Period Covered: January–May 2025
Location: Nava, Mexico
This quarter marks the first full term of Heritage 127 operating in the school in Nava, Mexico. Our vision remains centered on raising children in the presence of God — providing education, spiritual formation, and protection in a safe, loving environment. Thanks to the faithful giving of our partners and the dedication of our local team, we’ve laid a strong foundation for long-term impact.
So far, we have not officially established any partnerships. However, we have worked on the necessary paperwork to ensure sustainability for receiving donations. We have also formed a small collaboration with the accountant of another nonprofit. While she will not be directly working with us, she has volunteered to provide legal advice as needed. Her name is Flor, and she represents an organization called Hands and Feet Mexico (AC).
Overall, the school has been doing great. We started in January, specifically in the second week after returning from our Christmas break. The kids have been doing well. We recently hosted a mission team from San Antonio, from a church called Fireworks. They worked on the school’s entrance and helped finish the classroom for our multimedia center. This space will be used for interactive classes to enhance students’ learning skills. Academically, our school continues to excel. We remain at the top in terms of school results within the office that oversees our institution. On the financial side, we’ve been working on improving our operations in Mexico, particularly in organizing donations to help support the school. Additionally, we were able to collect funds from tuition and school fees. As a reminder, our fees are largely symbolic. We charge a base amount of $22 per family, regardless of whether they have one or three children. If a family has more than one child, they pay an additional $2 per child. For example, one child costs $22, two children cost $24, and three children cost $26. While this amount is minimal, it does help cover some of the school’s expenses. Looking ahead, we have great expectations. We are currently preparing for a Valentine’s Day event, which we anticipate will be a wonderful experience for the kids. Teachers will decorate the classrooms, and the students will get to enjoy a fun celebration.
As mentioned in the previous school update, we continue advancing our partnerships with Oxxo, H-E-B, and the city. Additionally, we are considering the establishment of a coffee company as another partnership that would further enhance financial stability for the project. Furthermore, on April 9, we will have a meeting with representatives from One Child Ministry. This organization functions primarily as a sponsorship ministry, and there is significant potential for us to partner with them, which could result in additional resources and support for our school.
There have been many positive developments regarding our academics. The school has achieved an outstanding score, placing us either first or second within our group of schools. Additionally, we’ve been engaging in conversations with the H-E-B company about securing a grant for the school. We are also exploring the establishment of a coffee company to generate the resources necessary for the school to become a self-sustainable project. Furthermore, we have initiated discussions with Oxxo, a prominent convenience store company in Mexico, regarding a potential grant. Should either H-E-B or Oxxo grants materialize, we could secure significant funding that would greatly support our financial stability. Although these grants might not cover all expenses, they would substantially improve our economic position. Our students continue to perform exceptionally well. Recently, we participated in two notable civic events. In one event hosted by the city, our school had the honor of leading the ceremony by carrying the Mexican flag, an effort greatly appreciated by the city mayor. On the same day, we discussed the possibility of obtaining a city grant for our organization. Moreover, our legal status with the IRS has now been normalized—a significant milestone we have pursued for approximately four years. This normalization opens numerous opportunities for donations and grants. Moving forward, we will begin the process of becoming an official nonprofit organization capable of issuing tax-deductible receipts to donors. Finally, we had the pleasure of hosting a visiting ministry from Ohio, who spent a wonderful day interacting and playing with our students.
Partners are basically the same — we are still working on making stronger connections to improve our partnerships.
So far this month it’s been a good productive month. We participated in an academic activity, which would grant us the ability to be part of the city administrator for one day. It’s called alcalde por un día and it’s pretty good. We won third place out of the competition, which involved a test and then a video that we recorded for the kids. We also had an event for declamation where we were able to score second place. Overall, everything has been great. We were top of our office for the grades, so school has been pretty good academically.
In our partners it all stayed the same.
The school has been doing good. We had some minor electrical issues in the installation. There were some things overheating. Those got fixed to retain the usage of the AC units. The units themselves weren’t overheating, but the powerlines were. Other than that, the school has been doing great — grades have been good, and everything has been working in very, very good harmony.
Ramiro continues to play a vital role in nearly every aspect of the ministry. While his commitment has been extraordinary, it is increasingly clear that we need to bring on an administrative team member to:
Due to new laws in Mexico that restrict what schools can serve for lunch, students now bring meals from home. This has rendered the kitchen underused. We are evaluating its conversion into:
While the HEB and OXXO partnerships have not yet materialized, we have the beginnings of another partnership with the city of Nava. The Mayor Ivan allowed us to visit and pray with him and in the end he says he wants to support the work of protecting children in Nava.
While Mexicans wholly own the entity that has the license for the school, we want to figure out ways to progressively give more ownership to the local community so that they adopt it as their own to maintain. The days of American missionaries owning/controlling the school are over. We want the community to take their own responsibility and turn to an owner mindset, not a victim mindset.
As a personal initiative, I have launched One Twenty Seven, LLC to fund anti-trafficking ministries including Heritage 127. Initial efforts include:
Prepared by: Austin Adams — Chairman of the Board
Heritage 127 Leadership Team