About Us
Steve
Born in Colorado, Steve grew up immersed in a church community with a vibrant missions culture. Early church mission trips led him to attend two schools with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Mazatlán, Mexico, deepening his draw to ministry and cross-cultural work.
In 2013, Steve moved to Durango, Mexico, where he now serves as the director of the Bethel Bible Institute, where his passion for academics and experience in video production have fused to aid in launching the online hybrid institute. Alongside his ministry roles, he coaches tackle and flag football, fostering teamwork and character development in young athletes.
Steve is currently studying philosophy at the university level, combining his love for deep questions with a desire to present the Christian worldview as a meaningful answer to life’s complexities and develop philosophical tools for apologetics and evangelism.
Andrea
Born and raised in Durango, Mexico, Andrea pursued a degree in architecture with the dream of using her skills to help those in need after being inspired by shows like Extreme Makeover Home Edition. After becoming a Christian in 2009, frequent visits from international missionaries to her local church ignited a deep love for missions and discipleship.
In 2015, Andrea did her discipleship training school with Youth With A Mission and traveled to Nepal for outreach before she became part of the full-time staff of YWAM in Durango the following year.
Today, she continues to serve in YWAM as an architect and site supervisor for Homes of Hope, designing and building homes for families in need and providing ongoing teaching and discipleship to those she builds for.
Together, they have been serving the church and community for over a decade. Steve and Andrea met in Durango in 2013 in church. They coincidentally began serving together as ushers, Sunday school teachers, in a juvenile prison ministry, and attended the same small group. Later married in 2015, they began their journey together in missions just a month after their wedding, going to Mazatlán for a school at YWAM. During that time, they traveled to Nepal on a mission trip, an experience that solidified their shared passion for serving others and spreading the Gospel. Upon returning, they both joined the staff at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Durango, working side by side in ministry.
After several years of serving together with YWAM, God led Steve to refocus his efforts on their local church while Andrea continued in YWAM. Despite working in different ministries, both remain committed to serving the Lord and their community, and are able to collaborate and work together on various ministry activities.
They currently have two daughters, Alisha, who was born in 2023, and Sophia, born in 2026. Both have already embraced the missionary lifestyle, accompanying Steve and Andrea to conferences, outreaches, and medical brigades in other cities and remote villages.
Our Ministries
Despite working in different organizations, both of us are actively serving in various ministry capacities. My divine invitation to Durango was to be part of what God was doing in and through the Mexican Church, and Andrea felt a calling to YWAM soon after learning about the organization.
As a staff member of YWAM Mazatlán's Durango campus, Andrea serves in the Homes of Hope ministry as the architect and on-site supervisor. In addition to the practical elements of finding suitable profiles and constructing houses, she and the HoH team provide ongoing discipleship to the families they build for, sharing the Gospel and teaching Biblical values and practical skills.
Homes of Hope recently formalized a letter of intent with the governor of Durango, committing to building 50 new homes for needy families over the next two years, bringing economic benefits to local suppliers and businesses while elevating the standard of living for the people of Durango.
Steve is part of the church leadership at Bethel Sur, one of several local churches founded by American missionaries back in the 1960s. He currently works as the director of the Bethel Bible Institute, a new initiative of his church which trains and equips aspiring pastors and studious congregants among the entire multi-church Bethel network. The Bible institute is an online learning platform which aims to provide quality theological and practical training while allowing people to study at their own pace and on their own schedule by offering fully online, hybrid, and in-person modalities with a constantly-expanding library of courses.
Steve also serves as the church bookkeeper, missions coordinator, is part of the normal rotation for Sunday sermons, and coordinates the church's adult classes.
