Last Sunday, 57 junior highers and 9 adults finished a trek across America in a charter bus, rented vans in San Diego, and crossed the border into Tecate. The sheer size of this group enabled us to plan a massive project in an inner-city neighborhood in Tecate. No other mission organizations or social programs have ever worked in this neighborhood besides Experience Mission, and our contacts in the area were extremely excited to have this group paint and refresh parts of their community.
During the week so far the group has transformed a drab, rundown neighborhood into a brightly colored, cheerful place for children to play and people to gather and socialize in the evenings. The basketball court has been freshly painted, two playgrounds have been renovated with fresh paint, wall murals, sand, new swings, and fences. The group even thought to use old tires as stair steps down a steep hill.
While it is exciting to observe the work the group has down in this community, even more importantly it is extraordinary how many relationships have been formed with the locals. Children have helped paint the walls, adults have opened their homes for us to use their restrooms and store our supplies overnight. Several youth have begun attending the evening programs, and we have been able to translate the messages. During free time, there is always a soccer game going on in the street with both youth from the community and the church group.
We have been able to help a community in need this week, which is exciting and a privilege to be a part of God’s work, but the lessons that both us as an EM staff have learned this week and this group has experienced has reminded us that through love we can all learn from one another. The generosity the people of Tecate have extended to our group this week has been tremendous and a powerful lesson for these youth to experience and strive to model with everyone they meet.
We’ve had a great first week – thank you for your prayers, and we are excited to see what God has in store for the remainder of this week.
