A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of accompanying students from the ninth grade on one of their service projects. It was a touching experience. I was very impressed to see our students express such a humility and joy in service to others.
A little background: Outside the larger towns and cities of much of Mexico, there are many, many villages and communities of farmers, craftsmen, fisherman, etc. This population for the most part is made up of the indigenous people groups of the area - in the case of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Mayan indians - and the vast majority of them are very poor. This is not to say that they live in poverty, which is always relative to some base standard of living. They have the bare necessities of life - a house, food, a living, families. They usually live in one room houses, often with extended family. The houses in this area are often made of stone, with dirt floors and thatch or tin-sheet roofs. They live "in" swamps and other areas of not-so-prime real estate. They sell fruits and vegetables in the markets or on the roadside, fish for octopus, harvest salt, tend livestock, raise chickens, work as masons, grow corn, or make local handcrafts for tourists for next to nothing. None of which actually makes them money, in our way of thinking, but at least it provides what they need. And, honestly, they seem quite content - a lesson, I think, for us all. They are the vast bottom rung of Mexican society and economy.Unfortunately, they are often the first and hardest to be hit and the last to recover from the hurricanes, dry seasons, changes in the tides, or even pollution. Months after the last hurricane grazed us (Emily), I had no idea there were many villages still suffering from its effects. In terms of damage to the area, we still laugh about the hurricane that never was (at least in Merida). But many of the houses are sitting in swamps that have crept up with every rain or hurricane that has come by since Isidore (2002) created new intertidal zones along the coasts. Furthermore, even hurricanes and storms that do not "hit" us tend to change the ecology of the coastal areas. In this case, octopus fishermen have had a permanent spot in the newspapers as their simple industry has suffered heavy losses this hurricane season.
For this reason, Gerardo, our PE teacher and Victor Villanueva, a local pastor and father to our ninth grader Nahum, organized a day in which some of our 9th grade students helped deliver food and blankets to one of these nearby fisherman towns. I must admit that, after staying up until 2:30 Friday night with our young adult ministry, I was not very keen on getting up at 6:00 on Saturday to drive an hour-and-a-half outside of town. But the minute I saw the joy with which these students went from door to door delivering food and the gladness on the faces of people living in conditions I could never bear, I gave thanks to God for giving me the chance to witness the occasion. It was not much. It was not hard. But neither was it something we are accustomed to doing and most importantly, it was the love of Christ shared by students of Blas Pascal with those around them who are in need. This is what we are looking for with our junior high service projects. In my case, I think, it was more than I expected.
We were in Dzilam de Bravo for only a few hours. We delivered probably 300 packets of food and maybe 75 blankets to the elderly. Pastor Victor has a group of men who continue to do this, basically spending every Saturday driving to these villages and delivering food. Hopefully, I will be able to participate more with this next semester.Prayer Requests:
- Pray for these fishermen who continue to struggle through this time. They have many mouths to feed and very little to feed them with.
- Pray for those who participate in this ministry: for strength and safety as they deliver food, blankets, and the message of the love of Christ to those in need.
- Pray for the students (and their teacher) that this experience will leave a lasting impression and a desire to reach out to those around them.
