Stepping Out

Juárez is in trouble.  Not because there is a drug war going on, but because so much of the Christian community has turned its back.  The innocent families on our waiting list of three years, those who have nothing to do with the drug cartel, are suffering.  They are left wondering if Casas por Cristo is going to make good on its promise to come and build them a home.  Wondering how to trust God to provide for their families.  In the past, families applying for a home didn’t wait longer than a year.  Today, those on the list will wait almost three years.  In 2009, we built 225 fewer homes than we did in 2007.  It’s not that we are disappointed that our “production” is down.  It’s for the simple fact that 225 fewer families received this amazing miracle.  And that is exactly what we believe these homes are…miracles.  A home is truly the largest and most valuable gift any of these families will receive on this earth.  And beyond that, it is an enormous expression of God’s love for them. 

But in addition to these families missing out on a great blessing, there are hundreds and thousands of volunteers that are missing the opportunity to be a part of something greater than themselves…a part of sharing Christ’s love and provision with those in need.  The following is one definition of the word mission:  “a course of services given to convert the unchurched or quicken (to make alive, or to cause to burn more intensely) Christian faith.”  How true this statement is to what we do here.  The definition is two-fold, as is the mission of Casas por Cristo.  Through our service of building a home, we are able to reach out to those who don’t know Christ and at the same time, our own faith is being quickened and ignited.  Brilliant.  I am pained for the thousands of volunteers who didn’t get to experience this quickening because fear kept them away. 

In his book, Crazy Love, Francis Chan sets forth the following challenge: “God doesn’t call us to be comfortable.  He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.”  Juárez is in trouble, and its people need God’s presence, peace, and love now more than ever.  Please come.  Please serve.  Please trust God to take you outside the things you are comfortable with.  Be encouraged that there is no better place to be than in His will.  Come and help us share love and let’s fight together to make His name known.

-Amy Lowrey