Faith In Action

In this episode, George Ramirez shares his inspiring journey leading the police chaplains program in Tijuana, Mexico, highlighting the impact of faith-based outreach on first responders and youth. Discover how love in action transforms lives and communities.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to God's Toys, the broadcast ministry of Ingater National Relief. Where our mission is to share the love of Christ with others around the world. We disciple and raise up leaders to preach the gospel to unreached people groups, minister to the inner city and poverty-stricken areas in the US and abroad. Provide support to local police and relief organizations in response to natural disasters. We work to train up chaplains in the police and civilian industry. And we assist churches in training teams permission in disaster response. We hope you're blessed by what you hear in this next half hour or so about what God is doing through this ministry.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

And um he is the one that is currently the commandante or the leader of our police chaplains program in in Tijuana, Mexico. And there are so many exciting things that are going on that we wanted everyone to hear about. And so I don't want to take too much time, but maybe Jorge, what you could do is just start by uh you know giving us a little bit of your background and your testimony.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Okay, well, um, you know, um you came down in 2013, I believe, and you um, you know, you had a heart for the first responder here in Tekuana. And I remember that you guys came, you guys were talking to Pastor Chris about starting a chaplain program here, and um you guys were looking at the fire department, and somehow it turned into a police chaplaincy. And so in 2014, uh, well, actually, I think 2013 into going into 2014, we were getting trained. There was a total of five of us. And um, and well, the ministry started in 2014. We went out to the first police station. Um, you know, it was really weird because I don't really have a history with uh police officers. I don't have like um, I don't have a any connection. Uh I don't have any relatives or family members that are police officers, but you know, the Lord put this this heart for the police officer, and it's really interesting because I see the same heart in a lot of the chaplains that are that are actively serving them right now. And uh so yeah, basically that's how I got involved in the the chaplaincy in 2014. And you know, it's been what um 12 years now, and and I'm still here. So so yeah, very, very blessed and very happy to be a part of this.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

So tell us about what's your role as uh the the head of the chaplains.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Well, you you said comandante, but the Lord always tells me I'm just the water boy. Just the water boy, I'm just sitting here on the sidelines watching the Lord work, uh watching him use the people. He he uh uh you know puts this the same feeling that he put inside of me to to go out and love on these uh police officers. And if the Lord wills, you know, we'll be moving into the the fire department next year. And um, and yeah, well, uh, you know, in 2000, um what was it a year and a half ago, yeah, so it wasn't that long ago. Um I was uh uh I was kind of like the assistant, kind of just you know, here um taking orders and and I was really happy, you know, life was easy. But um, you know, the um the other um well, my supervisor at that time, Idam, you know, he started a business and it started to take to take off and he started doing really, you know, really good in his business and he couldn't juggle both uh both operations. And so uh about a year and a half ago, um, you know, I you know stepped into the role and um and yeah, basically that's what's going on now. So now I'm just coordinating, you know, um just continuing the the steps that I was taught by by you, Pastor Gary and Iram. And um, you know, we're staying focused on on the mission, which is sharing the gospel to the first responders. Um and you know, I actually like to share that that mission statement every month or every two months with the chaplaincies, with the chaplains, so that way we stay focused on the march. So everything that we do, whether it's uh uh a camp for the juvenile police, whether it's a police breakfast, or you know, something that we're doing with the police widows now, uh, and some construction projects for these police officers that go through hard times, it's all focused on that goal, is to share the gospel. Like these things are just like little, you know, the they really appreciate it and they really enjoy these things that we do for them. But it's it for us is just uh what we use so that we can continue having the door open at the police stations and with the juvenile police so that we could share the gospel.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

