Mexico

Today we visited Mexico. It was not what we expected. Our hosts drove us into Mexico thru Piedras Negras. Leaving the country was easy -- just pay your $2.80 to enter Mexico and you're thru. Once you drove past all the immigration and customs buildings, you entered the "tourist" part of the city. Replicas of the mayan temples, dancing fountains, nice modern buildings, beautiful courtyards. Several miles later, the houses are not so nice. The new modern Government housing looks like 2-story shoeboxes stacked 20-30 together. I suppose they're really nice on the inside -- just not apealing on the outside. A few more miles and we've come to our destination. At best, it's a plywood city. It's a slum built of whatever materials they could find (old box springs, boards, old cars, old rugs) right on the railroad right-of-way. They are "squatters" who could be forced to move at any time. They have limited electricity that is out more than on and many "borrow" power from the main lines along the railroad. It was interesting to see someone shimmy up the electric pole and "unhook" the power after our worship service. There is water here but again it is limited and runs when it wants to. Alot of people cook on fires outside. When it rains -- they get wet. When it's cold -- they get cold. There are few good roofs and no insulation in buildings. We saw children playing on the railroad tracks, a woman "boiling" her laundry over an open fire, and an elderly man sleeping in the dirt. Not things you would see at home. But in spite of the horrible conditions, the people in church were clean and well groomed, smiling & happy, singing and praising God. When we pulled up to the church (a 40 x 20 building unfinished on the inside), we could hear loud, happy singing and lots of clapping. We were greeted with smiles, handshakes and hospitality (shown to our seats and given cold bottled drinks). Luckily Brother Frank was there to translate for us. The sermon was on tithing -- about giving our tithes to God so he can open the windows of heaven and bless us. An interesting sermon for a congregation that has nothing in their pockets but lint. And although they might be poor of pocket, these people were anything put poor of spirit. They worshiped God with joy, they sang about how good God was to them, and praised Him. It was an awesome service in a terrible ghetto. Children's Cornerstone Ranch is helping these people thru Brother Frank and his two Mexico churches with food, clothing and building materials (when available). After service (which was over 2 hours), we went to out to supper (salsa & chips, bean soup, and fajitas) and then to Brother Frank's other church. This church was about the same size but packed to the rafters with people. Again, everyone was friendly, happy and genuinely glad to be worshipping. Getting back thru the American border was easy. We gave them our passports (secretly hoping that we would get a stamp in them), paid our $1.80 to return to the US, got our passports back (alas -- no stamp) and were back in the US. It was a good yet life-changing day. We are so blessed here in America with an abundance of goods and comfort that we take it for granted. We don't worry if we'll have enough food to feed our family their next meal, we take electricity and water for granted, we purchase clothes based on their asthetics and not on their construction and wearability. Both of us have a lot of ideas/issues floating around in our heads right now. I pray that this glimpse into how others live will change us and make us more aware of how God has blessed us so abundantly.