—Jon

 

Team 1: BSA Troop 321, led by Allen Covey and Randy Raus
With a full team of nearly 30 scouts and parents, the Boy Scouts did an outstanding job building yet another home. Once again, the boys did much of the construction themselves, building the roof without parents help, and one scout building the latrine with the help of only one other. The residents, Ana Christina Vega Pantoja and her husband Javier Seledonio Ledesma, along with their two boys Jiovany (2 yrs) and Jesus (3 yrs) were deeply moved as the scouts drove away, having presented the keys to their new home.

Team 2: led by Beth Hanson and Kevin Shannon
Team Hanson/Shannon built their third home on Manzana 328, as they continue to make an impact on this one part of the community of Colonia de San Bernardo. They did a terrific job of working the new home into the existing structure, and once again adding their signature whirly-gig on the roof. Single mother Elisa Santiago Cruz and her children Ruth (9 yrs) and Alan (1 month old) now have a safe, secure home to build a life in.

Team 3: led by Brent Salvador, Kevin Kilburg and Steve Reichwein
Martha Rodriguez Ventura, her husband Jorge Mendes Salas and their 2 yr old son Fernando thankfully received a home from a team full of parents and their kids (Clyde and Quinn Taber, Jeff with Bryan and Josef Trusiak, Kevin and his daughter Renee, and Jon & Sophia Hall with their daughters Emily, Natalie and Stefani), along with a mix of first-timers and veterans.

Team 4: Rob fried and Steve Hazlett
Rob and Steve led a team that built a home for Juana Leon Leal, husband Martin Emilio Celedonio Ledesma and their children Miguel (age 5) ad Itzi (age 3). The home was brilliant pink with white trim, and was located next door to Team 5, creating a unique team experience for these two teams from Saddleback church.

Team 5: led by Tom Feruzo and John Taylor
Tom and John were first-time leaders, and did a terrific job leading a home built for Adela Moran Vargas, husband Marbel Mazariegos Vasquez and their daughter Doris (age 2).
 

Having seen this occur a few too many times, I tend to be pretty careful about hat I drink while in Mexico. Sometimes though, there's just not a lot you can do about getting an inadvertent swig of Tijuana tea.

It was late Sunday afternoon. The last of the homes was getting it's finishing touches, many teams were already headed across the border, the chuck wagon van I drive was packed, my wife and kids tired and in their seats, and I was making my last rounds to make sure everyone was getting out and heading home.

I was driving up Manzana 319, the main little road through San Bernardo. 319 is not much of a road after the rains. There are often deep trenches, and driving up it requires the right mix of courage and a steady foot on the gas. As usual, there was runnoff coming down the middle of 319, mostly flowing from gray water, people dumping buckets of who-knows-what on the street, and a mixture of other ingredients I really prefer not to know about. I drove to the top of 319 when I saw a tire coming down the road. It was an old tire, gaining momentum, and behind it was a lady named Terry, running, trying to catch the tire.

Terry is an American living in San Bernardo. Terry is a bit of an enigma in San Bernardo, married to a local, she lives in a old trailer up near the top of Manzana 319. Over the last few years, Terry hasn't been very happy with us. She's always wanted us to build a home for her, often asks for money, and sometimes verbally harasses our volunteers. Truth is, Terry's house is much nicer than the people we build for. Still, many of our volunteers have helped her out on many occasions, and I've talked to her a number of times, trying to listen and understand her her situation.

So here I am, watching this tire fly past me on 319, and Terry giving chase. She gives up, and seems to realize she won't catch it before it rolls across town, to the bottom of the hill. Feeling bad for Terry, I figure this is an opportunity to do something good for her. So I negotiate a 14-point u-turn on the rather narrow Manzana 319, and drive down the hill to pickup the tire. When I reach the tire, I see it has come to rest in a giant puddle of mucky yuck water that had been draining down 319. Carefully, I pull the tire out and roll it up the van. The van is jam-packed with gear and my family. The roof-rack, some 7 feet off the ground, is also packed. There is however a small spot atop the cab area on top of the van. So, I figure I can give the tire a heave-ho, and toss it up to the top of the van.