That's the yeah. Well, I I do want to make a special shout out to uh Ian Perez and uh uh because he's the one that that helped uh start this whole thing, and uh he and I went to the that first just wandering into one of the police stations or uh the delegations, delegaciones, um, and and then it just grew from there. And uh like you said, so at first the police weren't interested, and they go, Yeah, we don't we don't really think we need chaplains, and there were no chaplains anywhere in Mexico, even the military didn't have chaplains, and so it was like something that was pretty much unheard of, and then um we decided well we'll host a dinner, and you know, we had gone to the fire department, and the fire department said, Oh yeah, we'd love to do that, and and so um so we said, Okay, we're gonna have a dinner, and you know, it looked like that the you know, everybody coming was gonna be be fire, and then maybe we're gonna have five police there. And the the night that it came, we had like five firemen and like 90 police, and so you know, I mean it that that's how it all started, and and you know was was an integral part of that, and uh we definitely miss him, but but we're blessed, George, that to have you, you've been doing a phenomenal job. I I gotta say that. And and I'm just so impressed to see, you know, um all the things that we are involved in. So let's start by kind of taking apart the ministry and and talking about each segment. So talk about what we do um for the for the police officers.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Okay, so right now with the police officers, we um we go to the police station, they line up the police officers, and they give us five minutes. We really maximize the time by sharing uh the gospel and also sharing God's word. And so it's um, you know, we do altar calls, or we say altar calls, right? But we you know, we we we announce, you know, you know, being forgiven for your sins and if anybody wants to accept Christ. I I really push the the chaplains to do that once a month. And then um from there, you know, we we do the indirect um discipleship. So we'll share, you know, different topics on faith, um, the Holy Spirit and uh forgiveness of sins, you know, stuff, you know, for new believers at the police stations. So we're really blessed that we can do that. Um so then after that, we have some coffee and some you know cookies or something for them to, you know, snack on before they go out into the field. And during that time, we have chaplains that are like there, you know, just making small talk with them, trying to develop uh trust with the police officer. And the goal is to um to you know find officers that are showing interest and hook them and start discipling them. So uh uh, you know, a long time ago we tried to do group discipleship and it really didn't work because uh the police officers have um their shifts change so much, you know, that it's kind of hard to get everybody together at the same time. If it's you know, even three, four officers, it's it's difficult. So we went back to one-on-one discipleship, and so that's what we're doing. Uh so um I've been walking with an officer since uh October. He was going through a crisis, and um the Lord brought him to me. And um so I just walked with him through his crisis. We started doing uh navigators together. Now we contact each other like every day for a while there. He was at my house every day. Uh we were going to Costco, to the gym, to the Home Depot together, just hanging out, you know, just trying to do that that one-on-one um uh discipleship, but also just walking with them. And so I've noticed that a lot of times that um the police officers that are drawn in are usually officers that are going through crisis. You know, just recently uh there's another officer whose wife just died, and she she was I don't know, she was probably like 40 years old. She left behind uh um uh a four-year-old son, a uh 11-year-old son, and a 16-year-old daughter. And uh so yeah, so now it's it's you know, we're gonna come alongside him and and walk with him and and look for that discipleship with him and um get him plugged into a church. And um, yeah, that's the goal.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Wow. Well, you we recently just did a um a project of helping a police officer to uh rebuild his home, right? What were the circumstances with that?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Well, in his neighborhood, there was uh somebody that was burning wire. That's really common in Mexico. People will burn the the like the rubber or the plastic off the wire so they can get the copper out and go sell the copper. Well, it you know, ended up, you know, catching on fire, and he caught his house on fire, and then four houses to the right and four houses to the left. Well, it just happened to be that a police officer was his neighbor, and so his house completely burnt down. Uh, and so, you know, they took up a collection offering um at the police department. He was just, you know, trying to gather resources together. I went over there to to visit his house, and he had like some like old pie woods that he got together, and so he was um when he finally got enough material and uh financial resources, he started building. And so we had the the privilege to to also contribute uh to that, uh not just uh financially, but also with hands uh on deck, and so some chaplains uh from Air from Anchored International Relief and uh Pastor James and Steve and Salvador from Tijuana went to go help them build. And um, you know, when when other officers see that, you know, it really it really kind of just really impacts them when we tell them, you know, the Lord loves you and and so do we. You know, when we don't have anything to like show them that, you know, they don't they don't believe it, you know, because nobody really cares about anybody nowadays. But when we're able to to demonstrate it, you know, physically, it just it really uh sinks in. And so that was uh a huge blessing. And we also helped another police officer, not to the same degree, but we were able to get um some plywood and some uh some two by fours for her roof that she same thing happened, she burnt her house burnt down. She had a property in another part of Tijuana and she had already started building because hers burnt out in December. And so um, so yeah, we're looking at the same thing, trying to get a team together and and go over there and um and help her with some some work that she she's already more advanced on her house, you know, but she's doing it in sections, so so hopefully uh there's a spot for us to go and and and you know do something for her, maybe some plaster or put a window in. You know, she's almost done, but it I just feel like it's a good opportunity for us to show the police force that you know the chaplain ministry really, really does care. Because the the um the government, they don't really take care of their uh police officers here. You know, uh last year in 2025, I I don't have the exact number, but I think it was like 300 and I want to say 348 police officers died last year. So they they have little safety and uh they don't have any benefits and you know it's it's rough and they they're at the front of everything, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yeah. Well, you know, the the as far as anchored goes, one of the I I would say hallmarks of what we do is that we demonstrate the love of Christ, and then then we're able to say, like you said, because they always ask why are you doing this? And we say, because Jesus loves you, and so do we. And then then when we go to share the gospel, then then there's some real credibility there because they've seen love and action. And and that was really, you know, modeled by Jesus as he would go and heal the sick and feed the hungry, and you know, they saw love and action, and that's what we want to see want to demonstrate to them. The the other thing that really hits me that I love is that we're not just about you know getting them to raise a hand or say, yeah, I accept Jesus, and then just leaving them. We're all about discipleship and seeing them grow in Christ. And so just really, really excited for for those things. And then um tell us about what we're doing with the the youth, with juveniles.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Okay, well, um, I would say around five years ago, I I went around to um around the whole city. There's this program called the Juvenile Police Program. And it's basically a uh program that the that the crime prevention department put together for the kids in different neighborhoods around Tijuana. And so it's a Saturday um morning program, so that kids that don't have anything to do on the weekend they can go and you know do some exercises, you know, hang out with some of their friends and and you know, do do an activity. And so that's really important in a in a um city like Tijuana because there's not a whole lot of things that that you can do. There's not a whole lot of recreational parks. Uh they just barely built one like three years ago and it's on the east side of Tijuana. So it's it's good for the people in that area, but you know, some out in the west, it's it's not really uh practical. So so you know, kids are looking for things to do. And you know, we we've heard the news reports and I I have some pictures I can't show, but you know, kids are getting involved with with the cartels, you know, and it's really similar to um you know the inner cities of of California, you know, the the gangs of Los Angeles or Chicago. The only the only twist here is that you know kids in Los Angeles or or Chicago will get kind of saved by a jail sentence. And here there is no jail sentence, it's a death sentence. You know, so it's it's it's you know, so um they'll use these kids to do the dirty work and they don't really care about them. So um, so you know the police officers have the this program for them. So I went around to to uh the different uh units. There was a total of 20 units, and um I noticed that there were kids with with problems, like serious problems. Uh uh, you know, for example, there's one officer who approached me um and she said, you know, I'm I'm struggling because uh you know I have kids in my group. She said, There's not that many, it's like three or four kids, where the mom is on drugs and they kill the dad, or vice versa, the they they kill, you know, the the mom and the dad's all messed up. And so now the kids are floating around the neighborhood. You know, one of them's with the neighbor, the other one's with the grandma, the other one's with, you know, someone else. And and uh my job is to turn these kids in, but if I turn them into the system, you know, they're um they're gonna get lost in the system and they already don't have a family. And so um so yeah, you have cases like that, you know, with uh a city of Tijuana that has gone through three cartel wars, you know, these are the these are the secondary effects. So um so anyways, uh after the the transition a year and a half ago, when I when I I you know took the lead, I I just I always wanted to go back to those uh units. And uh so now we have some chaplains available, and so so we started sending them into these uh police units, the juvenile police units. And so what they do there is they go and um they'll take like some, we provide some Migloos and some tea, so they could take some mics tea to the kids while they exercise and train. Uh we also have access to like groups of them so that the chaplain could do uh Bible studies with with these youth. We can share the gospel to the whole unit. These units consist of like 50 to 90 kids per unit, so it's they're they're pretty good-sized groups. Um and um, you know, we also do debriefings, you know, if there's kids that need to talk or need to share something that's on their heart or mind, then the chaplain will be able to debrief them. So we have uh two chaplains um uh stationed uh per at a unit. Uh there's a total of 16. The the number of units of of the city have gone down. Um so we're trying to get chaplains into all of these units. Uh these units are made up of two interesting groups uh of youth. And one of them is a general population. So these youth, um these youths, they they want to, you know, when you talk to them, you know, some of them they they want to be, you know, police officers or or military officers. So it's beneficial for us to reach them with the gospel before they go out into their line of work, whether it is an officer or maybe a dentist or I don't know, um, whatever they do. Uh so it's beneficial for us to reach them for the Lord before they take that next step. So, you know, if if they do become police officers and they heard the gospel and the Lord sealed them with the Holy Spirit, then you know, we're hoping that they'll be Christian police officers in the next generation. Yeah. And the other group that's in the juvenile police is called the uh conditioned group. And there are kids that had already gotten into problems at school, whether it's uh fighting or contraband or you know, smoking, um, you know, thing, you know, things that kids do at school to get in trouble. So they'll send them there to these different units, and their parents have to go and make sure that they're there and they have to sign for them, and they do that for, I don't know, depending on what they did, anywhere from four to four months to six months to a year. And so that's another group of interest because if these kids are already heading down the wrong path, and we're able to the same thing, reach them with the gospel, uh, give them hope, give them uh uh, you know, identity, and then you know, maybe they won't keep going down the wrong path. And you know, if if we don't reach them, the the world is always ready to to to train and and educate them for, you know, to do wickedness.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

