It is nearly impossible to condense the past year into a page and convey with any accuracy the joy, heartbreak, blessings, trials, and growth I have seen and experienced. It seems cliché to say, but words are truly insufficient to show those who have not seen this world any glimpse of the impact you and I have here in Mexico. It is seen in the smile of a Mexican child helping build his new home and the tears of a mother looking out the window of the first home she has ever owned. It is realized in the wonder of youth pastors seeing the lives of teenagers changed forever over the course of four days. What happens here can be recognized in lives of participants who cannot help but take their many comforts less for granted and be more thankful for what they have. It is echoed for years to come in people’s remembrances in recalling the first moment they realized the world is so much bigger than they.
This year has beautifully unfolded into a continuous progression of these moments and many more of like kind. I never grow weary of seeing the gratitude of a Mexican family receiving a house with a roof that won’t leak in the next storm. Likewise, I can never tire of hearing the phrases saying, “as much as I thought I would be giving to the Mexican family, I received far more from them in return,” which seem to regularly permeate the final campfires of our participants. Seeing how God uses the vast array of people who come on Amor trips and works in the lives of the families we serve has reminded me that God in fact does not call the qualified, he qualifies those who respond to His call. And, contrary to what may be our natural direction of thought, He uses those in need as vessels to bless those with plenty.
I was recently able to experience this paradox in a profound way while working with a group of middle school students. This group from Nevada had decided to forfeit their normal holiday routines and spend the turn of the New Year building a home for a very needy family. The Quintero-Tapia family, consisting of Francisco, his wife Enis Yesenia, and their five children ranging in age from two to seventeen, were living in a one-room structure with a tarp as a roof and dirt as a floor. They met us with smiling anticipation as we drove in to begin construction and worked long hours alongside us all of the four days it took to complete the project.
What is amazing about this family is not so much its willingness to work with us, but rather the conditions from which they helped us. Francisco and Enis worked from morning till night with us on every stage of the project, which included hand mixing and pouring a 22’x22’ cement slab. What we later learned was Francisco, at age fifty-five, had seriously injured his back and had been unable to find work for some months as the prospects for a job are few in Mexico to a man in his condition. Additionally, we discovered from neighbors that Enis, aside from raising five children, had to fight bouts of epilepsy without being able to regularly afford medication. Furthermore, in order for us to have sufficient space to build their new home, the family had to tear down the existing house and spend more than one night spread between the shed in which they kept their rabbits and chicken, and whatever accommodations their neighbors could afford them. This willingness to sacrifice out of a necessity-born desperation reminded me of the holy family’s forced beginning in a stable. As we were able to share our resources with them, they shared with us a joyful faith that God would provide for them in all things. It was an honor for us to allow them an opportunity to begin this year in new home with a strong roof, sturdy walls and a cement floor.
Stories like this are not the exception here. They are the norm. One of the most frequent questions I receive is “are we really making a difference?” My answer is always “yes.” We, you and I, are making a difference and changing the world. We are doing it one family at a time.
This year has beautifully unfolded into a continuous progression of these moments and many more of like kind. I never grow weary of seeing the gratitude of a Mexican family receiving a house with a roof that won’t leak in the next storm. Likewise, I can never tire of hearing the phrases saying, “as much as I thought I would be giving to the Mexican family, I received far more from them in return,” which seem to regularly permeate the final campfires of our participants. Seeing how God uses the vast array of people who come on Amor trips and works in the lives of the families we serve has reminded me that God in fact does not call the qualified, he qualifies those who respond to His call. And, contrary to what may be our natural direction of thought, He uses those in need as vessels to bless those with plenty.
I was recently able to experience this paradox in a profound way while working with a group of middle school students. This group from Nevada had decided to forfeit their normal holiday routines and spend the turn of the New Year building a home for a very needy family. The Quintero-Tapia family, consisting of Francisco, his wife Enis Yesenia, and their five children ranging in age from two to seventeen, were living in a one-room structure with a tarp as a roof and dirt as a floor. They met us with smiling anticipation as we drove in to begin construction and worked long hours alongside us all of the four days it took to complete the project.
What is amazing about this family is not so much its willingness to work with us, but rather the conditions from which they helped us. Francisco and Enis worked from morning till night with us on every stage of the project, which included hand mixing and pouring a 22’x22’ cement slab. What we later learned was Francisco, at age fifty-five, had seriously injured his back and had been unable to find work for some months as the prospects for a job are few in Mexico to a man in his condition. Additionally, we discovered from neighbors that Enis, aside from raising five children, had to fight bouts of epilepsy without being able to regularly afford medication. Furthermore, in order for us to have sufficient space to build their new home, the family had to tear down the existing house and spend more than one night spread between the shed in which they kept their rabbits and chicken, and whatever accommodations their neighbors could afford them. This willingness to sacrifice out of a necessity-born desperation reminded me of the holy family’s forced beginning in a stable. As we were able to share our resources with them, they shared with us a joyful faith that God would provide for them in all things. It was an honor for us to allow them an opportunity to begin this year in new home with a strong roof, sturdy walls and a cement floor.
Stories like this are not the exception here. They are the norm. One of the most frequent questions I receive is “are we really making a difference?” My answer is always “yes.” We, you and I, are making a difference and changing the world. We are doing it one family at a time.
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