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For area teens, homebuilding project is a mission of 'Amor'

By Tara Drach

Forty-five high school students and 14 adult sponsors from Desert Cross Lutheran Church in the Kyrene Corridor are building two houses from the ground up this summer as part of a mission trip to Tijuana, Baja California.

The program is sponsored by an organization called Amor Ministries, which works directly with families in Mexico to assist with housing and other needs.

Last summer, 20 youths and four adults from the church spent four days building a house for a Mexican family of five that had been living in a one-room house.

Many students who built that house are making the trip again.

“I really liked the opportunity to serve,” said Corona del Sol sophomore Denise Miller. “That's why I'm going back again this year.” 

Mark Henderson, a Kyrene Corridor resident and adult sponsor, agrees:

“It is an incredibly gratifying experience. Not only helping build the house but watching how the experience made an impact on the youth who went on the trip. I was so impressed with the maturity they displayed and the way they came together as a team. That is why I signed up to volunteer again this summer.”

In fact, the Hendersons have made the trip a family affair. Mark’s wife, Sue, their son Ben, a Corona del Sol freshman who helped build the house last year, and their daughter Abby, a fifth grader at Kyrene de la Mirada, will be a part of the mission this summer.

Sue, who is serving as an adult leader, said:

“We are doing this instead of a taking family vacation this summer. This is an experience I want to share with our children.”

Chad Diegle, the youth director of the church, stresses the impact that the mission has had on the students who attend.

“When the kids arrive in Mexico they are so eager to help someone less fortunate than themselves. But by the second day they are looking at their own lives differently. The little luxuries that were once so important seem so unimportant by the time they leave.”

The organizing group, Amor, which means love in Spanish, aims at creating cross- cultural understanding through direct exposure to the Mexican culture.

While in Mexico members of the group camp in tents and work daily to build the house from the ground up.

Amor does not allow the use of power tools or generators on the worksite since they want the missionaries to experience the culture. In addition, they get to know the family members for whom they are building the home, even play with their children.

“It was so exciting,” said Anne Schumann, a Marcos de Niza student. “One day we started with the bare ground and by the last day there were four walls and a roof. Not only was building the house a great experience but I liked playing with the children of the family we were building the house for, too. It was great to see their faces when we were finished.”

Families who receive Amor homes are selected by the Mexico Ministry Planning Board. Pastors discern the needs within their own communities and then present their nominations to a board of Mexican pastors who volunteer alongside the Amor staff.

Amor and MMPB do not require that the family attend church, however they must own land on which to build a house.

On average, the families own a 20-foot-by-40-foot lot.

The typical Amor home is an 11-foot-by-22-foot, two-room home with a slab floor, stucco-finished exterior and two windows. The homes are built according to the standards of the community so that a group without skilled labor or power tools can still complete the project.

Amor builds homes in Mexican border cities including, Baja California, Ciudad Juarez, Puerto Peñasco and Yucatan.

Typically, the roads are dirt and there is no running water, electricity, streetlights, garbage collection or mail service.

Additional Amor building projects have included double houses for large families, schools, churches and medical clinics.

The youth group began raising the funds needed for the trip in early January. The group is divided into five work teams. Each is responsible for organizing a fundraising project and for directing one aspect of the service project while in Mexico.

The fundraising projects have included a rummage sale, after-church hot-dog lunches and car washes. The group is having a spaghetti dinner June 1 and an adult prom June 21. 

The group plans to continue its missions for years to come, say the members.

“We’ve had such a huge response that we cut off the number of students going at 45,” said Diegle.

“The program is just exploding, and most of the kids attending are only freshmen and sophomores.”

Information: Chad Diegle, director of youth ministries at Desert Cross Lutheran Church, (480) 730-8600 or visit www.desertcross.org/youth/mexico.

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