Casas por Cristo : blog: Reflections on Juarez

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Reflections on Juarez

On January 9th Katina Schram came on a mission trip with Casas por Cristo as part of the team from Bachelor Creek Church of Christ from Wabash, Indiana. Her team built a home in Juarez, Mexico for Maria, Jesus and their children Erika, Hector and Jesus. Throughout her preparation for the trip Katina experienced a range of emotions, questions, doubts and fears about her decision to come to Juarez and build a home for a family. However, upon returning home to Indiana, she was so moved by the week that she had, she wrote her local newspapers to share her experience. She also wrote down her thoughts and emotions for us to share in hopes to that her own experience might help others that are considering coming on a trip to build but may be feeling some of the same hesitations and fears.

"A year ago I knew that a mission trip to Mexico was something that I wanted and needed to do. When the date for the trip was picked I was the first one to sign up. I couldn't contain my excitement! I overcame the hurdles of fundraising and raised more than I needed to cover my personal cost for the trip. This was very humbling for me and it felt like a sign from God that I indeed needed to go on this trip.

With the money raised, the only problem now was me. You see, I love Google. When my family or I am sick, I Google. When I want to know what the weather will be like an hour from now, I Google. I Google everything. Google is great except when one is going on a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico, and then Google becomes very frightening. The more I googled Juarez the more terrified I became.

Jason Roth who is on staff with Casas por Cristo is from my home church and 3-4 weeks before the trip, he and his wife Janette came to speak to our team and spouses. I asked questions and they were so calm and reassuring about how they felt safe. Honestly, deep down I wasn't sure whether to believe them or not. I mean, they needed this team to come build a house, would they really tell us if it were too violent? I didn't think so. I thought about pulling out. Yes, I knew God would be with us, but God does allow bad things to happen to good people. I did not want to be naive. I wanted to be educated, and to be educated, I Googled. And became more terrified.

I met with our Minister and Minister of Connections, who had both been on the trip before and I expressed my fears. Again, to my surprise, they were so reassuring and positive. What was I supposed to believe? I was excited, confused and scared all at the same time. I wasn't just thinking about myself, I was thinking about my family. My husband and 3 year old son need me.

The week of departure, my husband's mother passed away and I wrecked my van. I absolutely believe Satan was really working on me that week. The night before we left I cried. Was I really supposed to be on this trip? I prayed for peace. We were to meet at the church at 1:30am. I did not sleep a wink. My stomach was in knots. We made the 2 hour trip to the airport on a bus with no heat. I hate to fly and the flight to El Paso was the most turbulent flight I had ever been on. We made it to El Paso on Sunday and Monday morning crossed into Juarez. I was so afraid I did not want to sit by the window in the van crossing the border.

Crossing into Juarez was a bit intimidating. There were check points that we had to go through with the Policia carrying their guns. It was intimidating but not necessarily scary. It felt good that they were there. To my surprise, I saw people, everywhere! I saw children walking the streets with their mothers, I saw stores open, I saw lots of buses with a lot of people on them! What? From everything I had read on the internet I was expecting a ghost town, I was expecting to see all of the stores boarded up and no one on the streets. The farther out of town we got the less Policia we saw and the housing conditions became much worse. We pulled into a filling station, again, people were everywhere. We pulled up beside a van and the people in the van just smiled and waved at us. I began to feel less tense.

We got to the church that we were staying in and I stayed with 2 other teammates to organize food, etc... We left the screen door open all day because it was sunny and beautiful. All day all I could hear were children playing and laughing, I saw people walking in the streets. That evening, I had tears. Tears of joy. I felt safe. My fears were released. As we traveled that week to and from the work site I never felt like we were in any danger. The faces on the people as we passed were quite something. They smiled and waved, some children even blowing kisses. Oh, how ashamed and upset I was at how I let the media paralyze me with fear.

The relationships that I formed with my teammates, (who feel more like my brothers and sisters now), were just one of the many many blessings I experienced in Juarez. The gratitude of the people, the joy, and the tears, are memories that I will never ever forget. I will be going back to Juarez next year and I have already invited so many people to travel with us. I was so upset at the media for their one sided attention to Juarez, I called our local newspapers to ask if they would be interested in running a story about our trip, both of which did. Before the trip, I contacted Casas Por Cristo about 5 times, just needing to talk to someone about safety. Each time I was given compassion and comfort. Not only did I just trust God completely, I trusted Casas completely. Knowing that they have a safety plan in place, coupled with the fact they have never had an incident of violence, I just trusted. Period.

The need is great in Juarez. Of course, our team wanted to return home to see our families, but we did not want to leave the people of Juarez. There is so much work left to do in that city. I challenge everyone to step out of your comfort zone. Stop watching the news. Stop googling Juarez, and just go. Just Go."