Mexican Mission Trip Notes

What a whirlwind trip to Mexico we had in early January. Leaving early Thursday morning to the airport, we loaded up the Jones’ van with thirteen (13) pieces of luggage between us…and very large suitcases besides! Most of our luggage was loaded with over 40 sweatshirts and gifts for the children and youth at Ormsby Foundation's Huejotitan Orphanage. Nicoley, Chris, and crew met us at the airport where we loaded up the van and drove out of Guadalajara through the countryside, through Ajijic & Chapala, and on to Jocotepec. At Jocotepec, we made a brief stop at a local market to buy fresh fruits to deliver to the orphanage. We piled back in the van for our short drive to Huejotitan. The kids and staff at the orphanage were anxiously awaiting our arrival. Upon arriving, we hurriedly unloaded the designated gift suitcases containing your gifts for the youth and took them to the dining room, where we organized the hooded sweatshirts by size. In addition to the sweatshirts and fruit, for each child we had Santa hats and personally-made, colorful pillowcases from our own Pat Bardsley. We also provided new underwear and a full shelf of school supplies, including inflatable globes for studying geography, for the orphanage. One highlight was the 20 peso bill (equivalent to $2 USD) that was neatly tucked into each Santa hat. It is amazing how much that small amount can mean to these children when our own children so easily spend $2 or more on a soda or fancy coffee at Starbucks. We shared an afternoon snack of cookies, chips and sodas with the youth and enjoyed conversation and laughter and the joy of watching them try on their sweatshirts, try on their hats, and sling their pillowcases over the backs like miniature Santa Clauses. As much as we try, the love, care and joy your gifts bring to these children can’t be adequately expressed in words. Your personally signed Spanish Christmas cards were handled and read with great care. Photographs of donors, when available, were shared with the children, which provided a more personal connection with our congregation. Each child was sincerely touched by your gifts. They were excited about getting to write their own notes of thanks back to all who had contributed and to West Plano Presbyterian Church. The notes gave thanks to God and to our congregation and wished us Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas) and Prospero Ano Nuevo (prosperous New Year) Not only did we receive generous gifts from WPPC, but Anne Bowman and some of her piano students sponsored some of the children, contributing over $400 towards the project. As we left, we provided director Georgina $200 cash for a special party to celebrate El Dia de Los Reyes Magos (day of the Kings/Magi; Epiphany). Thanks to generosity of the Mueller family, five hundred dollars was also provided to purchase meat, to be bought at local carnecerias, to fill our previously given freezer and to provide protein to growing youth for the coming months. Again, thanks to all who have contributed to the Christmas project and have already contributed towards the June 2008 trip by supporting our fundraisers and by providing financial contributions. More details and dates will be provided in the near future for those interested in going or participating in some way. Based on initial discussions with the orphanage and with Nicholey, the most likely dates for the trip will be during the last couple of weeks of June 2008. An informational meeting for anyone seriously interested in going to Mexico as part of this mission effort is being offered in conjunction with the next Mission, Stewardship and Society meeting currently scheduled for Saturday, February 2, at Joyce and Michael Jones’ house. Snacks and refreshments will be provided. If you plan to attend this meeting, please contact Joyce Jones so we can arrange for the refreshments.

June, 2007

June 16, 2007 Reverend David Batchelder and congregation, All of the children and directors of the orphanage home are gratefully thankful for the support group from your church who so lovingly visits us. It is a group of people with a great heart, who are admirable, patient, and hard working; we cannot find words to describe them. Without their support, it would not be possible, to take to the extreme, so much happiness that is reflected in the children each time they visit us. The time it takes for the group to return to this home, their home, seems long to us. During this time of waiting, the children ask, "When will our friends return? When? When?" God conserves them with that great heart towards us and they do not forget to us. With love and appreciation, Georgina Olvera Sousa Director, Huejotitan Orphanage

