I heard someone once say that Mission Youth Mission trips are girly.
Maybe they get that idea from all this talk of holding Haitian babies, feeding them, and changing their diapers. I’m sure that comment would fly really well coming from a husband to his wife about who was going to take care of the kids.
Giving love and dignity to other suffering human being is not a girly thing, it a Christian, a Christ-like thing. But I admit the Haiti missions are not for everyone, only those who can handle it.
But with all my blogs about Haiti, maybe another aspect of Mission Youth has been overlooked: Mexico Missions. Paola Trevino (National Mission of Youth Director) and I just got back from visiting a Mexico mission trip of 41 guys… and really, the only girly thing about the trip were the two of us! We went to set up the trip beforehand and then to make sure the first few days ran smoothly. But maybe I should go over a few elements in case not everyone is convinced by my testimony; I am a girl after all.
Mission place: La Cima, Ahuazotepec, Puebla MX. The guys stayed in the small village auditorium, sleeping on the concrete floor in sleeping bags. The night they arrived just happened to be one of the coldest nights in years. It was a great welcoming gift, but they did alright.
Mission work: building two houses and reroofing 7 houses. Over the past few months Mission Youth selected two families in the vicinities of Ahuazotepec to receive a new house. These guys made the houses a reality with a week of intense labor. The receiving families were both widows; one with 4 children and the other with 7. Both families were all living on one room shacks. Follow this link to see what type of house they built: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb6mOK08FA0
Dirt. Sweat. Burning sun by day, frigid temperature by night. No electricity. No phone or internet connection. Challenges to overcome (one building group didn’t have enough available water to mix their cement, so some guys had to walk a mile and a half to fetch water with a donkey). Authentic Mexican food. Bon fires at night. Prayer. Opportunities for the Sacraments… need I go on?
The mission trip ended this past Saturday, and I’m told that the group made it to the airport tired, but happy. Hearts full both with what they had given and what they had received. And from what the guys told me of their experiences before I left, they received a lot more then they gave. They spent a week building and being with the villagers, but they received generosity from those who have nothing, joy from participating in that simplicity and nothingness… I’m sure those guys will never forget the faces of those families they gave a house to, and that memory is priceless.