A Tauranga couple have set up a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Mexico by following their dreams – quite literally.
Former Mount Maunganui resident Wendy Roberts realised her family’s future was in the North American country after waking up from a dream “sent by God” in 2015.
“I saw a picture in my dream of a two-story, white Spanish building and a lot of details,” Roberts said. Once she woke, she wrote every detail that she could remember down.
Five years later, the Roberts were in Mexico volunteering at the Tijuana YWAM base when she had another dream, which again she wrote down.
“It was crazy specific. It said: ‘Your retreat and YWAM base will be between 50-55 minutes from Cabo’. We were volunteering at the Tijuana YWAM base and never imagined starting our own base.”
The Roberts family outside their YWAM base an hour out of Cabo.
She stored that dream away in her memory and carried on. When Covid-19 hit, the Roberts moved from Tijuana to Mazatlán to study. While there, they visited a small community named Cerritos, about one hour north of Cabo, and came across a hotel for sale.
“It had all the details from my dream that I’d seen five years before. I knew we were meant to buy it and begin running it as a retreat for pastors and missionaries,” said Wendy Roberts.
Before they had to leave for La Paz for a ferry, she asked her son Toby to put his location in his phone to find the time it takes to Cabo. When Toby told them it was 53 minutes, Wendy was astonished.
The Roberts moved to Mexico in 2020 – just a month before Covid hit – and bought the hotel, turning it into the Olas Retreat for pastors and missionaries. Around 200m away, they began to pioneer YWAM Cabo.
The Olas Retreat pastors and missionaries.
“The aim of YWAM Cabo as a Christian ministry is to know God and make him known,” she said.
“We will do this by caring for those in our communities, which looks like building homes for the homeless, providing food and essentials and training.”
Since beginning to build the base, they’ve had 40 volunteers from around the globe come to help, and they believe half have come from the Bay of Plenty.
During the construction stage, volunteers from Tauranga’s Curate Church flew across to help the family with the YWAM Cabo base. “We’ve got a couple here now from the Mount helping. They’re wiring the kitchen for us,” Roberts said.
She said it’s really encouraging to have received help from Bay of Plenty volunteers– but next February, the project will need more assistance.
The volunteers will be doing certain tasks depending on their skills and the needs of the base at the time. “We have ongoing maintenance, gardening, and administration work,” Roberts said, plus they need help hosting and with hospitality.
The Roberts in Mexico. Photo supplied.
Brendan Roberts said volunteering is so rewarding. “When you give, you receive back so much more than you would ever expect.
“When you come to a YWAM base you’re there to serve, which turns our beliefs on its heads. Our natural Western culture is so much about being served.
“Whereas with an opportunity to volunteer either here or anywhere else, it’s about serving others; we are focused on the care of others rather than the wants of ourselves.
“Great volunteers are those who are are wanting to help and serve others.”
To find out more about the Cabo YWAM base and learn more about the Roberts family story, visit www.robertsmexico.com/our-story/.