An Oak Bluff couple who builds homes in Mexico said they see parallels between poverty there and poverty here — and they realize that you don’t need to cross any borders to help out.
Melanie and Lyndon Peters recently returned from their third mission trip to Ensenada, Mexico in January.
The couple travelled with Oak Bluff Bible Church to build two houses in four days.
The first house was for a family of three. The mother is dying of cancer, and she has two daughters, 16 and 10. Her husband left when she was diagnosed.
Supplied photo Oak Bluff Bible Church’s team stands outside Yugo Ministries in Ensenada, Mexico. Not all team members were from the church — family and friends also came along.
A family of five received the other home. A couple, plus the wife’s 30-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and her twins, moved in. The daughter had struggled with addictions in her teens and moved back with her mom.
Oak Bluff Bible Church partnered with Yugo Ministries for the short-term trip. The church crew’s job was to pay for supplies, build the homes efficiently, and pass the keys along to the families on their last day.
Lyndon and Melanie said the church partners with Yugo Ministries because the families they help are supported afterwards.
“(Yugo Ministries) works with local churches to find families that are really in need,” Lyndon said. “We know there’s people in the local churches involved with the families we build for, so we know there’s people that’ll take care of them.”
“The families help build their houses, and they seem to be doing much better in the years the church goes back to visit,” Lyndon said.
Lyndon recalled seeing a man two years after he’d helped build a house for him. The man had a better job, and he’d added more cabinets to his home and laid rugs out front.
“A lot of people do find it hard coming home because we have so much,” Melanie said. “They struggle with ‘How do I help here?’”
Often, people end up volunteering, or sometimes changing jobs, because of the experience, Melanie said.
“Yes, we did that in Mexico but we can do that here too,” she said. “Yes, they are there, but they’re also right here, and so are we, so why not help?”
Melanie has volunteered at Siloam Mission for six years.
“In a lot of ways, I find it exactly the same,” she said.
Helping others also helps yourself, she said. Both she and Lyndon said the bonding that happens within their mission group is one of the best parts of the trip.
“To see how it’s brought the whole team together, it’s really rewarding,” Lyndon said. “It’s kind of a lifetime experience.”
Gabrielle Piché is a community correspondent for Headingley and her.
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