Session Review June 26, 2007

On behalf of the Amigos, we wish to thank the Session, Mission Committee, and Congregation of WPPC for their continued and generous support of our efforts to assist those in need in central Mexico. It has been an honor to serve. Camp Huejotitan Our goal was to enable the children to expand their knowledge and interests with new hands-on educational and life-skills experience(First aid class, etiquette class, scrapbooking, ceramic tile work, photo/art class, cooking and baking lessons). "Camp Huejotitan" gave us the opportunity to work with the children in small groups. This interaction, along with our shoe gifts was particularly rewarding and further enhanced trust and commitment. These children greatly anticipate our arrival and know WPPC as the people who care and return to see them. Senior Citizens Support We provided eye glass testing, blood pressure measurements, meals and sustenance bags for three separate "DIF" locations. (Department of Infants, Families, and Seniors) locations. Altogether, WPPC helped serve approx 140 seniors. We learned compassion, patience and experienced God's love with all these grateful people. We met the new Mayor of the Mazamitla Pueblo Magico. Rural and Needy Support We visited Villa Infantil Orphanage (we call it the baby orphanage since it has children aged 16 months to 8 years) to donate personal funds, food, and a substantial donation from Mary Ann Dudko, and staff of HIT Entertainment, as well as playing with most of the children. We further developed our relationship with Dr. Joe De Leon, who met us at this location. In addition, we added a couple of unplanned activities to which we were guided by the Spirit. We purchased food and underwear for a single mother of 10 that lives in very dire circumstances. Also, a financial gift, to be "payed forward", to our bus driver from past trips, was provided to help pay for a new roof--his home currently has only plastic sheeting at this time. In summary, we felt that many cultural, gender, racial and age barriers have been eliminated from us and those that we touched. God hears our prayers and has worked through us to better this world. WPPC has responded in great love and support, and we were reminded of your support through prayers each morning when we had our daily devotionals. We thank you for your continued commitment. The Amigos and the Mission Committee look forward to serving as your representatives in God's World. (Amigos: Mary Ann Dudko, George Jacobi, Joyce Jones, Frank & Lee Ann Lugo, and Jeanne Stone).

TEAM REPORT FROM MEXICO
January 2007

Advent preparations were made, Christmas came with its 12 days, and Epiphany came—and now these are all behind us. During this time, WPPC continued its outreach through local and remote mission. From December 29 through January 5, four members of our congregation—Jeanne Stone, George Jacobi, Joyce Jones and Mary Ann Dudko—spent a week in Mexico further supporting mountain communities and several of the orphanages near Jocotepec/Ajijic. Travel from Dallas to Guadalajara, then on to Mazamitla, required a full day in itself, especially with the volume of luggage we carried. Our driver, Abraham Saldana, picked us up at the airport in Guadalajara for the 2-hour drive in his van to Mazamitla. We stopped briefly in Jocotepec to verify our return hotel reservations and to check on possible furniture for our room makeover project at the Huejotitan Orphanage. We arrived at Mazamitla in time for dinner.

The week’s activities went fast and furiously, with lots of “hurry-up-and-wait” time. As we have found on previous occasions, patience on these trips is a must. Mexican time has no relevance to one’s watch, so our work had to be timed to include all necessary shopping support. It was also quite cold in the higher elevations of Mazamitla, including our hotel rooms (posada) that had no heating. Accordingly, we had to dress warmly before going to bed at night!

On our second day, we were able to go into the mountain community of Cerra Pelon (Bald Mountain) to distribute clothing, shoes and goods to the indigent mountain people. Most of the men were away working, so only a few of the women and children were there, but what we were able to distribute was much appreciated. Even Santa Claus (“Father Christmas”—though the c hildren do call him Santa Claus … with their local accents) paid a visit to the children to give out candy. Our Mexican assistant, B.J., was quite warm in his Santa suit and beard. Bear in mind that the big celebration and gift giving in Mexico, and most Hispanic cultures, is the day of the Three Kings (the wise men: Melchor, Caspar and Balthasar), also known as Epiphany, celebrating when the wise men came to bring gifts to the Christ child. Interestingly enough, B.J.’s given name is Balthazar.

