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What Past Participants Have to Say about Mano Amiga

Dear Denis, Dave, Tom, and the rest of Mano Amiga,

... it has been about three months since given the opportunity to make a difference in other peoples lives. I also have had a hectic time since coming back from the trip. God has given a total blessing to those people whom we helped down in Mexico. I thank God for giving me the call and opening my eyes to see the needs of other. It was all of you who have helped me to find my call to be a servant of Christ to walk in his light to be a servant of the Lord. To be given the opportunity to spread my love for
Christ to the Mexican people and to put roofs on those who need them. They also taught me and made me realize that I take so much for granted. From the food we eat to the roofs over our heads. It also made me realize one more very powerful thing and that is their value on life is family. That’s right family; while most Americans value materialistic things they (Mexicans) value family and that touched me/meant alot to me. As I and my family struggle with our relations with each other. As I walked away from an awesome life changing experience led, called, and chosen by God to do, I just thank him for opening my eyes and letting me be his hands and his feet. I look forward to
next February to do it all again. All God be the glory now and forever and great blessing upon Mano Amiga ministry of great heart, soul and spirit instituted by the one true God..
In Christian Love
Susan D. Krass
Long Island Lutheran High Shcool
Spring 2001
Trip report given to the congregation of Christ Lutheran Church, Woodcliff Lake, NJ, the day after the return of 22 Mission workers.

¡Buenos Dias! We bring you greetings and thanks from the Yucatán, Isla Mujeres & Piedras Negras in Mexico...and from Minnesota, Texas and Long Island...and thank you from all of our Christ Lutheran Church mission workers to all of our sponsors and supporters here.

Twenty two Mission Workers from CLC recently returned from the Yucatán after an intense week of work, tears, devotions & prayer, laughter, hugs, learning, sadness, fellowship and new experiences. Naturally, those who went got to know each other better and familiar people became close friends. Naturally, those who went shared something that only a “hands-on” experience can provide. And, naturally, those who went grew closer together in their love for God and for each other. The Great Commandment was truly followed here...”Love God and love your fellow man”. We returned safely with no major injuries & no sicknesses. However, we did return with some new ideas, some new attitudes, some new friends, some new priorities and some new understanding.

Joining the twenty two of us from Bergen County, New Jersey were eighteen students and adults from Long Island Lutheran High School as well as four Mano Amiga workers from Minnesota, one from Texas and two from the north of Mexico. Mano Amiga is a ecumenical organization that organizes and coordinates volunteer mission work in Mexico. During the week we were joined in our work by individuals from the village as well as two young men from Merida who were about to start Bible College. They worked with us for two days.

We completed 6 concrete roofs for six families...five in the village of Chuburná, one in a suburb of Mérida. We carried steel-reinforced concrete beams, lifted and fit concrete blocks, temporarily supported the roofs with little more than sticks and them hand-mixed sand, gravel and cement in the street to make concrete. The concrete was then bucket-brigade-ed to the roof to cap the entire structure. After each roof was completed, our Pastors conducted a simple dedication ceremony in both English and in Spanish and then presented to each family a Spanish language Bible and a lighted candle symbolizing both the Light of Christ and the love within the home. At the house in the Merida suburbs, the family father expressed his sorrow at his inability to give us gifts in return; but promised that he and his family would pray for us every day.

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We were invited into a house we worked on last year...and we saw great happiness... and we saw fewer belongings in the entire house than most of us probably have in our cars...except that most of our cars do not have a wooden crate of baby turkey chicks. We delivered clothing, sports equipment, medical and dental supplies, educational kits and hygiene kits. We took pictures of children and their families and were asked by them for pictures of us...so they could remember us! Photographs in this part of the world are virtually non-existant. Having your picture taken could be a “ once (or twice) in a lifetime” experience. We took over 200 Polalroid pictures...we brought home only one

The night before we left Chuburná, we had a last-night fiesta with two piñatas for the children of the village. The people on whose homes we worked during the week stood before the gathering and expressed their thanks to us and to God. In a village of less than two thousand, we counted over 300 people at the fiesta!

We experienced a brief & violent early-morning storm that caused us some minor inconvenience by upsetting our breakfast and Sunday Service schedule.But the sudden squall caught a number of fishing boats out on the ocean and resulted in five lost boats and an unknown number of fishermen from near-by villages. Three of the missing fishermen were friends of Moses, one of our co-workers. Two fishermen were found alive under a boat overturned in the water, one found dead, the rest still missing the last we heard.

We had a week that we will not forget! All of the youth that went said that they wish to return next year. We hope that you will join them. If you cannot join them, we hope you will sponsor them. We returned with a better understanding of our own capabilities and of the capabilities of the extraordinary youth that we are blessed to have in this church. We gave gifts and we received gifts...and I think that all of us took home much more than we left.

Numerous times during the mission trip, we gave thanks to God...at the dedications of each of the six roofs we helped complete, each evening at devotions, every meal as we said grace (think about the witness of almost 30 people joining in a hand-holding, common grace in a crowded restaurant), and whenever the Spirit moved us. We were in God’s hands. The Mano Amigo group was in God’s hands. The people of Chuburná were in God’s hands. And all the world was in God’s hands...we were One in the Spirit...and in God’s hands. Gracias á Dios... Thanks be to God...and thanks to you who helped make this possible.
...I was able to travel to Mexico with Mano Amigo. I can say that while building those roofs on the homes of the Mexican people, I felt closer to my faith then from any experiences that I have ever had before. It was there that I was closest to reaching the potential of the living Christ inside of me. We did not have liturgy, hymns, or great ceremony. There was no altar, no banners and no robes. We were people helping others. Jesus said, through the Gospel of Matthew, 25:40, “I tell you whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.” That was what we did, and I can say that anyone who has been able to experience that kind of helping has been changed as well. We took our love, compassion and understanding and put it to use. It is through our actions that true belief and spirituality within us, is really born.

Elizabeth Dale (age 17)
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