Hello, readers! Welcome back to the blog dedicated to highlighting the work of the local nonprofit! Today we are introduced to a Christian ministry to Tijuana that began decades ago with a youth pastor in San Diego. Spectrum Ministries is an organization that is dedicated to sharing the love of Christ among underserved communities just across our borders, and they do so in a myriad of ways. They host “Wash Days” in communities, where kids can come and get treated for lice and receive haircuts so they are not denied entrance to school. They host groups from the U.S. that come and build houses for families without homes. They supply fresh vegetables, school supplies, and clothing to those in need, hold summer camps for kids, partner with orphanages…and that’s only some of what they have going on. Read on as I interview the organization’s director, Matt Kooi.

Tell me what Spectrum is, and how it got started.

 Spectrum’s a nonprofit ministry that’s been working in Tijuana since…well it became a ministry in 1980, [but] it goes back even farther than that. Started out working with different orphanages down there and working with the kids, [and have] branched out into different communities to do outreaches. We build houses. There’s a teen jail in Tijuana that we work with, and also a couple [of] seniors’ homes. All to come alongside these organizations and really build relationships with [them], and then the individuals in the communities, to just show them that God loves them, cares about them, and knows where they’re at. We just want to communicate God’s love that way.

 Who started Spectrum?

 Pastor Von Trutzschler. He was a youth pastor in San Diego* in the ‘60’s, ‘70’s. He stopped being the youth pastor and became the founder and CEO of Spectrum in 1980.

What inspired him to start this work?

 Well, it’s interesting because this is still part of the core of who Spectrum is, showing love to people in need in Tijuana. But really what got him to go down there in the beginning was his students, his youth group students, and his love for them and his desire to teach them about serving in Christ’s name. Serving the poor, working with the poor just like Jesus did. And he wanted them to not only read about it in the Bible but to put it into practice, to go into a different culture, different language, and do whatever they could to help. So that’s really the origin, him trying to provide that experience for his students. And we still do that today, we have groups that come down and serve with us…week-long groups and sometimes they come in just for the day, and they come alongside and have that same type of experience in that they get to see God’s heart for people that are underserved and underprivileged. So it’s kind of cool that that’s carried on, that string’s carried on throughout the history of our ministry.

 How do you think that Spectrum and the people involved are uniquely equipped to do this work?

 I’m from Michigan, and I’m the minority on our team. There’s 16 of us on staff. Most of them are Mexican, and they come from our neighborhoods, from our orphanages, they know the people. We don’t kind of skim over the culture. We know where to go, we know how to communicate, we know how to get to the heart of the issues. So, I think that that really gives us a leg up, an ability to have an impact in ways that maybe other organizations, because they’re more like me, Americans…I’m learning, I’m learning the culture, I’m learning the language…it’s a lot about relationships. We just spend a lot of time there, and we have people from there, and it just allows the people to trust.

 So most of your staff members currently live in Mexico?

 Yes, all of our staff members live south of the border.

 You said earlier that your mission is showing God’s love to people in need. Is that the problem you’d say you’re solving?

I would say the main hub of our work is community work. We work in seven different communities right now.  Some of the communities we’ve been working in a couple, two, three years…there’s others that go back 30, 40 years. In that time, for those communities that we’ve worked in for a long time, we’ve seen the infrastructure grow. Maybe there were dirt roads before, no water, no power…they have those things now. Kids are more apt to go to school and get an education, which is a great thing. But the spiritual climate hasn’t changed. And so, our message is, God loves you. We want to help them at their point of need. Not do it for them, but maybe give them a boost up. If there’s a medical bill or some sort of situation that we can help with, we want to be there to help. On top of that, what we do is we partner with a local church in each of the communities, and invite them to come out and use our outreaches as theirs. And so what we want to do is share the gospel, and then see people connected with a good, local church, so they can continue to grow. The problem is that while the infrastructure has grown, the spiritual climate hasn’t. There’s still a lot of the abuse, the drug use, the things that go on behind the closed doors of homes that, it’s just…it’s really tough. Just kind of all those outcroppings of what comes along with poverty. We believe that if people can start to learn about who Christ is and accept Him into their lives and live for Him, we can start to see some of these things change.

 So, you’re on a mission to change the spiritual climate.

 Of these specific communities that we’re working in, yep.

 Do you have a success story or failure story that sticks out in your mind?

 It’s been hard to find good churches but we’re starting to do that, and it’s been really, really neat to see now the trust that’s been earned over all these years with Spectrum and the people that we work with, and start to couple that with good churches in our neighborhoods. So, for instance, this past July, I’m friends with one of the pastors on Facebook and he posted a bunch of pictures after a church event that they had. And there was food, and there was worship, and there was teaching, and the whole church was gathered. And I’m looking at these pictures and I’m starting to see people [I know]. I’m like, “Oh, I know that person. That’s Euginia.” And Euginia’s come to our activities for years and she’s brought her children; now she’s bringing her grandchildren.  Well, she heard the gospel and now she’s plugged into the church, and she’s there, she’s eating food with her grandkids, she’s part of the church. I see just person after person who’s now starting to be involved in the church. There’s probably seven or eight people just in the pictures alone. And the story with Euginia [is that] her husband is kind of a tough guy, not really interested in hearing about God or anything. But now he’s been coming to church recently because he’s like, “What the heck has been going on with my wife? I’m seeing this change in her. Not in a bad way, in a really good way.” And he’s like, “Man, I want to know what’s going on with her.” And this is a success story in my mind because I’m seeing people that normally were just a part of our food lines, receiving vegetables, or the outreaches that we’re doing, and now I’m seeing them involved in the church.

