Sacred Heart Youth Ministry: Reflections on the Week and Final Pictures

On Friday, for our final work day, we went to a new location. Esperazna is starting a brand new community in Rosarito (the next city south of Tijuana). So far there is only 1 house in this community, so we began the construction on the 2nd this week.

The mother of the family is named Maria, and her and her husband Jaime have 4, incredibly hard-working boys. St. Louise (the other group here this week) did the demolition of their previous house and we starting digging the foundation and making the cinder blocks. Maria's youngest son Jaime (jr.) worked alongside us the entire day. His friend and a young neighbor (Bradley, age 7) also worked alongside us the entire day. There were points during the day that they worked harder than us! As one of our students commented, 'these boys work hard just for the joy of working and helping their family or friends. They have no expectation to make money or get anything in return. They would rather help than play video games or play soccer.'
These 3 boys made a huge impact on our students in just one day!

In our closing circle with Maria, the other women of the community, and the boys we asked Maria what color she wanted to paint her finished house. Her response brought all of us to tears. She talked about how she has laid awake at night for years dreaming of a better house. She talked about how she has it all planned out in her head. It will be tan with chocolate brown accents. She has planned out her new furniture which will be chocolate brown with line green accents. She said she has already envisioned the vases and artwork that she will decorate her house with.

This view into her dreams was an incredibly special moment! I think it is so easy to get caught up in the construction of the house and forget that we are building dreams and fulfillment of hope more than anything. These families have been dreaming of a safe and beautiful house for years. They have dreamed of the decorations and colors of their house. They have dreamed of a future for their family. It is humbling experience to realize that we have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the creation of those dreams. We are not working FOR these families. We are working WITH them as they move closer to the fulfillment of their dreams.

Esperanza builds hope, Esperanza builds dreams.

Thank you for being a part of the building of these dreams and hopes! Thank you for supporting us on this journey.
~Kelsey

I would like to share with you some of the reflections that our group wrote last night in our closing reflection. They capture the beauty of this week:

Favorite parts of the week: Cement pours!!! Lunch time on the job sites. Fun times on the bus. Feeling empowered to try any job on the site and knowing I would be supported - succeed or fail. Learning about real life in Tijuana, both through simple observation and by the words of a local. Enjoying the wonderful people of Sacred Heart as I never would have gotten to otherwise. ~Dyllan Freeburg
How will you allow this trip to change your life: recognize all that I have and be grateful for everything; say hello and smile to people I see, not just to people I know but everyone; recognize when others need help and act on it; allow others to help as well, people can only give if there is someone who will receive. ~Nadine Huff
Most impact-ful part: For me it as going to the orphange and seeing all the girls. They are so happy with so little. Also I thought it was going to be hard because I don't speak a lot of Spanish. But it was surprisingly easy to connect with the girls. It made me realize that language is not a barrier and that love and compassion are a language everyone can understand. ~Bailey Sexton
Most impact-ful part: The most impactful thing for me was Eduardo. He is an amazing man, always smiling and messing around. I had a few one on one talks with him. But his talk about the border is what really got me to open up my eyes and words don't really explain how happy I was to hear from him. And how he has been doing this for so long just really shows he is a nice person and I really look up to him. Even though it was only a few days he still made an impact on me whether he knows it or not. ~Michael Williams
How will you allow this trip to change your life: be grateful for what I have; help others/allow others to help me more; tell people about the culture down here; be more open with people ~Evan Absolor