Ministry Spotlight

Ministry Spotlight

Get to know the Bolanos Family, serving BreakThrough Ministries in Mexico!

Q: What’s your name, where do you live, how long have you been at Roots Church?
A: We are Ricardo and Andred Bolaños along with our children Micah and Audrey. We currently live in Vicente Guerrero, Baja California, Mexico. We have lived all over Mexico for the last 18 years working mostly in orphan care. We have been connected to Roots Church for five years, but Andrea has known Derek her whole life.

Q: What initially drew you to ministry work? (were you asked by someone, do you have a skill set that naturally flows into your ministry role?)
A: What mostly drew Andrea to ministry was going on missions trips to Mexico with her youth group while in high school. She had a pretty vivid encounter with Jesus when she was seventeen which lead her to study missions in college. During college she continued to go on missions trips and met Ricardo on one trip to a children’s home in rural Baja California. They got married a year later and Andrea joined Ricardo in Mexico serving at a Christian children’s home in the town they currently reside in. Over the years they have worked mainly in orphan care, with children of all ages. Eventually they established their own ministry called BreakThrough which serves young men leaving orphanages, provides them with room and board as they attend college or a work studies program and help equip them with the skills they will need for independent living.

Q: How do you see your role contributing to the larger mission of the church or ministry?
A: We see our role in the Kingdom as making disciples through loving community and long term relationships. Young men coming out of institutional living (orphanages) struggle to believe in the goodness of God, believe their lives have a purpose, or believe they can have the family they have prayed for. At BreakThrough we work hard to provide stability and unconditional love in a traditional family environment, in an effort to lead our young men to Christ and then nurture them in the way of Jesus. When young men have experienced the stability of a traditional home and unconditional love they are more likely to come to know Jesus, remain faithful to a wife and provide for their family. Then in their newfound relationship with Christ, they can heal from generational curses, end generationship poverty and raise a generation of Christ followers.

Q: What are your biggest joys and rewards in your ministry work?
A: The biggest reward has been watching young men experience the healing love of Jesus, forgive their families of origin, get married, raise their children and serve their community while loving Jesus. Seeing generational curses end, and the establishment of a Christian home is an incredible privilege to witness.

Q: Can you share a specific example of how you’ve seen your ministry make a difference in someone’s life?
A: Our Alfredo was dropped off at an orphanage in Oaxaca when he was three. His biological mother visited sporadically until he was twelve and then she moved to the States to work as a migrant worker. We met Alfredo as his mom was moving away and he was almost 13. He was angry. Angry at a mother who was unable to love and care for him. Angry at well meaning Christians who told him that God was good and he should just pray harder. Angry at God for not answering his prayers. Angry at himself for being unlovable. He was stealing from accounting office, vandalizing private property around town and at school, getting into fights. He was a mess to say the least.
We lived with Alfredo for almost three years at the children’s home. When we left the children’s home, he moved with us. We saw him through middle school and high school. The years were hard and beautiful. Alfredo was still angry and made mediocre decisions. But with lots of love, support and hard conversations, he started calling us mom and dad, and accepted us as his family. It’s not the picture of family he prayed for, but God gave him a family nonetheless.
Alfredo is now 28. He didn’t go to college or have a specialized skill. But he has been married to high school sweetheart for six years. They have a six year old daughter. He works hard to provide for his family. With the help of Roots Church, we helped them build a house almost three years ago. It’s the first house that Alfredo felt like was his.
Alfredo, Gissel and Aitana go to church with us most Sundays and we spend the afternoons playing board games, eating and laughing. It is a miracle that Alfredo has the family he always prayed for, and we are privileged and humbled to be part of the story that the Lord is doing in their lives.

Q: What are some of the most challenging or rewarding experiences you’ve had in your ministry work?
A: Ministry is brutal. It is messy. I think more challenging than loving any naughty kid has been working with other believers. Multiple people bringing their insecurities, fears and weakness with them in their God given calling has made doing ministry hard. Holding accountability and expectations alongside a spiritual calling while working with others, is complicated. We have been hurt multiple times by friends, by ministries, by the well-meaning who don’t follow through on an expressed commitment. It’s hard.
Another challenge is prioritizing your marriage and biological family in regards to your occupational ministry. The needs of those around us can be very great. Having clear boundaries to serve your spouse first, and then your children, and then those outside your home can be hard to implement but very important if you are going to sustain any type of long term ministry without burning out.
The most rewarding experiences are shared below in the other questions.

Q: How has your ministry work shaped you personally?
A: Ministry has shaped our family in many ways. It’s a joy to overhear my daughter playing with her barbies saying “You don’t have a place to live? You can come live with us.” Or our son asking if the new young man living in the BreakThrough house is his new brother. Our children have been raised in a pretty extreme communal living situation. they have been cherished and beloved, spoiled and sought after. Ministry has taught us that family is more of a decision than a bloodline. Everyone wants to be part of a family, and we are grateful that the Lord has allowed us to be a family to so many over the years.
Ministry has also taught us humility. We’ve been taken advantage of, made to feel foolish, fired from ministries, and in general taken for granted. Though those experiences are always painful, they lead us to accept that the Lord can use all sorts of experiences to complete His plan and lead us in His will for our lives. Sometimes the plan we are clinging to includes us, and sometimes it doesn’t. Remaining faithful to the calling the Lord has given us in light of ministry challenges is the greatest challenge of all.