I get a good grip, get it into a rythm swing, then with all the discus-throwing style I can muster, heave the tire up. Only, the tire is much heavier than I expect. As the tire reaches an apex at the top of my swing, it fails to fly as expected, and stops, mid-throw, directly above my head. With mouth agape, a rather large quantity of Tijuana water comes rushing toward my face.  Inside the tire, it had picked up a good quantity of water (if you can really call it water), and I watched, as if in slow-motion, as the torrent came rushing toward my face. It was then that I got a mouthful of the foulest-tasting, nastiest water in Mexico. And I was soaked, head to toe.

I looked up to see my wife Sophia, looking at me from the safety of the passenger seat of the van. She had an expression that fell somewhre between utter horror and uncontrollable laughter. A roar of laughter broke out behind me, as a local family was sitting out in front of their home, directly behind me, and witnessed the afternoon's gringo entertainment. It was not exactly how I pictured my little good-samaritan gesture going.

I grabbed some drinking water from the van and rinsed and gargled and spewed, much to the continuing entertainment of the locals. With all dignity lost, I stripped down in the middle of the street and changed clothes (the laughter stopped, as I think I grossed everyone out). Unsure exactly what to do about the toxic waste that I was sure would hit me sometime during my 3 hours wait to cross the border, I grabbed antiseptic wipes and began wiping my tongue. I wasn't sure if that would make things better or worse, but this point, I didn't really care.

I finally managed to get the tire back up on the van, and drive it up to a very thankful Terry. With good deed done, I dragged my very smelly self back into the van and we headed home. I'm glad to say that at no time during the long wait to cross the border, or during the long drive home, did Motezuma come seek any revenge. My wife and kids did manage to break out into spontaneous laughter a few too many times during the afternoon and evening though, reminding me what it means to be humbled.
 

It was our largest trip to date, represented by people from Canyon Hills Church, Saddleback Church, Creekside Church, Boy Scout Troop 321, and a collection of businesses, friends, family and neighbors. We had people travel from as far away as Colorado and Seattle to participate, and generous donations coming from participants, businesses, churches, and including some fantastic, bright paint donated by Dunn-Edwards.

Thank you volunteers. Your hard work, patience and flexibility were outstanding. And to those who contributed with donations of everything from money to paint to heaters and hand-made quilts for newborn babies, thank you. Between volunteers and those sponsoring the volunteers, there were many hundreds of individuals and organizations who made this happen. It's mind-blowing.

As San Bernardo continues to grow, the impact by the participants of Project Mexico is felt in increasing measure in this community. You can hardly walk an un-paved street in San Bernardo without finding a home built by Project Mexico volunteers. And I continue to hear stories of families that we've built homes for, and how that their home has become a catalyst for a better life. Impoverished living conditions wreaks havoc on hope and personal dignity. These homes we build help change that.

And that's not all.

Project Mexico has blossomed into more than just home-building. Arte de Video (Art of Seeing) is a youth-focused art workshop that will kickoff this Summer. And Small Change, a micro-lending effort that hopes to empower entrepreneurs in Colonia de San Bernardo, is in it's beginning stages of vision, dreaming and planning. Like everything we do through Project Mexico, you are invited to be part of these efforts, as we continue to find ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus, demonstrating love in practical ways to this amazing community.

Growth is a good thing. It's awesome to see what God is doing in the lives of people through this ministry, as people are jumping in like crazy. Project Mexico has a core vision of sharing the love, of growing this thing as much as God wants it grown. Only, our vision for growth is a little different than most others.

For one, we seek to multiply our ministry, rather than just adding to it. In other words, 7 homes an 150 people is awesome, but that's as big as a single trip will ever get it Project Mexico, for a couple of reasons.

For one, managing and guiding groups larger than 150 gets daunting. People get lost, both literally and figuratively, in the sea of vehicles, people, and commotion that large groups stir. More important than that though, we've found that true community happens in gatherings of 150 or less. Bigger than that, and people lose touch, and our incredible sense of community that defines Project Mexico is lost. Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling book The Tipping Point, calls it the "law of the few." Many successful groups and communities have successfully followed this rule for generations, and so are we.

