Mission Trip Report: Juarez/Aanpra

Submitted by Holly Decherd on behalf of the rest of the team: Eric Liles, Margaret Peel (St.Barnabas), Ed Abrahamson, Jerry Ballard, David Hogan, Bert Hooper, Tom McComb and Sue Gregerson (appearing in monthly Word, April, 2002).

"Why should we go 10 hours away to try and build a house across the border?" we were asked. "Why not send them the money and let them use the money to work and earn a month 's salary?"was another valid question.

"Why not just help build a house in Austin?" "There are lots of good vehicles for helping the poor right here." All are good questions and valid points. Honestly, I did not have an answer...until, in faith, we went.

The team required twelve persons: we had 11. Generous parishioners donated the twelfth portion of the cost of the house. Then, two of our members were unable to go because of a potential health threat. So, early that frigid February morn, the nine of us struck out in three cars to El Paso. We arrived, almost glitch free, in time to load in the Gateway Mission Training Center vans, cross into Mexico, and unpack at our dorm, a stark remodeled health clinic, for the week at San Matthias 'Episcopal church grounds. It was cold, but pleasant, and our first night fajitas bode well for our week 's fare.

The next morning, it was very cold. We had learned to sleep with our sleeping bags covering our heads. We headed to work thirty minutes away at the far western end of the city, an area known as Anapra. We were all very quiet absorbing the familiar but always startling poverty. That was quickly overridden by the irrepressible human spirit bustling through the dawn beginning with the omnipresent roosters at 5:00 a.m.,persistent gas delivery truck with its piped music playing the first bars of "La Cucaracha ",and the endless lots of used automobiles with signs touting,"Jonke American Partes " [junk parts ].

The first day was baptism by fire with a horrific sandstorm lasting most of the day. We had to move our building materials forty yards up the deeply-sandy hill to the slab site from their carefully-laid position beside the tar paper shack of Felicidad, the potential homeowner. She, a single mother of a son and two daughters, was to be the caretaker of the new Episcopal church, San Jose de Anapra, still under construction on the other side of her shack.

The week improved, and clearly, everyone pushed hard to try and finish the lady 's house. It was once again affirmed that we could do, in Christ, what we could not do on our own. Few of us had done this kind of thing before. It was on-the-job training at its best. Fortunately, some of the fellows were very able with the electric saw and measuring and leveling techniques. The oldest child and only son, Christian, probably fourteen years old, stayed close in his willingness to help, and we found tasks for him. We framed, fiberboarded the frames, covered the board with chicken wire to hold the stucco, and learned to splat and apply stucco as well as feather it. Insulation was nailed in on all the walls and ceiling, and dry wall was nailed on. We sawed, used an electric screw gun, nailed, nailed, nailed and painted. And we swept sand many times.We had giant burritos from the igloo each day at lunch, very grateful for a time to sit down and rest.

Steven Tighe, one of our missionaries, showed up to provide primarily the electrical wiring assisted by some of our team. Therein lay one of our serendipity stories. A mistake turned in to an opportunity to vary the trim around the front door. We ended up with a little triangle at the top of the door frame, and, having failed to find an attractive cross at the supermercado, we fashioned one from scrap materials and nailed it there.

We had three worship services: a service of Compline in the unheated sanctuary, Steven Tighe led a devotional on The Great Commission, and a communion service the evening before our final day. And Eric played Steven 's guitar for us a couple nights and led us in some contemporary hymns. But let me tell you, we all prayed together three times a day, and we ate together three times a day, and we all worked together each day assisted by the director of Gateway and his very able helper, Francisco.

Friday morning, on the way to finish the drywall inside and clean up the premises, we saw a parade forming in the sandy streets a couple blocks from our work site. There were about seventy neatly costumed children lining up, handsome and serious boys in the front with some fashioned snare-type drums. There were girls in special twirler costumes and batons fashioned from sticks with streamers on the end, and others, all as professional in their demeanor as the marching Longhorn band. An audience of adults was assembled to appreciate them; and of course, the ever present dogs, tails wagging in anticipation of the special event. How we wished we had cameras. They looked as fresh and expectant as we felt wilted and soiled.

Joy came in the Friday afternoon as we presented the keys of the house to Felicidad, her son, Christian, and her two daughters along with a visiting cousin.Several of us went together and bought her a table and some folding chairs for her dining area. She had good shelter with a main room, two bedrooms, and electricity and even ceiling fans. Her observation was,"When I saw how pretty the house was going to be,I thought it must not be for me." We couldn't tell whose smiles were bigger …theirs or ours.

Last week we got together to share pictures and ref lect on our experience. We all agreed that we 'd had a wonderful experience. We surely loved working together and developing community at a depth not possible in our normal environs. We loved seeing the surrounding rural community watch us from behind walls and fences. Those accustomed to being servants were being served by the gringos.We loved their dignity of existence in the most humble of circumstances and the pride in their beautiful children. We realized that to fully appreciate some aspects of their culture we needed to be extracted from our own and live in theirs for a while. We were grateful to be able to provide a chance for Christian, the only man of the family, to have a part in the construction of his new home. Further,we built a small house, granted without plumbing, for less than 8% of what it would cost to build in Austin. We were amazed at the cleanliness of the individuals and their attire in spite of shack dwellings in the midst of one of the great high deserts of the world. Jerry pointed out that most of that community had moved there in hopes for a better life than in the interior of Mexico: work at the maquiladoras, for which we saw the transport buses each morning and evening.

We were very grateful that each of the cars returning to Austin made it home safely in spite of exhausted drivers. God is always good. We hope you will think about going someday. While most of us are not going to be able have the opportunity to help the unfortunate in Africa or in Kosovo, we live in one of the few free countries of the world. And to be able to share the fruits of our freedom with our neighbors in Mexico is something quite possible.We are developing more ties with missionaries serving there. Pray about it and consider taking the risk. We think you will find great blessing in it.