MAY 9, 2005

TIJUANA TEAM 2005

On the last weekend of April, twenty five people represented ABC in Tijuana, Mexico. Four year old Alena DeVaughn was the youngest. The rest of the group was composed of several elementary school children, Junior and Senior Highers and adults. Our task was to build two starter homes for the poor, and to learn and grow ourselves as we interfaced with another culture.

If you were to ask Lauren DeVaughn what was the best part of the trip, she would mention the rock skipping game the children of the barrio made up to splash mud on each other. That was only one game of many that her group played with over a dozen kids in the course of the day on their building site.

If you were to ask Chris Martinez, he might mention that as he was hammering outdoors on a beautiful day, doing something that was so practically helpful to someone else, his own problems fell away from him that afternoon. At the end of a few hours of hard work we had two solid structures in place, and the satisfaction of providing shelter for two families was a high point for the whole team.

One of our eleven year olds wondered whether God wanted her to be a missionary. She's praying about it, and I ask you to join in that prayer.

Others in the team were impacted by the poverty. We learned that people who live in poverty in the U.S. live better than 90% of the rest of the world. And as we contrasted the two cultures, we grappled with the fact that increasing prosperity, curiously enough, seems to bring out greed and selfishness.* Those reflections were brought to life as we saw the living conditions of so many—dirt floors, lack of sanitation services, no running water, etc. And yet, the giving spirit of the poor people we met blessed us. At each site we were fed a delicious chicken mole dinner, which cost the host family several days of wages. And the children played with whatever they had at hand—no fancy video games or electronic equipment, instead a few leftover blocks of wood and some old tires made for an improvised basketball game and lots of fun and laughter.

I'm not sure anyone would highlight the church van taking a wrong turn late at night as we crossed into Mexico, requiring a return to the U.S. side and a re-entry to Mexico to get the directions right the second time; or having to dig out the work truck, which, while parked at the work site sank in mud over the axle; or the pigs which practically barreled one vehicle off the road; or the two plus hour border crossing; or the fact that after two days without a shower, we were a pretty sticky, dirty crew when we returned home.

Every house-building trip to Mexico brings both good and not so good, but even the latter are occasions to learn and grow. Thank you for your prayers and support on this learning curve.

I leave you with our spiritual focus which we used to prepare ourselves for this trip, from Hebrews 13:

Let mutual love continue. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for God has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' So we can all say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?' Through Christ, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

–Pastor Connie Larson DeVaughn

*Reflections of Mma Ramotswe, traditional African character in Alexander McCall Smith's book, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.