Youth Group Builds House for Juarez Family

A youth group of 9 young people and 6 advisors from the First Presbyterian Church recently returned from a week in Juarez where they built a complete house for a Juarez family.

This was the 5^th house in the last 8 years that a group from the church has built in Juarez. The church works with Casas por Cristo, an El Paso organization that encourages groups from all over the united States to contribute to its efforts to help provide affordable housing to Christian families in Juarez. That organization coordinates the interaction between assisting groups and families in Juarez, working through some 65 churches in Juarez who select the families to be helped.

The visiting group provides the funds for the building materials, Casas por Cristo purchases the materials and delivers them to the site. The group then builds the house and turns it over to the selected family.

The hours itself was framed with 2 x 4’s on a concrete pad. It was 22 x 11 feet and had two rooms, a door with a lock, and two windows. It was wired for electricity, but had no other utilities. This might not seem like much of a home for a family of four, but it was a considerable improvement over the wood frame and cardboard house being used previously.

The group stayed in a nearby church, La Nueva Jerusalem. The church was relatively well equipped with rest rooms, showers, and a working kitchen where the meals were prepared by Jacque Parks, one of the group’s leaders. The participants slept in the sanctuary on and under the pews. A typical day started before 6 AM with a large breakfast. Lunch was around 2PM and dinner was often served about 9:30 PM.

The effort was a learning experience for all who participated. Interaction with the family which helped build their house was hindered by language differences although Rev. John Poling, the pastor of First Presbyterian church and a representative of Casas por Cristo acted as translators. The week was called a mission trip, but it really was a service effort. The Juarez family and their pastor really witnessed to the group. During the dedication service he asked the group to always "remember that Jesus moved your hands".

More information about the El Paso organization coordinating this effort can be found on the Internet at www.casasporcristo.org.

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Last update 2002-06-24 12:44:11