So well, you know, one of the things that that hit me is sometimes people say, well, you know, we've got our own problems here in the US. What do you what are you doing in Mexico? And and you know, a lot of the problems that we have in the US are coming via Mexico. And so when we can impact these kids for the gospel and and really, you know, get them saved and discipled, and and then then we're going to make an impact on. on the US and so a positive impact and and so we're you know I'm I'm really excited about this program it before we we came on we're talking about one of the kids that is uh was impacted by this program so can you tell us a little bit about her?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yeah at one of the the units that we go to um there's these um they're they're called Casao Ogares and there's a like three different um like orphanages uh that go to this unit and at one of the unit um we are I mean we went uh and had like a barbecue for them right and so um was that with the team that came from the U.S. Yeah with the team went to the U.S. and and so um you know we're giving out Bibles well you know we shared the gospel you know the kids raised their hands um you know we want to make sure that they have a Bible we we try to be really clear like if you don't have a Bible if you if you accepted Christ and you don't have a Bible at home raise your hand we want to give you one and so so we did that and I don't know maybe an hour later I was talking to to one of the team members from the states and I noticed that there was a girl walking around and she had she had the Bible so so I wanted to um to introduce her to to the you know the team member and we started asking her some questions and I asked her if it was her first Bible and she said well you know where I live we we have to share a a Bible I said oh interesting okay so um she said but this is the my very first Bible that I can call my own and I was like oh okay so so I was trying to understand where she lives right and and I said so where where do you live and she said oh I live in an orphanage and I was like oh okay so this is uh uh because she has to share you know the Bible or the books there with the other kids and so this is the one that she says this is her very own Bible and um it was a blessing because uh you know a few months later uh the chaplain that assists that unit uh was sending me a a video of this young girl um you know singing worship songs at the at the juvenile unit and so um so it was just really cool you know to see to see how we're able to um to make a difference in these these kids' lives and uh there's another um I want to say it's an orphanage I don't know how would you call it but it's kind of like a rehab for uh human trafficked kids that go to that unit too and so sometimes they're mixed in there and it's just just a blessing to be able to minister to these different groups.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Wow praise the Lord and then then this summer I'm excited we're doing a summer camp and uh or helping out the summer camp what's that all about?

