In 1978, Fred Collom moved from East Peoria, Illinois to Fresnillo, Zacatecas in Mexico. Fred had previously made several trips into Mexico and had decided on Fresnillo as the place to begin his missionary work. (Fred had already planted a church in a small town 50 miles from the city of Saltillo on one of his two-month trips to Mexico. That church is still going today). After establishing a church in Fresnillo, he began to branch out to other cities in the state of Zacatecas.

In 1995 with the churches in the state of Zacatecas established; a small team moved to Mazatlán and held a 21-day tent crusade and a few months later started a bilingual service in the conference room of a hotel in the Golden Zone. After a couple of years the group was growing too large for the space and needed to move. We were able to rent a facility in the Golden Zone at an exceptionally low price. Because of the limited space we held one service in English and the other in Spanish. We soon outgrew that facility. There was a large commercial space for rent right in front of us and Fred had already checked on it, but the rent was way beyond budget. One day while Fred was praying a thought entered his mind: why not ask the owner if we can use the facility for free while it’s up for rent with the promise to move out immediately if it gets rented. Surprisingly he agreed. We were there for 3+ years rent free. But the facility we were in was on the 2nd floor with no handicap access, it was difficult for some of our snowbirds going up and down the stairs. Fred realized we needed our own facility on the ground floor. One day a visiting businessman who had been touched by our compassion ministry asked what his vision was for the Mazatlán ministry. Fred shared the vision to have a place in the Golden Zone. Part of the vision was to connect the haves(US and Canadians) with the have nots and bless the poor in Mazatlán. He was asked what it would cost and Fred told him it would be around $400,000 USD. To his surprise the man said, "if you can raise $200,000 I will match it". It took awhile but the amount was raised and in May 2004 we purchased a facility in Mazatlán's Golden Zone.

We started our first children's feeding center, later called Community Centers of Hope, in the colonia Valle del Ejido. In 2001, Fred had cast the vision to plant 12 of them all over Mazatlán. In 2011 we reached that goal! At that time, the governor of the state of Sinaloa was doing a big event at the Mazatlán Conference Center. Fred was asked to say a few words to the governor. Just before leaving for the big event on the spur of the moment Fred asked the secretary in the church office to write a letter to Governor Mario López Valdez inviting him to our upcoming Sunday service where we would celebrate reaching our goal of having 12 children's feeding centers. When Fred finished addressing the governor the invitation was handed to him. He immediately responded publicly; "I will come to your church to celebrate with you." And he did come but not alone; he brought his whole cabinet as well as the mayor of Mazatlán. At the moment it went unnoticed, but we had made history. As far as we know no sitting Governor had ever officially visited a church in Mexico. He did get a lot of criticism for his visit to our church afterward. We now have 18 CCH in Mazatlán with the vision to plant a total of 30 throughout the city!