While in Mazamitla, we purchased goods for the Villa Infantil orphanage—including infant and children’s shoes, socks, jeans and shirts. We also priced furniture. Our biggest effort was in purchasing paint. We walked over to a Comex store to get paint that would match the swatch from the window curtains we had (a light orange tint) and that would also go well with the outside paint on the building at the orphanage. We wanted something colorful so the room would be bright and cheerful—without requiring multiple coats of paint to cover the existing paint color. This effort took over two hours, including selection, mixing, and payment—with a little extra time for the bucket of paint that was removed from the mixing machine ... while paint spurted out of the top all over the container! We were unsuccessful in locating frames for our movie (pelicula) posters, so we went to a local automotive shop and had custom pieces of plexi-glass cut to cover and protect the posters when affixed to the wall in the Huejotitan family room. We had posters from Harry Potter, Charlotte’s Web, King Kong and Spongebob Squarepants movies.

In between all the shopping in Mazamitla, we found time to participate in a senior citizens project with Nicholey’s group (Jeanne Stone’s daughter and her UNT students, who were also in the area helping out). The students prepared chicken spaghetti (Mexicans love Italian food!), salad, and drinks that we could take to feed the seniors; we provided bags filled with a variety of personal items. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find about 50 people—more than twice the number we had in a previous visit. As a result we scrambled to repackage some of the provision bags to have enough to distribute. We sang together for entertainment—and prayed the dark and cloudy sky would not rain on us.

As we were dispersing from this event, we had two poignant things happen that made us appreciate what we have. One young boy, who seemed somewhat embarrassed, came to ask if he could take something back to his mother who was at home and unable to come to the event. We provided him with the remains of the spaghetti and salad, as well as a provision bag and some beans and rice. We are not sure of the circumstances of this family, but the items we provided seemed much appreciated.

A second touching moment came when one of the ladies, Lupita, lingered behind after the others left and shared a heartfelt story of desperation. The home where she was born and raised had recently burned to the ground and she had nothing left. Lupita, herself elderly, cares for her older uncle and two of her older sisters, one whom has been diagnosed with breast and stomach cancer. All are living in a borrowed home for the moment, but it will be required in the very near future by the owner, so they need to move somewhere else. Touched by her need, our group walked through the small village to the location where her home once stood. Workers were replacing the roof, which was being funded by a small amount from the local government. However, this was all she would have—a roof over her head with no other household goods. We gave her some clothing and shoes for the family and looked through what was left standing of the house to see what the students might be able to do for the family. Later, when we visited with Polo, the owner of a woodworking business who has been assisting us in training Huejotitan boys in woodworking skills, he committed to making and delivering four beds and a table to Lupita and her family. We received a call from Nicholey after returning to Plano, advising us that these have been delivered.

Most of this trip was spent purchasing the items needed for Huejotitan, since we could not transport things like paint and furniture from the states. When we arrived at the orphanage, we checked out the room again for size and need. Then Mary Ann and Jeanne went to Jocotepec to find the items we wanted and negotiate prices and delivery charges, while George and Joyce stayed behind to help get the room painting underway. This shopping trip took most of a day because local furniture stores (muebles) had limited supplies and styles. After purchasing an armoire for the television and a large wall mirror, they were unable to find floor or table lamps, poster frames, or bean bag chairs in any of the smaller villages where we were able to shop. We learned that we would have to go to [who would guess!] Sam’s or Costco in Guadalajara to find the things for which we were searching!

After the paint was dry, we went to work putting finishing touches on the room and moving in furniture—including a mustard yellow couch and ottoman, a couple of small area rugs, and an armoire. Then we positioned and hung posters and movie memorabilia around the room, including photos and DVDs we had brought. Finally, we tackled our last big project—trying to hang the draperies on the windows. What a chore that was because the curtains were made of heavy canvas materials. We had already spent hours hemming them by hand, but we had the most difficulty in getting them positioned on the rod so they hung straight and didn’t pull the rod out of the wall. To compound the difficulty, we were trying to work in a room with limited lighting.

