Jose Ramon and his wife Jenny are the parents of three adult and adolescent children (22,19,15). For the last 22 years Jose had worked as a mechanic, but he had always felt very constrained because of the long hours of his job. He longed to be able to do more for the kingdom. Then last year his church asked him if he would like to step out in faith and join the church’s pastoral staff. This would require his attending the local Bible college and finding a new way to provide for his family with less time commitments.
Jose had always felt a calling to the ministry, and so he felt God was now making it clear that this was the time to step out in faith. After considerable thought and prayer, Jose decided to begin making and selling ready-to-heat frozen food products. He decided to start with selling Honduran-style tacos, which are like a large Mexican taquito (see photo below). Rather than selling these frozen tacos for home consumption, Jose sells them to the numerous neighborhood grocery stores, called pulperias. Being frozen, these have a long shelf life, so the pulperia takes little risk of being left with unsold product. The owners of the pulperias then heat up the tacos, add their own special touches, and sell them as ready-to-eat food to their customers.
The business is a family project, with Jose’s wife Jenny and their youngest son helping in preparing the tacos. They started off small, but they are already making 400-600 tacos per week, and their business keeps expanding. After cooking the tacos, they package them in packets of 6 tacos and then freeze them. They presently sell their frozen tacos to around 40 pulperias, and they see the potential of selling 1000-2000 tacos per week in the coming year. At that point, they are hoping to be able to provide part-time jobs to other ministerial students. In fact, they are already looking for another person to employ.
When they started their business, Jose and his family were freezing their tacos in the freezer compartment of their refrigerator. However, they soon outgrew this, and so they applied to the Society of the Good Shepherd for an interest-free loan so they could buy a chest freezer. The loan also paid for a tortilla maker, and it will enable them to purchase a chicken meat shredder for stuffing for the tacos.
If his business continues to grow, Jose plans to begin including other products for his clients and to expand his business to several restaurants that have shown interest in his tacos. Jose is grateful to God for blessing his business and to the Christians who have made his loan possible. His life has been a living testimony to Jesus’ promise: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt. 6:33).
The Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210 • (717) 349-7033
Click on the following link if you would care to make a donation to the work in Honduras: Honduras Donations