Tour Of Rancho Santa Marta

                                   Palace of the Pigs

               When the Lord gave us the land for Rancho Santa Marta it was a large commercial pig farm -
                         hence the name "The Palace Of The Pigs.” We since have remodeled these
                                   “pig pens” into various rooms, workshops, living quarters,
                               and a very nice place for the visitors to stay including a kitchen.

We welcome you to tour Rancho Santa Marta a special

education school and home for developmentally challenged children.
Please enjoy your pictorial visit with us.

Little girls that live at Santa Marta. Ages 3-12

Picture below is their housemom Monica Chavez

who has been caring for them for the last seven years. She is hispanic but raised in the United States.

Our teens that live in the home provided for them. They have a wonderful couple Martin and Emilia that care for them. From left to right: Victor developmentally disabled. He has lived at Santa Marta since he was seven years old,and is the school garden caretaker. Then, Octavio 16 years old also developmentally disabled. He has lived in Santa Marta for the last eight years and now works with the construction men on sight. Felipe now 19 years old is in high school in Ensenada. Isai is Martin and Emilia's son. He is 20 years old and just passed entrance exams for medical school in Ensenada. Luis is next, now in 9th grade, Miguel 23 years old, develpmentally disabled, presents Alcohol Fetal Syndrome. He works in the ranch as custodian to trash and raking pickup. In front: David 12 years in eighth grade, Obed 14 years in 9th grade and Jose Manual 15 years developmentally disabled, in sixth grade and learning a career in welding.

Vasti (left) was raised in the ranch having come since age 3 years. She is a student in psychology, soon to be finished;

in a College in Ensenada, a city 75 miles north of the ranch; age 24.

Maggie is 19 years old. Because of her learning disabilities school has been a great challenge for her. However, she just passed entrance exams to a nursing school in San Quintin, Baja California Mexico. She will begin her studies in January 2010.

Victor has been with us since he was seven years old. He has the mental capacity of a 5-6 year old.

In the background is Felipe 19 years and in 9th grade. Due to learning disabilities he has struggled
to get this far in school. He has learned to play the drums so he is
a part of the worhip team in our church.

Part of the Lawrence family, Santa Marta.

Rod and Tina (Lawrence) Struiksma and their four children, Rocio 9, Jonathan 7, Isaac 6 and Hosea 4 years old. Tina (far left) is daughter to the Lawrences. She is a reading specialist.
Rod (behind) is a teacher.
They have recently left for furlough and are

temporarily residing in Oregon. They are in the process to adopt a little girl 15 months named "Reka" from India. She will be their fifth child.

Carino Lawrence, in the middle waring lavender is our adopted daughter. She is a teacher and works with the language deficit children.

Kaye and Bill at right side, are the founders and directors of Santa Marta. Kaye has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is principal of our school. Bill is administrator of the ranch, works with all the visiting groups and is a welding teacher in our vocational trade school.

Our playground is always a popular place for the children.

It was built by Dick Anderson and church family

from Lafayette Lutheran Church in Lafayette, California

                                                                 "Ama Tu Projimo" (Love Your Neighbor)
                    As you drive into the driveway of Santa Marta, and look up the hill you can see the chapel of Rancho Santa Marta.
               All the worship services are held there, as well as graduations, weddings, conferences, and many other events.

We do not have a pastor since all our activities are geared for the children. Our whole teaching structure is about missions.

Once a year we spent a whole month speaking about different countries, their culture, their food, language and folkloric dress and dances.

The following pictures are the following: missions month at Santa Marta; our trip and team that helped with the Katrina

crisis in Louisiana 2005, the team that taught special education in the city of Kota Junction, Rahjastan, India 2004; our team

that traveled to Romania 2006 teaching about special education, the little gyspy school house that the team worked on, Chris and Ramona

with their new adopted baby Nicola. This young couple are the teachers in the Gyspy school pictured above.

As you look around, you will see some farm equipment. It is all useful to

the ranch for farming and general work... but very obsolete!

We have great needs for newer equipment. (See Ranch Needs page)

The first large building is used for many purposes, such as machine and welding shops for our vocational trade school as well as our staff

conference room and administrator offices. The smaller building to the side is the new internet computer lab.

The next three pictures are of the new two story house for little girls. We now have six houses, ten children living in each home. Two of these homes provide for children that come from nearby ranches to attend our special education school and return to their homes on week-ends.

As you walk around, you will probably see a gathering of people. They might be in a class,

a Bible study, or just enjoying one another's company.

Teen Bible Camp outreach held in the summer each year at a camp ground called

"Las Canadas" south of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

These children are observing and playing by a new pond that has gold fish! Thankyou to the adults

and youth from Home church group located in San Jose, California.

For special Mexican holidays, our special education school participates in the town parade.

The children have a small lunch provided for them during their recreation time.

Our Special education multi center school for children that manifest various types of learning disabilities.

Our present enrollment presently is 130 children that come from surrounding villages, and that live at

Santa Marta. These are very poor families so there is no charge to attend our school. Many of these

children would not be educated if Santa Marta wasn't available to them.

This is a pond was built in the middle of the classrooms. It has been stocked with gold fish. Our teachers take the children here to read and relax.

Children in perspective classrooms, very attentive to their teachers.

Isai Banaga (in the middle) just finished high school. Many of you are familiar with his parents Martin and Emilia. They have been faithful

servants with our ministry for 18 years now. Isai was born and raised in Santa Marta, just took entrance exams to go to Medical school.

Even though he is not a child in our home, we believe that he is a part of us. Since a child he has wanted to be a doctor. Medical school is very

expensive. The average worker cannot cover these expenses so we would like to ask you to help financially to support Isai's dream to be a doctor.

All donations will given to the university for his education and should be designated for Isai Banaga.

Graduation this last July 2009 ws our largest. 19 graduates from sixth grade and 11 graduates from ninth grade. We are so

proud of the work our teachers are accomplishing in the lives of mentally handicapped children. The young people in gray are

sixth grade and the marron robes are ninth grade. We share with you a few pictures.

A special education conference for teachers and professionals held in Mexico taught by Dr. Kaye Lawrence.

The following are some miscellaneous pictures of the our children. Enjoy!

Various churches and organizations in 2009 participated in donating Christimas presents for our children.

The children were so blessed by many different people, and churches. We are grateful and appreciate your efforts to send Christmas presents to the "children at risk" in Mexico. We trust you will enjoy these pictures.

A special thank you to: Christian Pilots, Newport Beach, California

Calvary Assembly of God,Lomita, California

Calvery, Canada Darin Boulivant and Crew

Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church, Fair Oaks, California

Mexican Christian Children's Aid, Redlands, California

Mr. Mrs. Pam Rivera, Home Bible Study Group, Oceanside, California

Mr. Mrs Mikey Reilly and Friends, Orange County, California

Sante Fe Christian High School, Solana Beach, California

Shepard of the Hills Lutheran Church, Vacaville, California

Sonrise Community Church Singles, Santee, California

Steve Cazares and friends, Jamul, California

We are especially indebted to all our faithful friends

who have blessed us both prayerfully and financially

during this past year 2009. Many have given

year end gifts..."gracias". We pray God's very

special blessings for you and your families.

May He enrich, and warmly bless your lives

because of your sharing with our family in Mexico.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like

the directors Bill and Kaye Lawrence to visit

your church to share personally about

Santa Marta Ministries

619-258-1358

Have a wonderful blessed 2010.

MORE PHOTOS TO COME of Children... School.... Home!

This is in the center of our "U" shaped school. A fountain and fish pond built by Home Church in San Jose, California.

Happy New Year to you.