Reflecting

This post was written on Saturday, June 30th

By Haley Parcher

Hello all!

It is currently 2:00am and the whole group has to leave by 5:15am for the airport. At this point, most of the team (myself included) has decided to stay up instead of getting 2-3 hours of sleep. We have been reflecting on this past week and talking about all the amazing things that have happened. We decided to share about our favorite moment from the trip. When it came to be my turn, I honestly didn’t even know what to say. We have had so many incredible moments throughout this trip. I decided that my favorite moment was today when we finished the houses and gave the house keys to the families. We went back to the work site to finish up the last details of the house and say goodbye to the families. When it came time to give the keys to the family, we circled up and prayed. We thanked God for the amazing things He has done this week and prayed that the family can feel comfortable and safe in their new home. Part way through the prayer, the parents of the family (Timiteo and Silvia) started crying. They were feeling overwhelmed with emotions, especially gratitude. This brought most of the team to tears. Even the children of this family (Manuel and Andres) began to cry. It was a very special moment for all of us. We felt a sense of accomplishment for finishing the house but we also felt very sad about leaving the family. After we gave Timiteo and Silvia the keys, I went up on the hill to look at the beautiful houses. I began to think about the things we had done throughout the week. When we arrived at the work site the first day, we had a big empty work site. When we left, we had three beautiful homes. We even added a cross to the front and back of the house as a reminder that none of this could have been done without God on our side. Over the course of the week, we had high moments, low moments, scary moments, exciting moments, sad moments and happy moments. But at the end, we had three COMPLETE houses and three very happy and grateful families. We didn’t just give these people a house, we gave them a home. We gave them a place to make memories with their family and friends. Most importantly, we gave them a place where they will be safe. These children will get to grow up in a beautiful safe house rather than renting a tiny unsafe apartment in the middle of the city.

                I feel incredibly blessed to have had this amazing experience with my group. God kept us safe, positive and strong throughout this entire trip and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. This trip was one of the most difficult yet one of the most valuable experiences of my entire life.

                There are a lot of problems with homelessness and poverty in Tijuana, that’s why we came down here. As much as our team would love to, we can’t fix every problem in Tijuana. But what we did do is change the lives of three families forever. These families now have a home that will probably stay in the family more many more generations to come and that is something for every single member of the team to be proud of.

All my love,

Haley