January 2011 - Sofia's community center

A woman named Sofia came to see us at the Food Bank last month wondering if we could help her. On her own initiative she had started a community center where she focused on helping single moms with children, and the elderly. She relies on donations but with the economy in Juarez like it is, the donations have stopped coming in. Unemployment is high and jobs are very scarce. “I’ve asked all around trying to get help for the people in need who come to the center, but no one has responded. Can you help us?”

  

We went to visit her center and found a run-down adobe room with chipped paint flaking off the walls. In the corner were some small cabinets where supplies are normally stored but which now stood empty. As we were talking to Sofia, some people helped a weak, elderly lady into the room. We learned that she was 87 years old and had not had anything to eat for 7 days. She had been abandoned by her relatives and some neighbors had found her in bed. The electricity and water were about to be cut off at her little house because she had no money to pay the bills. Sofia asked those present if they had any food to share and everyone pitched in from the little they had to provide some groceries for this poor widow. We gave Sofia the money needed to pay the woman’s utility bills for the month. 

Sofia’s center is in a different area than our Food Bank, and we are going to start supplying them with rice, beans and potatoes each week to distribute to those in need, like the 87 year old widow we met that day.

Thank you for helping us help them.

May the Lord bless you with a happy, healthy New Year!

December 2010

The children from the Lord’s Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico, join me in wishing you a very merry Christmas! They are looking forward to the Christmas party we have planned for them. A local dairy sponsors the gifts for the children so that each child receives a present on that special day. We will also serve a delicious hot meal to the hundreds who come to the Food Bank for the party, and the children are preparing some songs to sing for everyone.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your generous and faithful support this year. Without you we would not be able to do all we do to answer the Lord’s call to “feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned.” As Mother Teresa said, “Together we can do something beautiful for God.”

May the Lord bless you with a holy and happy Advent and Christmas!

November 2010 - House on the hill

Pedro Valenzuela is 51 years old and has worked hard all his life struggling to make ends meet. Pedro does whatever work he can find to support his wife and their 5 children. Right now he works at a junkyard as a gofer, running to get this part and that, sifting through piles of debris to find whatever auto part or salvage material is being asked for. He makes only a few pesos a week but is grateful to at least have some work.

Pedro's wife and two children pictured in front of their pallet house.

The whole family lives in one small room made up of discarded pallets and cardboard. And literally it is one room – no kitchen, no bathroom, no separate sleeping quarters. There is only one bed to share and the rest sleep on the dirt floor. They have no refrigerator and only a tiny stove on which to cook their meals.

Pedro’s family receive groceries each week from our Food Bank. They have also been on our house-building waiting list for over a year. The problem is that where they live (and have deed to the land) is high up on a hill. There is no road to their house, only a walking path. When our building team checked out the location they did not know how they would get the materials needed up to the site, so the request was put on hold. Just this week Pedro pleaded with us, “I will carry the materials up there myself. I have a good neighbor who lives down below who has offered to let us store bricks and supplies at his house. Other neighbors have said they would help me carry stuff up the hill. Please — we are desperate.”

The tiny white dot about an inch above the cement and white wall house is the room where Pedro and his family live.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. So with everyone’s help we plan on starting construction soon.

October 2010 - Adult Literacy Classes

As many of you know we have a Montessori pre-school and kindergarten at the Lord’s Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico. We currently have 40 children enrolled in our school this year. It is a great blessing to the parents of these little ones from this very poor area, since their kids can get a quality education free of charge. Many of these same parents never had the opportunity to go to school themselves, and now in their 20’s and 30’s cannot read or write. Lucha, the principal of our Montessori school, has had it on her heart for a long time to start offering free classes for the adults. And now all the pieces are falling into place so that we can do this.

First we had to find a suitable place to hold the classes. The school rooms for the children are filled with little desks, chairs and tables and are too cramped to be used for grown-ups. So we expanded another room (see picture) that we use for catechism classes on Saturdays making it big enough for an adult learning center. This will include space for a small library so people in the neighborhood can borrow books. We have received several donations of good books already so once the shelves are finished we can get this service going.

With the room, teacher, books and supplies ready, we spread the word that classes would begin in September. At this writing we have 15 adults signed up ranging from age 25 to 50, including Alondra and her mother who we told you about in a previous newsletter. There is also a 12 year old girl who has never been to school before and she wants to join. Two sessions are offered each week on Monday and on Friday. Before each session we provide sandwiches to make sure no one is starting class hungry. The focus of this initial stage is to teach basic reading and writing. Then we hope to progress to other subjects and eventually get them ready to pass their equivalent of a GED. Having that certification will help them be able to get better jobs.

“I’m so grateful for this chance to learn how to read and write,” one of the adults expressed. “I never thought it would happen.”

And now this mom will be able to read the cards her son makes for her in his kindergarten class nearby.

September 2010 - First Communion Celebration

As many of you long-time readers of the newsletter know, we have witnessed many miraculous things the Lord has done in our ministries with the poor in Mexico. One of the miracles we have seen various times is the multiplication of food, and Ramona, one of our volunteers, recently shared this story with me:

We were planning a special Mass and then a party for the kids who would be receiving their First Communion at the Food Bank. They had been in catechism classes for a year, and this would be a very special day for them. There were 23 children, and we invited their families to attend also. I was in charge of buying the supplies for the nachos that we would be serving at the party, so I went to the store and got 5 large bags of tortilla chips, 3 giant cans of cheese sauce, and one can of jalapeño chili peppers. I was also responsible for ordering the cake so I got one that would serve 100 people.

