Partnering With Agape Ministries to Serve Vulnerable Youth in Punta Mita
A new partnership between Unity 4 Orphans and a grassroots nonprofit near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico provides vulnerable children and teens in Punta de Mita, Mexico with educational intervention, nutrition, and dedicated mentors to help them forge paths to brighter futures.
We’re excited to join forces with Agape Ministries Mexico, serving children living in difficult circumstances and often without caring, consistent adults in their lives. Although this area is known worldwide for luxury resorts and expat communities, most locals are stuck in cycles of generational poverty.
Partnership Empowers Outreach to Poor Children Near Punta de Mita
We connected with Deborah, a volunteer and integral part of the ministry since she and her husband relocated to Punta de Mita, Mexico in 2012. They visited years earlier on vacation and attended a church service, where they fell in love with the community and local people.
The area is world-renowned for its incredible beauty and perfect climate, but the discrepancy between locals and tourists is vast and children often bear the heaviest brunt of poverty. Abandonment, abuse, and exposure to dangers like drugs, food insecurity, and teenage pregnancy threaten children and teens’ abilities to break free of the hopelessness they see around them.
Our focus is to give the teenagers in this program more hope in life through the love of Jesus and teach them goals and aspirations and what they’re capable of. In the future, we’ll have guest speakers share about their employment as psychologists, police officers, flight attendants, and other solid career paths to break strongholds of generational poverty.
–Deborah, Agape Missions Mexico
Deborah and her husband have felt called to Punta de Mita since their first visit and redesigned their lives around ministering to the community and helping in any way they can. They’ve learned to adapt to the slower pace of life, rely on their church family and fellow team members, and develop relational consistency with children and teens who attend the Saturday program.
Saturday Program in Punta de Mita Gives Teens a Place to Belong
The team in Punta de Mita gives the youth they serve hope and a new vision and teaches them about God’s love and purpose for their lives. Drug dealers have a strong presence in the community and often recruit teens with the promise of easy money. Compared to other means of earning income, the pay is enticing, but the costs of becoming entangled in lives of addiction and crime threaten to derail their futures.
On Saturdays, our teen program will begin, and we’re going to talk about how uniquely and wonderfully made they are, in God’s image. Teens often lose interest and fall away, so we want to teach them more about who they are in God’s eyes and the hope God gives them. Then we’ll help build their self-esteem and keep going from there, building relationships and empowering them to see more in their future.
–Deborah, Agape Missions Mexico
Last year when a teenage brother and sister began showing up for the weekly program it was obvious that they desperately needed a meal and positive role models. Dario and Sofia were homeless, living on the beach with their mother who was heavily into drugs and prostitution. Agape’s team continued encouraging the siblings each week until their absence while they lived with a relative in a different city and their mother got cleaned up.
In-country Partners Build Crucial Relationships with At-Risk Youth
Deborah and the team saw their love in action when Dario and Sofia returned to the program healthier and more secure, living in a small apartment with their mother employed as a chef. The transformation in these two teens’ lives is evident as they continue to seek out the weekly care and support of the Saturday program, learning to believe in themselves, study hard, and make choices that lead to brighter futures.
Deborah is great at casting a vision and sharing what’s going on and what the children’s needs are. It’s inspiring to see her and the team at Agape glorifying God and sharing what He’s up to in Punta de Mita.
–Caitlin Snyder, U4O Engagement Director
We’re encouraged by the success of the relationships our partners in Punta de Mita are building with vulnerable adolescents to help them see their value and potential. Through consistent mentorship and help with tutoring, counseling, nutrition, and additional educational support, we can help re-route children toward flourishing lives.
