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| Herald/Catrina Rawson - A photo of Patricia and Juan Carrillo and their family hangs on a bulletin board showing where volunteers from Immanuel Lutheran Church volunteered their time to build them a small house in Mexico. - |
When describing the experience of building a home under the hot Mexican sun, all Immanuel Lutheran volunteers sum it up with one simple statement: "It's life-changing."
"It changes your life because you appreciate absolutely everything that we have and that we had the blessing of being born on this side of the line," said Carol Berridge, a volunteer from the downtown Killeen church.
Each year during Spring Break, a group of about 10 volunteers travels to Mexico and builds a home for a family in need through the short-term mission trip organization, Casas por Cristo (Homes because of Christ).
The families must purchase the land for the two-room, 221-square-foot home, with electricity, but no running water. A board of pastors in Mexico selects the recipients and many wait up to two or three years - often living in their car during the interim.
"We come onto sand," said Cynthia Sparks, who organizes each trip. "There's no foundation, no nothing, and by the time we leave, there's a house."
Each week of home-building ends with a dedication ceremony, where the volunteers hand over the keys to the new homeowners.
"That's what gets everyone," Sparks said.
Volunteer Lee Binkley said the ceremony is his favorite part of the week.
"It's inevitable that they always cry, because they may have never had a door with a key. They've never had a house with windows," Binkley said.
But the volunteers don't take the credit for the new home, just as the name indicates.
"It's not from us," Berridge said. "It's from Christ."
Sparks first went on a Casas por Cristo trip in 2004 with a church in Bartlett.
"I said I had to go again," she said, and has now helped build seven homes in the towns of Juarez and Acuna.
She eventually got Immanuel involved, and the church is currently raising money for its fifth trip, scheduled for spring break 2012.
Each trip costs about $7,000 for everything - including all meals, which they bring with them - and for the past three years, they've raised enough funds to cover it. Of that amount, $4,700 goes to the cost of the house.
The group held its first fundraiser in May - a garage sale at the Lampasas home of volunteers George and Judy Morley, where they raised $1,450.
"We get a lot of donations from the church members so that really helps us out," Judy Morley said, adding they have plans for another sale in the fall.
Sparks said many people ask them why they go to Mexico. Why not help American families? She said it's because they are able to make such a big difference, with such a small amount of resources.
"You just can't do something like this is the U.S. for $7,000," Sparks said.
"It's a small amount of money to do a great deed for people that have very little," Judy Morley said.
Now, the church is working to spread the mission trip into other church communities by inviting other churches' members along to learn the ropes.
On the last trip, volunteers from Leander joined them, and are planning a separate trip now.
"Then we double the build," Sparks said.