We do have a vision for growth though. Our hope is that groups will continue to take what they've learned with Project Mexico, and launch their own trips, and in turn, guide others down the path of being the hands and feet of Christ by serving the poor in Mexico (and perhaps elsewhere). Some have successfully done this already (Project Mexico has multiplied two other groups to date), and our hope is that others will follow, taking what they've learned and spreading the love. We've tried to develop a model for building homes, recruiting people and raising funds, that is replicable. It's designed to easily hand off to others, as a foundation for thier own home-building ministry.

So if you haven't signed for for the Spring 2007 trip yet, baby, get it in gear. Go to the How to sign up page, and get to it. 

Arte de Viendo will be a series of art workshops, where we'll engage a group of about a dozen youth through art (photography, in this first workshop series, then in the future through other art mediums). The workshops will culminate with a full-blown art exhibition in Colonia de San Bernardo.

Our hope for Arte de Viendo extends in many directions.

In many ways, the future of impoverished communities like San Bernardo lie in the hands of their youth. We hope to connect with this next generation in meaningful ways through art, a universal language. These same you face significant challenges. Poverty, lack of opportunity, hope, or a meaningful future. We hope to leverage art to help these kids "see" the world around them—their reality—not just for what it is, but for what it could become. We hope to help them process some of what they contend with day after day, the poverty, hunger, crime and apathy that has engulfed this community. And, we hope to be the hands and feet of Christ, loving these kids through creating art with them.

We also hope that through Arte de Viendo, the adults of San Bernardo are impacted as well. We hope they get a new glimpse of their community through the eyes of their kids, and that this dis-connected community might become more connected through the shared experience of art (with their kids).

Most significantly, we hope that God leverages art, and our efforts, to communicate His hope and truth in ways no other medium can. We hope to be the hands and feet of Christ, to communicate love and acceptance through hands-on workshops, where we'll work side-by-side with these kids who hold so much potential.

Arte de Viendo will kick off it's workshop series in January 2007. We'll need volunteer and financial support, so please let us know if you are able to step up and help out.

I was testing out my friends coll little digital audio recorder, and recorded our conversation. Have a listen here.

I haven't seen Fernando since that interview in Spring of 2005. I hope he's well.

In Spring of 2006, we built a home for Marisol and her daughter Karla. Marisol's story was a heart-breaker. She had a very rough childhood, and was struggling to make a living cutting hair, while raising her daughter in downtown Tijuana. Marisol had no way of buying a home, but prayed that God would meet their need.

So last spring, we were able to build a home for this small but energetic family. Since then, big things have happened for Marisol and Karla.

A few months ago, Marisol had entered a lottery system, and her ticket was chosen to have a small structure built on her property that would house her budding business. Marisol is now providing hair-cutting services to the people of San Bernardo, and her business is growing. Marisol has a thing for VERY bright color, and re-painted her home a brilliant green. The interior is Orange, with polka dots and hearts.

We had a great time hanging out with Marisol and Karla. My girls had made friends with Karla on the last trip, so they were excited to see her and play. Karla loves Madeline (if you have little girls, you know what I'm talking about), and her biggest dream is to get a computer. Karla is quite an artist (her drawing were quite amazing!), and wants to create art on the computer. Some people are working on getting her a computer now... exciting stuff!

My Spanish is lacking, but my wife Sophia speaks it fluently, and really connected with Marisol on our Spring trip. When we visited this past Saturday, they were like old friends. Marisol has a contagious laugh and seems eternally optimistic, despite her circumstances. As Sophia and Marisol talked, I was reminded of this other very important element to what we do through Project Mexico... connecting with people. San Bernardo lacks a real sense of community. People still don't know one another well, and neighbors tend to keep to themselves. As Sophia and Marisol talked though, I saw the makings of relationship and healing and hope.

After we left San Bernardo that day, Sophia wondered what it would be like to come down once a month, bring some coffee and pan dulce, and gather a few ladies from the community just to talk, to connect. It's simple. It's not fancy. But it has the makings of everything good about what we're called to do, to love others.