For many years, Family of Christ from Ham Lake, MN, has been bringing multiple teams to Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) to serve across the border by building houses for families in need. Just like many other teams, they were forced to cancel any plans for mission trips in 2020 and 2021, but what joy they exhibited in being able to return this year!

“This is the place where I feel God the most,” Carla, the team’s leader who has been coming to YLM since 1989, shared on a drive back from a day of building, cleaning, and playing, “I know He’s everywhere but for me, and for my daughters, YLM is where we are able to be still and feel Him.”

Majority of the team had been to YLM before, with just a few first-time servants joining the team in their mission to build a two-room little house for Juan, Carla, and their three little kids. This family has been living in a one-room shack built on their small plot of property after being evicted from the cinder-block house they lived in. Unfortunately, in poverty-stricken places like Anapra, renters like Juan and Carla have no choice but to evacuate places they’re renting whenever the landowner find other people willing to pay more rent than the current renters.

The Family of Christ team worked hard the first day, when their team were a total of seventeen, to get all the siding painted, walls framed and raised, and even got the roof rafters in. Five of the team members, who ended up driving in from Austin due to cancelled flights, left early Tuesday morning, leaving twelve of their members still eager to work hard.

Early Wednesday morning, the metal tin roof was installed by several of the men in the team, with sheetrock hung inside the house by the other team members. Several of the members of the team stepped out of the construction to go to La Santa Biblia, bringing along with them snacks, bubbles, coloring pages, crayons, hula hoops, jump ropes, and balls. The younger members of the team, along with Carla and Sandy, were eager to play with the kids at La Santa Biblia.

Soon after Pastor Stephen Heimer from Zion Lutheran Church in El Paso, Texas, finished his devotion with the congregation, kids congregated around the coloring table, others enjoying the bubble machine manned by Carla. Boys played with Michael, one of the members of the team that’s been coming since he was a teenager, tossing a nerf football back and forth across the sandy lot of La Santa Biblia. Audrey and Allie, granddaughters of Nathan and Sandy, joined on this mission trip for the first time. They spent time playing with the girls, kicking around a soccer ball, jumping rope, and teaching them how exactly to hula a hoop.

Thursday and Friday were spent taking care of minor details, like putting in trim boards, painting the interior of the house, hanging up curtains, installing a few shelves, and bringing in several house-warming gifts for the family. The smile on the family’s face when they entered their little house was the best reward this team could have received. They left Saturday morning, tired but rejoicing over the blessings they received throughout their week.