baja: small things with great love

"we can do no great things, only small things with great love."

Mother Teresa

baja: work camps (pt 3)

continued from work camps (pt 2)

If you can look past the kids you'll see the adults and the living conditions. The row houses are very small. The Building shown is 3 houses. If you look inside, and your eyes adjust to the dark, you'll see a mixture of dirt floors and concrete. The air is musty and moist. On the perimeter of the room I saw, had troughs that are presumably used for water waste. The outside doors are falling off the hinges and there is no running water. The bathrooms are on the outside of the camp in the form of a long row of outhouses. They are moist, dirty and lots of flys.

The laundry facilities are common areas that the ladies come everyday to scrub their clothes clean. The large rusty water tank serves to provide water for cooking and also cleaning. The ladies do a great job after a long work day. Their clothes are clean. They are proud hard working people, ashamed of their plight.

They are just like me and others I know. Their poverty is not their fault. It's not just an issue of hard work and good choices. Their poverty is bigger than any one of them. They have no choices.

They are paid just enough to survive. The farmer has a store at the camp where the workers spend their money. You'd think why not just escape the camp? Walk away? Okay, but it's not that easy. There are many demonic forces keeping them in the camp.

The workers are generally a people group from the south, easily distinguishable. Many of them are the Oaxcan and they are severly opressed people outside of the camp. Policia are know to beat them. They are considered less than normal. Pure racism at it's worst. If they did walk away from the camp, not many would hire them. They are not educated. They can't read. No educational opportunities. They are malnurished and would be considered a burden to others. They have no transportation. They can't put the truck in drive and leave. The work camps are usually far from town, hidden from view. Leaving or abandoning their family would be difficult. There are many forces that keep the people in the camp.

The cycles of poverty are blatenant and unattended to.

They are called work camps for the farm workers. It's more like a minimum security compound that exploits people with souls who can't get out.

baja: work camps (pt 2)

continued from baja: work camps (pt 1)

Along with the smiles of the kids was something very disturbing for me. Look past the smiles and playfulness you'll notice that many of the kids don't have shoes. Their feet are hard, scared and dusty. There are unmet medical needs, like cleft pallet, rotting teeth, festering sores, running noses, and malnutrition. They are obviously neglected, yet existing. Their are kept well enough to grow old enough to begin working in the fields.

To the farmer, these are not children, they are future farm workers. Their existance is for the farmer who keeps them alive enough to become his next worker. Never mind their soul, he wants their hands. It's the hands that will make him wealthy. The kid's parents get up at 4:00am to work in the fields leaving the children behind. They work insain hours only to get up the next day to do the same. The parents are today's workers, the kids are tomorrows. It's a labor camp that is self-propigating.

It doesn't take much to see the exploitation of human souls for the purpose of gain. This is so far from my own middle-class world that I don't even have a vocabulary to adaquately describe it. The best I can come up with is injustice, abuse, exploitation, illegal and forgotten.

read work camps (pt 3) for more.

baja: work camps (pt 1)

There is only one paved road. It's the highway. The side roads are gnarly, bumpy roads. When the rains come, everything turns to mud, including the roads. People still use them and when the sun comes it dries the road, preserving the ruts and holes until the next big rains come months later. Dodge engineers should take their hemi powered pickups there for evaluation. I wonder how you say, "Hey, does that thing have a hemi?" in Spanish.

Take one of those roads off the main highway and head east. In the horizon you'll see something that looks like a compound. As you get closer you'll notice the entry has a gate, sometimes that is usually monitored. Drive through and if you have a pulse, you'll see stuff that will both warms your heart and disturbs it at the same time.

