Border Hope seeks to mobilize people on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border to address the spiritual, educational, nutritional, employment, and other needs of people in a very poor shantytown in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Borders...how people love to build them! On land, in our hearts, in our mindsets, they separate "us" from "them," those we care for from those we don't. We dedicate our lives to the pursuit of material comforts and short-term gain, disconnected in our awareness from those who are excluded, and from the natural eco-systems that support us. Biblically speaking, we have erected a very thick border between "heaven," the realm of God who loves all, and "earth," where narrow self-interest, injustice, and indifference dominate. Surely there must be a better way to live and relate! It's time to tear down these borders, until the love of God fills our lives and communities, and heaven and earth become one.
Where shall we begin? In McAllen, Texas, thousands of dollars are spent each academic year per child in public schools. In sharp contrast, just across the border, children in a very poor shantytown in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico are going without adequate education, nutrition, and guidance. They are only 12 miles away, yet for many people it is as if they are on the other side of the universe. Though forgotten by most of the rest of the world, the Spirit of God is present and moving powerfully among them.
Building community ties to address needs is our focus. Won't you come and join us in this exciting journey?
Less than 15 miles from my house in south Texas, there is a community where people live in shacks with no electricity or running water. It is a shantytown built along the canal that runs through the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. People bathe in the polluted water and get skin problems as a result. Most of the people moved here from very poor communities in southern Mexico. Unemployment, health and nutrition issues, alcoholism and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and despair abound. There is significant prosperity in other parts of Reynosa, just a few miles away. But a Mexican friend who herself grew up in poverty maintains that the conditions in the shantytowns are as bad as you can find anywhere else in Mexico.
A menos de 25 kilómetros de mi casa en el sur de Tejas hay una ciudad perdida de viviendas extremadamente humildes y sin luz y agua corriente, por el canal que corre por medio de la ciudad de Reynosa, Tamaulipas, México. La gente se baña en el agua sucia y contaminada, lo que resulta en problemas de piel. La mayoría de la gente llegó de comunidades muy pobres del sur de la República Mexicana. Prevalecen el desempleo, problemas de salud y nutrición, el abuso del alcohol y las drogas, embarazos de menores de edad, y la desesperación. Hay mucha prosperidad en otras partes de Reynosa a pocos kilómetros. Sin embargo, una amiga mexicana que también creció en la pobreza sostiene que las condiciones de vida en esta comunidad están entre las peores que se puede encontrar en todo el país.
The book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living, by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew, discusses the nitty gritty of composting, raising chickens, aquaponics, bioremediation of polluted land, water purification, and other topics that seem alien to the interests of modern North Americans. I bought it because some friends and I are pondering technologies and skills that may be relevant to meeting the basic nutritional needs of a particular community in Mexico whose residents are so poor they can hardly afford the bus ride to a supermarket. Continue reading Shall we cut way, way, way back?
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