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Thoughts from a local El Paso volunteer....

Greetings from the dusty streets of Juárez! This March I had the opportunity to be part of a mission trip without spending hours in a van or catching a flight to a distant land. Granted, I did leave the country and the life I am accustomed to, but this dramatic change was less than a fifteen minute drive from my home. I had the honor of being part of a Casas por Cristo build for a young mother and their three small children in Anapra—a small suburb of Juárez. Yesterday I worked with an international team from as far away as China and as close as El Paso, Texas. 

This team met each other for the first time in the early morning darkness at First Baptist Church in El Paso, Texas. As the volunteer team leader, I had assembled a team of many good and close friends. I invited a number of dear friends from Canyon, Texas to travel from the grasslands of the Panhandle to join us on this project in the desert. These friends once called me their pastor, and the bond between us runs deeper than blood.

Joining them were a handful of veteran Casas por Cristo builders from First Baptist Church of El Paso. There was A.J., the former Navy Seal who led by example. Dick, who used his saw to craft the lumber with masterful skill. Jackson, whose smile and positive attitude made any job, whether large or small, enjoyable.  He invited his close friend Bill to add an extra pair of hands to the job site. And finally, there was, “Yooper Bob” who left his home in upper Michigan to live the life of a Casas por Cristo missionary.  He blended skill, experience, and a tearful story to inspire the team to work together for the glory of God.

By my side most of the day were my beautiful daughters Kalie and Jamie. Neither one had ever really been on a job site but they pitched in like they knew what they were doing.  Leading our team was David and Rachel, interns from Minnesota, and the rolling hills of Indiana. Our team was rounded out by a graduate student from UTEP who made his way to our fair city from mainland China. 

This team of strangers soon became family and worked together like a well-oiled machine. Guys who barely knew each other worked together like brothers who had known each other their whole lives. It was a miracle of sorts. But really it was an answer to prayer—not my prayer but the prayer of Jesus. 

Jesus prayed in John 17: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

This week the world saw a glimpse of the glory of Jesus by watching a team working together as “one.”