You'll see kids running out to see you, eager to play with you and have their pictures taken. The kids have huge smiles and love attention and affection. They are playful. Enjoy piggy back rides, being swung in circles, tag and any type of game you can makeup in the moment. You get the idea that they know how to play with an adult, yet they don't do it very often. So when the white 15 passenger vans come, it's party time for them and us. The kids leave their marks on your heart. The fun and smiles stick. You can leave the Baja, but it's hard for the Baja to leave you. Read work camps (pt 2) for more.

baja: farming in the baja

The Baja is desert, yet agriculture is one of it's primary industries. Lots of produce grown in the fields that surround the #1 highway that heads down the pacific coast. The soil is a combination of volcanic ash and sand. Erosion is an issue for farmers as they content with the whipping winds that come off the pacific and the light dry soil. We didn't see much for farm technology. Old weathered tractors seemed to be for the better off. Didn't see any air conditioned green tractors -- the kind that sells cool t-shirts. Most of the work done in these fields are done by hand. Hard manual labor.

back in bc

it was a deep time away. yet i'm back in chilliwack after being away to the baja and a 5 day layover in los angeles. i'm stoked to be back in chilliwack and with heartland fellowship. lots of reflections and rants to follow about people, places and injustice.

baja: foundation for his ministry

Access to the internet is sketchy here in the Baja. I was typing a few blog articles two days ago and was ready to post them and the power went out in the internet cafe. Lost them both.

We are doing well. The Orphanage is a blessed place. I can see why people come back here over and over.

Mexico has deeply affected us all this week. The kids learned in deeper ways about serving and giving. They have all worked exceptionally hard this week ... loving kids and doing work around the orphanage.

We are all tired and wide eyed, but our spirits are very good. Thanks for the prayers.

Check out this to see more.

And Foundation For His Ministry web site is here.

paul's place

We've anticipated going to Paul's place for a couple of weeks now. We really enjoy being with him. He is relational, kind and quite a deep person. Paul takes interest in people that are younger than him, maybe that's why my kids enjoy being at his place so much. He sees the good and blows on it. He influences by example, by his way others are compelled.

He is rare. Others start being more kind when he is around. Others are less critical, more thoughtful and self aware. What you see on the outside of Paul is only the tip of the iceberg. Usually what you experience with someone is only a subset of what is going on below the surface. Paul is full of really good stuff.

He can sniff out fakes quite easily. He knows and senses it, but rarely mentions it. There was this one time when he let on what he was sniffing. It wasn't pretty, but he was still very gracious.

I don't see Paul that much these days. I wish it wasn't that way, but here we are. We used to work together, but what used to be is no more. What is, is what will be.

Why is Paul the way he is? DNA, parental upbringing, sanctification, or what? And why am I so selfish and critical and harsh?

Paul leads by kindness, without any apparent need for something in return. Most people are in relationships for what they will get out of them. Not Paul. He is about what young person he can invest in. Not many selfless people like Paul around. Maybe that's why we like going to Paul's place.

baja: homeless children in mexico

We leave Friday very early and drive through the night on our first leg of our missions trip to help homeless children in the Mexican Baja. We have been praying and fundraising for two years and tomorrow we leave. It has been a huge partnership right from the beginning. partnerships with heartland fellowship, stoney creek expeditions and go MAD youth ministries.

We will be working in the surrounding villages and towns of vicente guerrero in the Mexico Baja. As missionaries we will attempt to clothe and feed people, and visit those who are alone and cannot fend for themselves. our duties may be as trivial as scrubbing the floor of a bathroom or digging a ditch. However, we realize that tiny things done in done in the name of Christ free up others to share God's work in Vincente Guerrero. So we may be just relief workers for 5 days -- which is an honor for us to be a part of.

We will be there for a total of 5 days, 5 days of service and giving and helping and loving. We are going to do the best we can. Even though we know that selfishness and fatigue may keep us from pressing 100% on in our mission, we are going to try and do our best and spur each other on.

Please pray for traveling mercies and servant hearts.

furniture and friendship

Over the years you discover friendship. Friends are the ones who show up. Who arrive with acceptance. They are ones who are concerned about you. They believe in you and manage to find value in what you say and who you are. They enjoy being with you and when your together you click. They know you are screwed up ... but it's fine with them. After your together, you realize that you both have some pretty deep wounds. You can pickup where you left off, you realize that you have traditions together and shared memories, both good and bad.

A wiseman said the only thing in life that matters is relationships. The rest is just furniture in the room.

camping before mexico

we're leaving today for some camping, then next week we're leaving for a missions trip to mexico. the blogging maybe quite slow, yet there will be rich experiences. i'll be sure to post some reflections along the way. God Bless.