 Why do you think communities having a church or being involved in a church is helpful or important?

 I think it provides a healthy community for them, when you partner them with good, healthy churches. There’s churches that are not healthy that we would not want anybody to partner with. But if we can find good, healthy churches, it provides a good, positive community for them to raise their family, for them to hear good, moral teaching, for them to seek to live lives that are productive and beneficial and loving towards people in their community. It can help change, again, the climate of their community. 

 Some of the things that we do to help, though, are not necessarily just involved with the church. We help anybody and everybody, we don’t care who you are, what your background is. You can be the worst person in the world; we want to help you when you’re down and out. We help kids with school; that’s a big push that we have each year. I believe that education can help break the poverty cycle down there because some of these kids drop out because they can’t afford it. If we can help supply some of those needs and keep them in school, it keeps them out of the drug cartels and it keeps them on a path of education that can land them a good job. So these are things that we’re helping with outside of the church. We don’t base it on whether or not they go to church. Some people have asked, (we build houses for people in need), “Do we have to be a part of the church to get a house?” No, no, no, no. We build for anybody and everybody, where there’s a need.

 How has your life changed since becoming involved in Spectrum?

 Well, I got involved actually nine years before I moved here. I was a youth pastor in Michigan, and I brought my students down for week-long trips for nine years. I was very dialed in back in Michigan on my students and where they were at and their spiritual walk. And we loved the people in Tijuana, we loved the staff…they were almost like family…but I didn’t really see that as my mission field. And since I’ve come, since I’ve been asked to come, we’re very engaged here with the people that we work with in Tijuana. We love them, and we just gained a new appreciation of the Mexican culture, trying to learn to the language. It’s something, to realize that people that don’t necessarily look or talk or act like you…there’s so many variances in cultures…that they’re people, they’re human beings, we all have stories, and God loves each of us. I think that’s how maybe I’ve changed, just my perspective has grown in that, and it’s allowed me to just have a better appreciation for that.

 What is something that people on the outside might not realize about the nonprofit world?

 It’s very humbling to realize that you’re completely reliant on people to get behind you and believe in what you’re doing. One of the lines that we walk is that we aren’t out here begging for funds, we’re just trying to communicate, “Hey, here’s some of the things that are going on. Here’s the way we’re helping people, here’s some lives that are being impacted, and if you want to get behind us, we would really appreciate it.” It’s just an interesting position to be in. Coming from being a youth pastor, I had to wear a lot of hats then. I’m a teacher, I’m a counselor, I’m planning trips, logistics, trying to budget things…and a lot of that’s carried over to being the director of this ministry. My hands are involved in a lot of different things, from interpersonal relationships to helping people get through tough times to dealing with very practical things about doing outreaches and things. All that to say, you just have to really be very flexible and learn to wear a lot of different hats, and when you work with a nonprofit I think that’s kind of what you’re signing up for.

 Do you have any advice for someone who may not work at a nonprofit but who wants to live a purposeful life that contributes in a meaningful way?

What we tell people is, there’s three ways to support. You can pray, you can give…you know, the funds that are given to nonprofits are used to impact a lot of lives and that’s directly attributable to the person who’s giving it, and we’re thankful for that…and also to go, to come down and serve for a day, to build a house, to be involved in an outreach. And the hope is to take those things back to where you live. I know one girl in Irvine, she created this thing where she would just show up at a laundromat, and…she would identify people that looked like they had some needs, and she would pay for their laundry. You can get creative and help people in many ways. I think there’s opportunities in our everyday lives, it’s just a matter of looking for them and being open to spending a little time doing it, dropping what you’re doing and engaging in it. You don’t have to just be involved on a full-time basis at a nonprofit to make a difference; it’s open to each of us.

 What does it mean to be a visionary?

I used to come down and bring my students to serve when I was still in Michigan, and when I was asked to come and be director I really started to think about, “Man, what if I was there, what would I do differently?” And I started to think about this vision of connecting what Spectrum’s done since the early ‘80’s, and even before that, with the local church in each neighborhood. How could that change people’s lives? I would wake up thinking about it. I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t actually think I was coming at that point. But once I took a trip here and heard from the board, it looked like they were looking to do the same thing, and I saw that as God’s leading that this is the direction that we were supposed to go. And since then, it’s taken a long time to map it out. It’s been six years; we’re just now starting to see fruit from it. But I think diligence, and trying to stay on track, has been something that’s really helped us see this vision through.

 So, in general terms, you would say that being a visionary means being diligent?

 You have to be diligent. You have to be able to identify what it is you’re going after, and stay diligent and persevere. I heard someone say one time that there’s success in longevity. I think it takes awhile, and you have to hold on to those goals. For us, it’s been six years and we’re just now starting to see the fruit of it, but I can’t wait to see it grow even further.

 What is next for Spectrum?

 We’re looking to do more community development things. We want to do classes to help people gain skills. Hair cutting classes, maybe, or English classes. You can get your GED by taking several classes. And what we can do is host these in the churches that we partner with in our communities and allow the church to be involved as well. But the goal would be to try to meet personal needs for people to gain skills and career abilities that would enable to them to break the poverty cycle. So that’s [the] next step.

 And you’ve already mentioned how people can help: they can pray, give, or go. But where can they find you?

 We are at spectrumministries.org. We have offices in San Diego, and we have a phone number on the website, email to contact us. Any of those three ways you want to get involved, it’s all right there on the website.

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