NEW PALESTINE — The dwelling was simple, with a dirt floor, but Dave Wilson noticed all the beds were made and the floor was swept clean.
This woman in Mexico took care of her home.
After Wilson and the rest of a team of volunteers from Brookville Road Community Church in New Palestine began building a new home for her nearby, she came to the site daily, often sweeping up after the workers.
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The team traveled to west-central Mexico in January, working through Youth With a Mission’s Mazatlan base and the Homes of Hope program the ministry launched in 2006.
Some people in the area live in shelters fashioned from pallets and tarps. YWAM coordinates visiting teams, who build houses to help families with particular needs.
“The vision is not only to build a home for a family in need, but to also lay a foundation in their lives for God to further build upon,” the organization said on its website. “By working with local churches in these poor communities, YWAM Mazatlan is able to ensure that the physical and spiritual needs of the people are met.”
The homeowner must own the land. A foundation is poured and set before the team arrives. From there, a visiting team has a three-day schedule for building the house. It assembles the metal studs that become walls as drywall, electrical wiring, siding and paint are added.
The structures have electricity but no indoor plumbing; families generally have an outhouse, and they get running water from a city-supplied spigot in the yard.
Each house costs $7,500 to build, and contributions from the building team’s church and/or other donors pay for that.
Jesse Schwedler has seen these dwellings take shape before. This was his fifth such trip; each one is a little different from the one before, he said, but what they all have in common keeps him coming back.
“I’m always just reminded of of how well we have it here and how easy itb is to take a little time out of my schedule … to make a huge difference,” he said.
The woman receiving this home, for example, is a widow with medical issues that prevent her from working. A son in his 20s supports the household.
“It just touched our hearts when we saw how this lady had gone through so much,” Wilson said. “She wasn’t a woman of a lot of words, but her emotions spoke tremendously.”
As the house went up, Wilson added, “We didn’t even have to know Spanish to see her reaction. It was a beautiful thing.”
Wilson’s daughter, Katherine Wilson, is on staff at the YWAM base there. One bonus of the trip for him and his wife, Tina, was seeing their daughter.
Another bonus of the trip for them, he says, is becoming more intentional about mission work and realizing how much they have to give.
“It’s really opened our hands more to a giving heart … (than) ‘What do I want?’” he said. “We’re already thinking about another trip.
“I just know that this is how we can impact other people and how we can help others.”
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To sponsor a Homes of Hope house or go on a trip to build one, email Jesse Schwedler at [email protected]. For more information on the program, http://www.ywammazatlan.com/mission-trips/homes-of-hope.
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