When the wind picks up each morning in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the
simple comfort of cleanliness becomes a near impossibility.
Everything
– clothes, hair, skin – is quickly coated with a layer of fine
dirt that, once the afternoon heat arrives, mingles with sweat and
turns into mud.
Hollister – When the wind picks up each morning in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the simple comfort of cleanliness becomes a near impossibility. Everything – clothes, hair, skin – is quickly coated with a layer of fine dirt that, once the afternoon heat arrives, mingles with sweat and turns into mud.
But for local youth group members, many of them from San Benito High School, who traveled south of the border March 26 through April 1 with Hollister’s First Presbyterian Church, comfort wasn’t a big concern. This was no pleasure trip – it was about service.
Twenty students and eight adults spent 12 hours driving in vans from Hollister to Cuernavaca and then to Tepic, Mexico where they poured a concrete patio for the pastor of the local Protestant church, laid some electrical lines and held bible school in Spanish for the village children. It was part of Azusa Pacific University’s Mexico Outreach program, which sends groups of young people from around the country and Canada to do service projects in impoverished Mexican villages.
“We took kids who have seen California, but not much else. They haven’t seen real poverty,” said Reverend Hanna Peterson of First Presbyterian Church in Hollister. This was Peterson’s second trip with a group from Hollister.
There was no sleeping in late at the tent city in Cuernavaca that the Hollister group shared with about 2,000 other young people from churches throughout the United States.
Wake up was at 6am, breakfast at seven and chapel at eight. Then the Hollister group took their vans off the main highway and on to a pothole-riddled road to the village of Tepic – a rural hamlet on the Baja Peninsula – to work for the day.
“We feel that we are part of the body of Christ,” said Reverend David Rodriguez of First Presbyterian in Hollister. “The body of Christ transcends international borders. When we help other members of the body of Christ, we’re doing what Jesus commanded us to do.”
Before heading to Mexico, youth group members raised about $5,000 through yard sales, car washes and selling tacos after church. The money was spent on transportation costs, food for the group and building supplies for the work they did in Tepic.
“This trip is a real growth process for everyone who participates, and I want to commend the students for their group effort,” said Louise Ledesma, who drove a van for the group.
Founded in 1968, more than 250,000 young people have participated in Azusa Pacific University’s Mexico Outreach program.
“It exposes students to different cultures and different world views, and strengthens their faith,” said Michael Schoon, director of marketing and publications for APU. “It gives them a chance to get out of their comfort zones and realize there are more important things.”
Luke Roney covers education and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at lr****@fr***********.com