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Yeah so uh at the end of July we're gonna um the the Juvenile police program has a summer camp and so they get all the kids off to a ranch and they'll do like different exercises and stuff like that. So so we go and we're uh we provide the the meals for them and I believe we're doing the math it's gonna be uh 300 youth uh 50 police officers and we're doing the math for six meals it's gonna be like a thousand or two thousand something I think two thousand one hundred mills that we can serve uh in three days and so we're getting a team together to to go do that and like I said this isn't like the focus but what we do is um we're showing them again you know that we we're there for them and so what does that how does that benefit us? Well it keeps the door open so that we can keep sending training chaplains with sending them into these units to share the gospel with uh these kids and like you said you know hopefully change the direction of some of these kids that are already in trouble and slow down the the problems that you guys are having in the states because we we all know Tijuana is like a big contributor to a lot of the issues and probably not just California. Yeah oh no well yeah countrywide for sure now um I I think you know we've had in the past we've had an opportunity uh even on the summer camps to share with these kids right whether it's one-on-one or even as a group yeah no we we def they definitely give us a spot so we have uh we can we're gonna do devotionals with them every morning with the whole group and on Thursday the last day uh we're going to um you know share a message have this really interesting gentleman named Julian from Spectrum Ministries and he was actually um raised in the streets he was abandoned and he lived like in um I don't know I think like they call them baldillos which is like an empty abandoned property so that's where he grew up he grew up there till he was like uh 14 he has a really sad uh testimony but but the Lord uh you know called him out of that and now he's serving the Lord he's in the ministry and so he's gonna share his testimony with the gospel praise the Lord and then one other aspect I mean we there's no way we could yeah so last year we did our first um police widows breakfast and we were able to give them like some um some food vouchers and some presents for their kids um so we also there's 74 families and it's a good thing all 74 families didn't come to the breakfast because that's a lot of that would have been a lot but um we were trying to find a way to be able to bless all of them and so um so we realized that they didn't have their uh civil association in place yet because of financial reasons and so um so you know we we thought well this would be a good way to really help all of them and why why is the that certificate important in Mexico for some reason you can't get help from the government or from um from any private companies if you're not registered. And so these women you know expressed that they went out looking for for support and um and they weren't they weren't able to qualify. So so now um as a matter of fact yesterday I just went with them to sign the papers and um we went ahead and sponsored that certificate for them and so now they're able to go out and and find support to help you know the rest of their group. And so so now they they like look for ways to support their families you know the best they they can and some of them are did well with themselves. Like the representative she uh she you know was fighting really hard to to get the the benefits from her husband's death and they for some reason canceled him because he didn't die on the actual job site he was he died related to a car accident. So he got into a an accident during his shift and you know he was on bed rest for a few months and he ended up dying because of the different infirmities due to the the car crash. And um and so because of that they took away uh her benefits and so she was uh fighting to try to get those benefits back for a few months and and um she wasn't able to so she finally went out and learned a trade so she started uh working carpentry and then learned welding and then got a job at a at a factory and now she's like some um mechanical engineer at that at that factory and stuff but not all the cases are like that you know there's just a few of them that are like that and so they're they're like a really close group and they try to help each other and so uh their resources only go so far but with this now this uh uh civil association being registered now they're really going to be able to um you know have more um resources to to spread out yeah some of the stories I I heard were just heartbreaking of of you know these widows that their husband maybe they they didn't die in the line of duty or whatever but but then if that happens they get nothing at all and and the they have no food they have nothing for their kids and medical care and so it it was just heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

