public schools and do assemblies presenting character teaching and making good decisions. Then, we promoted evangelistic programs each evening at East Gate. The net result was 700+ salvations or first time decisions for Christ. East Gate hosted the Strength Team in 2006 and again several hundred made decisions for Christ. In 2008, Jesus First, in conjunction with 5 assisting churches, brought the Strength Team back to Albuquerque, New Mexico. God again blessed us with hundreds of salvations. In the three crusades we were blessed with over 1,500 first time decisions for Christ. Our youth follow-up begins immediately. It is one thing to help people find Jesus, it is another to help them find a local church. So we work hard to help people get plugged into a church family. Usually, we have many local churches involved with this missions work.