Q: How do you see the needs of your community and how do you tailor your ministry to address those needs
A: Everywhere we have lived we have been exposed to pretty extreme poverty. Whether it is subsistence farmers in Oaxaca plowing their fields barefoot with yoked oxen, mentally ill, houseless individuals in Tijuana, the fatherless children in the orphanage or the migrant families living in hovels in Vicente Guerrero, the needs of our communities can feel overwhelming. It can be hard discerning where and how to serve in ministry.
The first 15 or so years of our ministry, the Lord was preparing us to serve very specific needs in our community.  As we worked with the orphaned and abandoned we recognized that children’s homes do not give adolescents the skills they need in preparing them for independence. Most of the young people leaving children’s homes were insecure, unable to find jobs, and manage money. They didn’t know how to get their ids or a drivers license. They didn’t know how to apply to college. The easiest things for them to do was drugs and alcohol.
So we started working with college age students 17 – 22. In 2020 we launched BreakThrough. Breakthrough’s mission is to see young adults in Mexico come to know the Love of Christ through being part of a loving home/community, and that their lives would be transformed through compassion, guidance and the grace of God. We hope to enable them with skills to achieve independent and healthy living, and that they would go on to lead integrated families.

Q: What is your guiding verse or prayer that helps you daily in your personal walk with God and your ministry role?
A: Dallas Willard’s version of the Lord’s Prayer

Ministry Spotlight

Get to know Julia Brito, ROOTSKids Ministry Coordinator and Daddy Daughter Dance 2024-25 Coordinator

Q: What’s your name, where do you live, how long have you been at Roots Church?
A: My name is Julia Brito. I live on Camano with my husband, Nic, and baby girl, Juniper, who is 7 months old. We have been at Roots since the spring of 2022. I grew up in the Oso area and grew up in a church-going family.

Q: What position in Ministry do you currently hold:
A: I serve as ROOTSKids Ministry Coordinator at Roots Church.
Q: What initially drew you to ministry work?
A: I’ve always been interested in serving kids. I love hanging out with them and stewarding them well. Pastor Derek asked me if I would consider being lead over Rootlets and Seeds classes, overseeing their classrooms and teaching schedules. That has since expanded to coordinator of ROOTSKids. I love serving the church and I’m down for serving in any area that needs help. I think most people know that I love kids combined with the fact that I work as a wedding coordinator. My skill set as a wedding coordinator enable me to organize, too. I don’t get overwhelmed in chaos!

Q: How do you see your role contributing to the larger mission of the church or ministry?
A: I feel like I keep getting reminded of the inevitability that people age. Watching the kids get older and realizing that they will be young adults someday, and they will be stewarding the next generation helps me recognize the value of this particular time of life as prime for setting a strong biblical foundation.

Q: What are your biggest joys and rewards in your ministry work?
A: There was one Sunday when I was covering for a leader in Rootlets and going through the catechism with the kids. There were just a few kids that day, but it was really cool to see how much of the catechism the kids know. The first four catechism questions we are working on focus on “who is God”. As an adult it is hard for me to comprehend some of the questions about the Trinity, but to see how they can see and know the truth is so cool and a joy to me.

Q: Can you share a specific example of how you’ve seen your ministry make a difference in someone’s life?
A: The Sunday I spent with the kids in Rootlet’s hearing their recitation of the catechism was really special for me. I think that being intentional about giving them sturdy things like the catechism and worship songs to learn about God and then seeing them absorb that information is incredibly rewarding.  It is also very rewarding to grow relationships with the kids of Roots.

Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve had in your ministry work?
A: I suppose just the mental weight of recognizing the importance of this ministry and stewarding the children to a love and life as a Christ-follower. There is weight to the decisions I make over curriculum, and various other aspects of ROOTSKids, to hopefully ensure the truths we teach them are true! My heart is to provide clear teaching that they can turn back to whether they remain at Roots or are just a visitor. It’s a Kids ministry so scheduling can also be a challenge. There are some weeks in a row when I’m back in kids and I find myself missing being a part of the church service. It’s two-fold: slots need to be covered and I’m happy to cover them, but also I’m not always in the church Sunday service and I miss that.

Q: How has your ministry work shaped you personally?
A: Serving in Kids right before Nic and I had our own kid has really encouraged me and prepared me to teach Juniper–my daughter– during the day. I feel more capable to do worship for her at home, teach her, and steward her.

Q: How do you see the needs of your community and how do you tailor your ministry to address those needs?
A: I don’t want ROOTSkids to just be a place where kids are dropped off while the parents learn things. Teaching the kids about God is very important to me. Something I’m trying to do soon is have the other class learn the same things that the older class does so that kids in the same family can go home talking about the same things. I feel like it would be really encouraging for the families.  We also try to be an inviting space and make it as easy as possible for new families to come in, get checked in, have questions answered, and to have their kids comfortable in their classroom.

Q: What is your guiding verse, chapter or prayer that helps you daily in your personal walk with God and your ministry role?
A: Galatians 5:22-23: The Fruits of the Spirit. I desire to display those qualities before kids, volunteers and my family. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Q: What does your daily walk with God look like and how does that impact your ministry?
A: I’ve been reading apologetic books recently. Reading certain beliefs and doctrines, whether I hold to them or not, and then wrestling with “why do I believe this?” and “how is this God-glorifying?,” “is this how he is calling us to live?”. Wrestling with these questions help me consider how I challenge kids and their little hearts and minds to build a foundation for themselves that someday they may launch into these reflections for themselves. My hope is to help them gain confidence about knowing truth and scripture.