We took a quick break to have our traditional pizza party with the young people at the orphanage before completing the room. We also had them open the gifts we provided, which included zippered lunch sacks, billfolds for the older kids, candy, and t-shirts for everyone. We also had some other snack foods for each of them. The hit for most of the kids was a 20-peso bill taped inside each of the lunch sacks, or put in the billfolds, so that each child had their own spending money. For some, this was the first time they ever had money of their own. One younger boy couldn’t wait to spend his and begged one of the older boys to take him to the store even though it was around 9:00 pm.

Finally, we were ready for the kids to come see the completed family room. They were overjoyed; in the words of one of the boys, it was “fabuloso!” Despite the fact that we were unable to get the television working, the kids knew exactly which buttons to push to get one of the DVDs going so they could watch it. We lost count of how many of the kids crammed onto the small couch and ottoman—proof that the work and results were well received.

We also visited with two young people from Arizona, Luisa and Levi, who are living at the orphanage in order to teach the kids English. It was evident that they have made progress with the kids, and also with Georgina, who heads the orphanage—all of whom attempted to speak English with us at some point during our visit. We are also trying to improve our ability to communicate in Spanish, so we had some interesting conversations in both languages. We have some ideas for our next project based on educational needs expressed by Luisa. We will share more about our ideas for the June project in later communications.

Involvement in local events provided insight into the traditions and culture of Mexico and its people. Along with Nicholey’s students from UNT, we were invited to a wedding reception in Jalisco’s nearby state of Michoacan. After the wedding mass, we drove in caravan for about 2 hours into a remote mountain area, traveling along the worst roads we had experienced to date. Upon arrival, we joined over 200 people for an elaborate outdoor wedding reception, replete with chairs and tables, flowers, tres leches wedding cake, and tequila on each set of tables. There was lots of music and dancing, along with introduction of out of town and out of country guests, and good food and drinks. The younger generation participated fully in all the dancing. Finding an available restroom with that many people present was certainly a challenge!

We spent a wonderful New Year’s celebration in Mazamitla with the Saldana family at their home. We even had a campfire and roasted marshmallows to make S’mores, a new treat for our Mexican friends. Without the traditional graham crackers, they were still tasty and traditionally sticky! The Mexican community celebrates the New Year with lots of firecrackers and shooting of guns and rifles, which we could hear all around us. Around 11:30 pm, friends of the family came to serenade us with traditional songs accompanied by guitar and accordion. It was a great highlight of the trip to share in this experience with our dear friends who have embraced us gringos, to welcome in the New Year with hugs and proclamations of “Feliz Anos Nuevos.”

There is much more to report, especially on our visit to the other orphanages with Dr. Joe DeLeon, but this is a good start which recaps many of the experiences the team had on this recent trip. We’ll follow-up with more details for the congregation in the next newsletter or on the website.

TEAM REPORT FROM MEXICO
June 2006

Bienvenidos! The trip to the southern state of Jalisco, Mexico of June 15-20, 2006 was highly successful and very spiritually rewarding. We accomplished more than originally planned for more people in the communities. Our Amigos Team was made up of Jeanne Stone, George Jacobi, Frank Lugo, Nancy Batchelder, LeeAnn Lugo, Joyce Jones, and Anne Bowman. We were also part of a group that included several other young adults, BJ, Amanda, & Scott that had come with Nicholey Schwab and Chris, Jeanne Stone’s daughter and son.

Amigos Team outside the church of San Cristóbal, where we attended Sunday mass

Prior to the trip, Anne Bowman and Jeanne Stone were trained by non-profit organization InFOCUS (Interprofessional Fostering of Ophthalmic Care for Underserved Sectors) at the University of Houston College of Optometry to use a specially designed optical tool called a focometer. This portable, hand-held instrument was developed by Dr. Ian Berger and Dr. Larry Spitzberg at the University of Houston College of Optometry in Houston, Texas. It provides vision screening for subjective refraction without a need for electricity or costly equipment for use in remote and underdeveloped areas around the world.

