Infant Mortality

Among labor camp workers, principally made up of Mexico’s indigenous population, there is a high mortality rate for children under two years of age, it is especially high among infants. The reasons are various but in part it is for poor compliance with appropriate feeding and hygiene practices for these young children.




Improper infant feeding and unclean utensils are a high cause of infections that cause infant morbidity among the poor migrant squatters.


Upper respiratory and gastrointestinal infections were most common and appeared to be caused by horrible air quality and poor cleanliness in things that were used to prepare and store food for children or to feed babies.



Another cause is the high cost of medical attention. It would help considerably if there was a way to reduce the high cost of health care for poor families. To date, little help is available. And, many doctors will only treat one ailment at a time. You must make following appointments to treat extra illnesses. In the process, babies and children get worse and then die.

Please, pray for the babies and young children in all Third World Countries, they are helpless to help themselves. Pray for the needed changes to happen and for the many parents that are stuck in the past when it comes to knowing how to treat their babies and care for their children. Tradition and superstition does make it hard to teach them new and better ways of doing things.




The Lord loves these little ones and isn’t willing that any should perish from sicknesses that could easily be avoided or simply treated with over-the-counter medicines. I trust that He wants to use us and for this reason, among others, he has us here to help, teach and educate. The babies are waiting on use to help.

God Bless You All!

Languages, Translators And Bibles

Mexico is certainly a land of contrasts, and has a culture made up of huge groups of people that live lives filled with great dissimilarities, to say the least. The people of Mexico are like a bowl of alphabet soup. The populace is composed of those that are well-studied, well-educated and worldly and then slides down to those that don’t know the first thing about germs, why things need to be refrigerated or how to speak the national language of Spanish. Each group draws merit to itself by the things that make them distinguished from another group by such things as the clothing, foods, folktales and dances they do. These are only some of the practices that make one group stand out against another one. Another one is language. Not everyone in Mexico speaks Spanish. Not everyone goes to school. And, many do not read or write any language at all.

It is said that in the world there are over 6,000 different languages, tongues and dialects. That fact makes it hard for Christian works to reach all people with the Gospel. It’s reported that there are over sixty or more idioms in Mexico. Some churches argue that every one, every where has already heard the Good News of God. Others believe that only about half the people in the world have heard the Word of God in their own language. I side with the second group. I have had to stand in Christian outreaches where we had to use two and three translators to get our message out to the people we were ministering to. It wasn’t easy, it took a long time and we were never truly sure of the final translation being true to what the preacher had spoken. It was impossible to know.

I have been in places where they used just one translator, English to Spanish, and the translation broke down and was not true to the speaker’s words. It’s hard to do it correctly. It’s an art and a talent and one must truly have a precise grasp of both languages to do it right.


Therefore, it is always my hope to bring Spanish language Bibles to the mission to use in our outreaches. I feel it is very important to place Bibles in the hands of the people so that they can read, study, learn and hopefully apply these truths to their lives. I don’t just want to tell them the truth, which I, of course, do. But, I hope to encourage them to read the Bible for themselves. I also enjoy question and answer times. I hope to not only bring Bibles but to also answer people’s questions, to strengthen their understanding and to help make them ready to share the Word of God with others.


Therefore, it is always my hope to bring Spanish language Bibles to the mission to use in our outreaches. I feel it is very important to place Bibles in the hands of the people so that they can read, study, learn and hopefully apply these truths to their lives. I don’t just want to tell them the truth, which I, of course, do. But, I hope to encourage them to read the Bible for themselves. I also enjoy question and answer times. I hope to not only bring Bibles but to also answer people’s questions, to strengthen their understanding and to help make them ready to share the Word of God with others.


Thanks for all the Bibles and for the tracts that you have sent down over the years. I always need more. Plus, Christian DVDs are also a great help to the ministry.

I Have Just Been Way Too Busy!

Thank you for your patience, it's been a while since I was able to post anything new to the site, but I hope to do that, real soon. Some days it seems like I will never catch up and other days I think I am being lazy if I sit down and rest for a while. But, the truth is, most days, I jump out of bed in the morning, run around like a head with my chicken cut off, ha ha, and then drop back in to bed when the day is well spent. Hardly sleeping at all I get up the next day and do it all over again. Sorry, I wish I could write I was well-rested, well-fed and ready to take a vacation some place nice, but that isn't the case.

Nevetheless, new things are on the way. And, as soon as I have access to the Internet again, it's been down for more than a week this time, I'll pay attention to inputting new things. And, I can stay at home for a whole day, I will sit myself down and attend to this site and add some new and hopefully interesting things to the page.

Forgive me for my delays. I have not forgotten any of you and I so want to use this site to help you know more about the ministry in Mexico. See you soon, with new input.

I covet your prayers, your visits and your support. We do make a good team. I just need more help at the base and in the ministry. Want to come for the summer?

Doctrinal Statement

Rancho Santa Fe Mexico Mission
Doctrinal Statement

The Bible

We believe that the Bible is totally inspired in every way, in every word and thought by God Himself and that, therefore, the Bible is the Perfect and Holy Word of God without error (2 Timothy 2:15-17). All scripture is the product of men writing as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God (2 Peter 1:19-21). The Bible is God's all-inclusive revelation to Mankind and is to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16).

