Building Hope

This reading break i spent building a house for a family in Mexico. This wasn't my first time making such a trip, but it seems like every time i go my eyes are opened to new things. The first time i was priveleged enough to make this pilgrimage my motives were quite different. At 15 i was more stoked on the fact that i got to travel outside of cold bitter winter Canada, i would get to go to Disneyland, and most importantly, there would be a bunch of cute girls. I returned home that year with a heightened sense of independence, a sunburn, and a pipe purchased on the market. Six trips later i still find myself lathering on the aloe vera gel and purchasing market pipes (now for smoking more legal substances), but my head and heart have been turned around. It wasn't till my grade 12 year (trip #3) that i realized that these trips couldn't be just about the Mexicans. There was too much money, time, and man hours, spent far too inefficiently. This trip was designed as a mission to someone else... me. Before, i had felt so great about what i was offering to this Mexican family, how they must really need what i had to offer to change their lives. But no... that's backwards. It's me who needs help, its me who had so much more to gain from a trip like this, its me who received something much more valuable than a two bedroom shack. I live a life that is completely self-absorbed, i barely ever stop to think about someone else. I live a life that is so busy i barely ever slow down. I live a life that is so influenced by the media i barely think before swiping a plastic card. Going to Mexico is a breath of fresh air, it's a time to look outside myself, a time to experience the joy of meeting someone else's needs, and a time for my soul to be with God.

These trips are an incredible ministry to share wealth, share culture, and share hope. It's a really beautiful thing to see white kids from the suburbs interacting with Mexican families, each party having lots to gain from the other. I would highly encourage anyone who has the opportunity to be a part of a trip like this to go. Go! Don't reason your way out of it, don't come up with excuses or say you'll do it later. Go! I did, and it's changed my life.

Here's a video about building houses in Mexico... http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=124320390

Here's Amor Ministries website... http://www.amor.org/

Check them out!