Location

Honk, honk! is it the trash truck… or the propane gas truck… or the water delivery truck… or a taxi looking for fares? In a few weeks students will be able to sort out each of the distinctive audible signals of some of Tijuana’s 3 million inhabitants simply looking to make ends meet on a daily basis. Between the colorful sights of Mexico’s fastest growing city spread out before them, and the smells of fresh tortillas and pressure-cooked beans and a dozen other identifiable and unidentifiable olfactory stimulants rising up to the Castillo, students will never be without reminder that they are “not in Kansas any more!” It is in this setting that those who have made Baja Bible School home for a year will grapple with biblical truths, not in an isolated spiritual hothouse, but in the context of poverty and cross-cultural ministry. Tijuana provides an ideal laboratory for practicing lessons of servanthood, of following Jesus with authenticity, of loving your neighbor as yourself, and of communicating the gospel in an understandable and culturally relevant way.

One of the struggles of biblical education is avoiding the isolation of many theological institutions. The harsh “realness” of the setting of Baja Bible in itself creates teachability in the lives of the students and provides motivation to dig into the truths of scripture. The fact of being out their comfort zone causes students to look at life and the Word of God and their relationship with Jesus in a fresh authentic, life-giving way.

Poverty has a way of expanding our vision to see the heart and purpose of God in a new light - refreshing our vision of the world in which we live and how we fit into what He is doing.

So it was not by accident that Baja Bible School landed in Tijuana. The setting of Tijuana makes life and teaching more missional, discipleship more intentional the Bible more alive and practical student life at school more deeply interpersonal, and the whole experience of living in a cross-cultural setting a highly significant part of the learning process.