The Nature of God

We believe that God is Unique as Creator of all that now exists, or has ever existed, without being created Himself and is worthy of wide-ranging adoration by His all of His creation (Genesis1:1&2). He gives life to every living creature and maintains them as well. He holds all things together and is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, and exists without beginning or end and is all powerful (Colosenses 1). All things exist by Him and for Him. We believe in the One Living God, who has made Himself known to Mankind as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each manifestation of this One Living God is equally God and totally united in essence and purpose.

Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God (John 1:1 & 14) and through the virgin birth became fully man as well. Jesus lived a perfect life without sin and gave His life as the finished and faultless payment for our sins. Christ rose from the dead on the third day and now is our Eternal High Priest seated on God’s right hand making intercession for all Christian believers. Through His work on the cross, all sincere followers of Jesus are forgiven for their sins and made perfectly righteous and blameless in Him. Through Christ's work on the cross we receive the gift of the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:9&10)

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is also altogether God and is the Personal Agent of the new birth. He convicts men and the world of sin and calls them to repentance. He lives within the believer to guide and empower them to give pleasure to God, giving believers the will and the power for living the Christian life, fulfilling God’s plan for their lives. (Galatians 5:16-26)

satan

We believe satan is the accuser of the believers and is a real and treacherous adversary of the believers and the church of God and His Christ and must be battled against using spiritual weapons (Ephesians 6). He is a fallen angel and roams about seeking only to destroy. He will ultimately be thrown into the Lake of Fire (Revelations 20:10).

Man

We believe Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God, but that through the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, is now born with a sinful self will and nature (Genesis 3, Romans 1:3). Mankind is completely unable to become righteous on his own and all are spiritually dead until God enters their lives and they are reborn. Unless man is born again he remains dead in his sins and doesn’t have eternal life. (John 3:3, Revelatians 20:15)

Salvation

We believe that as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve, Mankind is totally depraved, and dead in their sins, and without eternal life will spend eternity without God in hell. If not born again during their life-time, they will ultimately be sent to the Lake of Fire to be eternally separated from God (Romans 3:23, Revelation 20:11-15). As a result of the perfect and sinless life of Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection, each person's sins can be forgiven and paid for upon receiving the free gift of salvation in Christ and Him, alone (John 3:16). Salvation is by faith in Christ, alone, and not by any works of Man (Ephesians 2:8&9). It is given by the grace and mercy of God and is available to all who believe (John. 3:16). The gift of salvation is found only in receiving Christ and there is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).

Note: Max Hashbarger (founder & director of Rancho Santa Fe Mexico Mission received his ordination on February 17, 1987, in Colton, CA.) He completed his Master of Theology work and has attended Harvest Christian Fellowship of Riverside, CA and Crossroads Christian Church of Corona, CA. Over the years he has served as a board of director member of several Christian Mission agencies. Currently, Max is in his 25th year of ministry in Mexico at Rancho Santa Fe and pastors the church, El Camino Agape, in San Vicente, Baja California, Mexico and hosts many visiting groups at the mission base each year.

2011 New Year's Resolutions

As a pastor, I do get asked a lot of questions; some are very private and way too personal to answer here in this public forum. But, this one about New Year’s Resolutions is one that I am sure more than just a few would like to know about. No, this is not an in-depth study on the subject but surely, as I see it, it’s a good answer and hopefully one that will help you to find your own answer in what I’ve written here. God Bless You as you read on…2 Timothy 2:15.

The observance of making New Year’s Resolutions is nothing new, as I read I’ve found out that the exercise started a long time ago, probably in Ancient Babylon, between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. In early writings it seems that there were people, even way back then, that were interested in making brand new starts, looking for unspoiled beginnings and seeking modification for their lives. I guess that today we are very similar to the primitive Babylonians, generally we are not very happy with our lives and we come to January 1, looking for something better for ourselves.

As I see it, there is nothing fairylike, numinous or eerie about the time between December 31 and January 1. But, it seems that many, many people feel that there is. First off, everyone should know that the Word of God does not condemn making New Year’s Resolutions. In fact, it’s probably just fine for us to do that. But, why wait until January 1 to break old and bad habits and start new and better ones? You can do that any day of the year; after all, they are all the same, Romans 14:5. You could pick an anniversary, a birthday, a different holiday or any other day of the week to start changes in your life. The power to change comes from God and not from a date on the calendar. Setting goals for ourselves and the seeking and keeping them is good any day of the year.

The majority of our New Year’s Resolutions are often involved with physical things, like getting skinny, trying to stop drinking alcohol or to quit smoking cigars, cigarettes and/or marijuana, etc. Very few of our resolutions involve getting closer to God, studying His Word daily or going to church more often: Almost never. We must remember that even though physical things are important they are not all important, 1 Timothy 4:8. God places much more importance on spiritual things than we do, sad but true. Most of us seem to have self-improvement goals not related to godly things.

However, there are some believers that do ask God for a desire to read more, study more and to attend church more often, but that is odd and infrequent. Yet, I must tell you that almost all New Year’s Resolutions do fail, sooner than later, you know why? Even though we might have fantastic goals, there is no magic that happens between the end of December and the beginning of January, there just isn’t.

Start doing what you need to do today, don’t wait and don’t be late, get to it, right now. Philippians 4:13, does tell us that we can do all things through Jesus, He gives us the strength. If you make Jesus the center of your New Year’s Resolutions, your chance of keeping a resolution is very good. But don’t forget, if you’ve included God in your plans, He plans to be there to help you be successful.