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Mission Trips
What a joy it has been for me to experience and come to know a small amount of the culture in Mexico. My experiences with my fellow brothers ans sisters in Christ has been amazing and eye-opening for me these past few years.
Many people ask why many of us go to other countries to do mission work there and not here in the US. I agree, there is much suffering and poverty here in the US, and I hope to, in the near future, begin helping in programs here in the states. But there is much to be said about working with other countries, other cultures.
Whats been and inspiration to me with these people has been their simple lives, how much they love them, without any regret or fuss. And most importantly their great love for their church and families. They are sooooo poor compaired to even some of the poorest in our country, but yet they are so ready and willing to give what little they have in order to make you feel at home. Just that fact alone has been quite an inspiration to me these past few years.
Our mission when we go to Sotuta is to work on rooves of homes that the parish priest has felt needs the most attention. Its a very new experience for many of us when it comes to fixing things like this...Many of us conquer many fears during this trip like heights and just trusting one another..many times with each others lives(especially while we are on the rooves) The houses are very small, probably not much larger than your average size bedroom, with large steep rooves made of thatch, more or less. The tools we use are very primative...wire, bottles caps, large needles, and coragated material that looks like sheets of tin....We use these materials to patch holes in the thatch that have been leaking water into these small homes...most of the time...these families will have to wait a long time before this is fixed, mainly because they just cant afford the materials to do it themselves, which can be bought in the village where they live. So many times they wait for groups to come in like us to help out.
After a couple of years of doing this work, it continues to become more and more exciting...Everytime we go to a house to do repairs, we begin not to notice first off the badly needed repairs or the amount work it will take to fix it...but the people who live there...so many times we go to a house and spend hours and hours, sometimes just trying to decide how we are even going to begin to fix the roof, but no matter how much work we put in...we always end up feeling like we had gotten more than we had given...jsut from experiencing the wisdom and joy from the families we helped at each home. Many times we are brought to tears just seeing the state of ruin some of these people are living in and we feel like we just want to save them from this, but in the end, the recognition of happiness and peace int he eyes of many of these beautiful people make us sad for ourselves. Making us realize that which we have is certainly not appreciated enough and thus changing our perspective to a want of change and thanksgiving.
During our trip in 2000, we were blessed to have arrived on the Feast of St. Peter and St Paul. Which in the community of Sotuta, where we do the most of our work, is the name of the church parish. It is custom for them to have a small procession through the town square with the statues of their patron saints. Young and old join in the procession, and the guys take turns carrying around the statues. Everywhere there are fireworks, music, singing, and dancing.