That Saturday morning I brought the huge cake and the ingredients for the nachos to the ladies who serve in our kitchen at the Food Bank. After bringing it all in they said to me, “That’s all you bought? Ramona, that’s not going to be enough to serve all the people who have come.” 

I gulped saying, “It’s not?  I thought I had enough.” I didn’t realize how many family members would show up. But in faith I told the ladies, “Don’t worry – the Lord is going to provide.” 

When I walked into the chapel, besides seeing the 23 children, I saw that the place was full of their relatives. It was too late for me to leave and buy more food, so I said a quick prayer asking the Lord to take care of everything, and then entered into the Mass and beautiful celebration. 

When the service was over all the families headed to the dining area to eat. There were about 130 people present. Nervously, I watched them all line up to get their plates of tortilla chips smothered with the cheese sauce and topped with the jalapeño peppers – a favorite treat.  Some of the ladies were handing out pieces of cake. I breathed a sigh of relief when everyone going through the line got nachos, cake and some lemonade. Then I started smiling as I noticed that the kids were going back for seconds, again getting plates piled high with nachos. Laughter and chatting filled the air and I relaxed and joined in the festivities.

Afterwards the ladies from the kitchen showed me the leftovers, including a quarter of the sheet cake.  We all rejoiced together knowing that the Lord once again had multiplied food to feed His poor. Praise God!

August 2010

Juan and Lourdes, pictured here, are not your typical example of a newly married bride and groom. For one thing, they have 12 children together. Yes, 12! But they were just as happy as any married couple you would expect to see on their wedding day.


Lourdes and Juan live in a very poor area of Juarez. Juan works in construction and as a day laborer whenever and wherever he can find work, and the jobs tend to be few and far between. The family lives in a two bedroom house with a dirt floor and holes in the roof. But they are very happy together, in large part due to Lourdes faith and joyful attitude. “I’ve never heard her complain,” shared one of our volunteers who visits them regularly. “Whenever we go to their house I hear the kids singing praise songs to God as they play outside. I never see the kids fighting or arguing. Once we were there as one of the older sisters came home from school that day and from all the cheering and excitement of the younger siblings you would think she had been gone for months. It’s a beautiful sight to see all the love they have for one another.”

Having come to the Lord’s Food Bank for many years, Lourdes heard about a program we were sponsoring for those couples who wanted to get married in the Church. The parish priest in the area had asked us to help him with this program, and Lourdes and Juan joined the classes.

After many months of preparation, the big day arrived for the 6 couples who had successfully completed the course. The brides were adorned in wedding dresses that had been donated and each lady was given a ribbon bouquet. The relatives pitched in and helped with food and decorations for the reception held after the ceremony. There was so much joy that day as we celebrated with these couples. Towards the end of the festivities, prizes were awarded for various categories and everyone laughed and cheered when Lourdes and Juan won “for the couple with the most children.”

July 2010 - The Bible Not Burned

Sergio and Lucia Conde Varela have been leaders in our community for many years. If you read the book The Bible on the Border you may remember reading about them in it. Several months ago they shared the following amazing story with us.

At one of our centers in Mexico, which Sergio and Lucia are in charge of, there was a devastating fire in one of the buildings. It was caused by a wire that shorted and sparked. The sparks quickly became a huge fire that engulfed the whole house. A propane gas tank in a storage room exploded further igniting the blaze. A worker was alone in the building at the time but was able to get out before the tank blew, and thanks be to God no one was hurt.

The building burned to the ground and everything in it was destroyed – beds, chairs, tables, desks, bookshelves full of books – nothing escaped the ravaging flames. The fire was so intense that even the heavy duty commercial stove we had in the kitchen (like the kind used in restaurants) melted down as if it were butter on a hot day. Everything was lost – or so we thought.

“When we arrived at the site,” Sergio and Lucia shared, “we were dumbstruck by how complete the devastation was. In less than two hours, all that we had accumulated in the 20 years we had been using this building was gone just like that. But we both had a tremendous peace and tranquility as we gazed at the ruins. The neighbors were surprised at how calm we were. God had allowed this fire for some reason, and we submitted right away to His will. We only asked Him to show us what to do.”

Lucia continued, “Our neighbors wanted to help in some way, so a few days later a big work party came to shovel out the mounds of ashes which were 3 feet deep in places. We filled truckload after truckload with the burned debris. Suddenly we heard someone yell excitedly, ‘I found something!’

Everyone stopped working and rushed over to see what he had found. There on the ground buried in an ash pile was a book. When he picked it up and brushed it off, I recognized it at once. It was my bible! I had kept a bible on a wooden pedestal on the desk in the bedroom. This young man had been shoveling ashes in the place where it would have been. He handed it to me and I carefully examined it. The bible had some slight burn marks around the edges but when I opened it the pages were in good shape — and these are delicate onion skin pages! The desk was gone, the pedestal was gone, everything else in the bedroom was reduced to rubble — but the bible survived!”

Sergio added, “Right away the words of Matthew 24:35 came to mind: ‘Heaven and earth will pass away but my Words will never pass away.’ Praise God!”