Focometer

After initial screenings with an eye chart, we identified candidates for glasses and assessed the strength of glasses needed using the Focometer. The tool is used in determining the strength (-2, -1, +1, +2, etc.) of individual lenses needed so the amigos team could build “prescription glasses” given to each person needing them. These eyeglasses and donated eyeglass cases were provided at no cost to both children and adults most in need, and hardest to serve, due to poverty or geographic remoteness. Anne bought and contributed the focometer we used and over $1,000 was used to buy glasses frames and a lens kit. In addition to the customized eyeglasses, an assortment of different magnification strengths of reading glasses were collected by the team for distribution to seniors who needed them. By using a close-up chart of pictures, we diagnosed, sometimes through trial and error, which pair of reading glasses helped the senior the most for near vision.

According to the InFOCUS website, “as many as 900 million children and adults in the world today are visually impaired due to refractive errors that could be corrected by prescription eye glasses. The World Health Organization estimates that 75% of the world’s blindness could be prevented or treated.” It is sad to say there were some we were unable to help, including one young woman whose eyesight was so poor that we did not have strong enough lenses, and one older woman, who would probably be classified as legally blind most likely due to her high blood pressure and diabetes. There are some things that only God can cure or heal. However, for those who were helped, gratitude and thankfulness were poured out to our team with smiles, hugs and muchas gracias. The hospitality of the Mexican people, of all economic stations in life, was overwhelming as they gave of all their best to the gringo guests in their midst. This was a very humbling experience.

We were awed when we sang Be Thou My Vision for our first morning devotional, and it became one of many instances that came to be known amongst the team as “Ah ha!” moments, where God revealed things to us and lead us. In addition to all the glasses supplies, other generous donors provided money for a new freezer for the Huejotitan orphanage, as well as $500 for meat to fill this freezer. The current freezer that the orphanage owned was in the process of breaking down, so our timing of supplying this needed appliance was impeccable. Also, all children and teens were fitted with a new pair of shoes. God certainly does marvelous things!

The financial contributions, provided by WPPC, other churches, and friends, were critical to the success of this project. Because of weight restrictions of 50 pounds per luggage bag, many of the needed items had to be purchased locally, so money was absolutely necessary. And, our purchases were many … food that was prepared for meals for the orphans and seniors, rice and beans that were distributed to seniors and poor mountain communities, additional glasses and lenses, and shoes that we had to purchase for our Huejotitan orphans for which we did not have the right sizes. We appreciated the many donations of tuna fish, shoes, underwear, new and used clothing, and school supplies for the orphanage, seniors and mountain communities. Many of the items of clothing were sent ahead by bus with Nicholey, who also helps to coordinate college and young adult age volunteers to the same region to assist in various projects, including construction of new roofs and working with local social services agencies. Nicholey was our primary guide and driver on the trip to help us be where we needed to be to get God’s work accomplished.

On our travels, the Amigos Team visited several senior centers, where we provided a lunch meal of quesadillas and salad, danced and sang with the seniors, and provided bags with peanut butter sandwiches to go, matches, toilet paper, ointment, ibuprofen, lotions, soaps, shampoo, candies, and aprons for women and work gloves for men. We also left uncooked beans and rice for the seniors to take home. A few extended families attended with the seniors.

I’ve learned firsthand on this trip that “nothing happens by accident.” God is truly the master of our world and universe and has a grand plan that we, in our little human minds, cannot fully envision. If we try to do things ourselves, they are never as all encompassing as when we let God work through us to do His work. He alone is omniscient and knows what the future holds. So, what does the Lord require of us? “… to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God …” Micah 6:8. Although our efforts towards accomplishing God’s plan of justice and kindness for all appear meager when compared with all of the injustices, inequalities and evils in this world, we cannot simply abdicate our responsibilities by accepting hopelessness. We must be diligent and conscientious advocates of justice, mercy and peace, while still maintaining compassion and humbleness of heart.

Your continued support of this peace-making effort is critical in our continued success of reaching out to the world beyond WPPC.