So I'm so excited to to see everyone that that um came to that that breakfast and be able to minister to them and just the start of ministering to these um police widows and their families and letting them know that they're not forgotten. I mean I kind of feel like the police are a forgotten segment of society there in Mexico and um you know everyone kind of puts them in a a category of you know where they're all crooked or whatever and the and they're not I mean there there are many that are there because they really want to do good and and so and but we want to reach everyone with the gospel. And so I'm so excited for what you guys are doing. And uh you know um we can go on and on but um you know why don't you let as we kind of close out our program you know George just lead us in a prayer for for the police for the our all our chaplains that are going out and to the the different stations and ministering to these kids pray for the kids let's just be praying and if people want to support this work they can go to our website at uh anchoredrelief.org and uh click on donate and they can uh uh uh donate to the the chaplains program or if they want to donate specifically to our um the youth camp they can do that by putting uh Tijuana youth camp in the um memo section and also uh we'll put up our our um all of our phone numbers you can can um follow us on on our our chats and on our podcast and on Instagram at anchored relief so anyways um and we always put up uh a lot of updates from the chaplains program in that also but george I want to thank you for being on the program and uh we will have you on again and uh but would you just kind of close us in prayer yeah sure and and thank you thank you for having me uh heavenly father we come to you in the name of Jesus and Lord we just want to stop and and thank you Lord thank you for everything that you do in our lives Lord and and just allowing us to watch you um love others Lord I I just pray um for Pastor Gary and and just the the whole uh air team Lord I pray for for strength I pray for blessing I pray for direction Lord for each each uh staff member Lord I also just thank you for this uh just this beautiful opportunity Lord to to serve here in Tijuana Lord I I um I pray that you would guide uh this ministry in Mexico uh that you would bring on the people that you want uh to be serving the first responders here and uh Lord I pray that you just um really press your desire and your heart and conviction Lord in in each chaplain to serve and to love uh these police officers um Lord I pray for the ones that we're ministering to right now I just pray Lord for that um for that next step Lord I pray that they would uh just fall in love with you and and walk with you and and even be used by you Lord in their within their ranks or fellow officers.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Lord I pray that you would use police officers to disciple other police officers. And um I just thank you and just ask you all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

We'd like to thank every single one of you for listening to God's stories. To connect with us go to anchorrelief.org and follow us on Instagram or follow us at our blog at anchorrelief.blog you could also subscribe to our YouTube channel as well as our Apple Podcasts and Spotify. To subscribe to our text thread text the word air AIR to the number 949-3849282. Again that's 949-3849282 or you can call us directly on our office line at area code 94946777 That's 949 432.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

The proceeding was a production and broadcast ministry of anchored international relief