American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains

Spring Break Mission Work Group Builds Four Houses

Four families in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico had been excitedly awaiting the arrival of a group sponsored by The United Church of Los Alamos, NM. Fifty-eight teenagers and twenty-three adults traveled almost 400 miles to live in a primitive camp and spend their 2005 Spring Break building four homes for people they did not yet know.

After a long day traveling in vans and trucks with trailers, and another day crossing the border and setting up camp, the MEXICO 2005 campers were ready to get to work. They began the first work day by making the frame level and square for the concrete floors. Then the real work began—mixing and pouring all the concrete in wheelbarrows and tubs to fill four 11' x 22' pads! During the afternoon, the spring winds began to blow. There were no other buildings or even any vegetation to form a wind break. By the end of the afternoon, the concrete pads were a lovely shade of sandy brown, and so were the campers.

The second day was spent hammering, sawing, and framing the walls. By lunchtime, all the frames were upright, and the plywood roofs provided shade for the group’s lunch break. That afternoon, the workers stretched wire, tar paper, and chicken wire around the houses in preparation for the stucco process. Some crews finished the roofs with tar paper and rolled roofing.

On the evening of the third day, the mission work group invited the four families who would inhabit the new homes and their neighbors and friends to a hot dog cookout. One of the families allowed them to dig a barbecue pit in their front yard where 300 hot dogs were roasted to perfection.

On the fourth day the group finished preparing the sites for stucco, hung doors, installed windows. They also enjoyed a shopping excursion to Juarez Mercado.

The workers applied two coats of stucco to the houses on the fifth day. While the first coat dried, the returning campers toured the communities where they had built houses in 2002, 2003, and 2004. As each house was finished, the work crews gathered inside with the family members to hold a dedication ceremony. They gave gifts to each family, including a quilted wall hanging made by members of The United Church of Los Alamos. This year they also gave each family a fruit tree for their yard.

This was the 20th annual spring break mission trip sponsored by The United Church of Los Alamos, NM where Kathleen Logan is the pastor. Since 1986, these groups have built 105 houses.

Information for this article was submitted
by Terry Langham and written by Laura Erickson.

. . . in their own words

"This was an amazing experience. I felt so moved this week, and it emphasized for me just how incredibly, undeservingly, wonderfully blessed I am to live in Los Alamos with great friends and family."

"This week was an emotional roller coaster for me. So many highs—around the campfire, in house dedications, watching ‘our’ kids interact with ‘their’ kids (affirming that all kids are basically the same). So many lows—driving through the neighborhoods and seeing the squalor in which so many of the people exist and seeing the lack of sanitation, knowing I couldn’t give money when it was begged for in the neighborhood. This experience has had a profound effect on the adults as well as the kids."

"This trip has been very fulfilling. My life has been easily as enriched as the families we came to ‘help." They have indeed helped me.

"Not a quote, but a word that stuck out: community!"

"Thank you for an amazing experience and for opening my eyes not only to a different culture but a different world."

Around the Region