All in His plan

1.18.23

In my attempts to blog each day, I know my energy levels have not permitted me to be successful in recording yesterday on time.

Yesterday was a day of extreme rigor working with one of the muddiest condition ever in my Esperanza experiences. This made mobility twice as hard. Let’s just say all clothing items were completely covered in mud and water. This did not deter the group from banding together and making the best out of our situation.

Nuvia, who is the owner of the house we were helping, is a sparkle in human form. She was so eager to express her excitement with us and connected even though there was a large language barrier. We were able to meet her son, Josh, as well who was 20 years old and in school for electrical engineering. She had another son, George, we didn’t meet that was 10 years old and was in school while were on the worksite. Nuvia is a widow whose husband was in the middle of securing them land for the family. Nuvia is one who appears to be one that keeps hope and maintains a positive outlook for the sake of her children and livelihood.

I am amazed how much we got done in just two days of work. There has been implementation in the last year of Mexico mandating new foundations standards for houses that allow them to be bigger square footage, yet this make the costs of housing increase with materials and complexity of the process. We were able to the make the shifts of building rebar columns, cutting and bending, maneuvering on wooden palettes on mud, and setting up the process for the next group.

One of the scariest things has been watching our fearless leader get our full 15 passenger van up slippery muddy hills without backsliding. There were many close calls but only the Lord continues to get us back on track to where we need to be.

Today we ended our worksite by going to help in the soup kitchen at the Missionaries of Charity sisters location. It was a humbling experience watching three different waves of close to 100 mostly men come in from streets to find a hot meal while either traveling to cross the border or simply trying to survive. We washed dishes with a man named Jesus who excitedly shared how he used to work in detailing at luxury car dealership in LA. We found out that he has a 7 year old daughter in the US and can’t be with her because he is deported.

Many of these men cheered and greeted us warmly as we served them. They said the Divine Mercy Chaplet in Spanish as well as prayers to St. Teresa of Calcutta before partaking in their humble meal. I could Jesus in all of these encounters, these beautiful souls. It struck me as we all prayed together and I looked up at a mounted crucifix that looked over each of us and telling me “Diana, these are my beloved”.

I felt like Veronica, my confirmation patroness,when I decided to approach one of the men on the last wave who could barely muster enough energy to eat his soup so he rested his whole face in the bowl. As he finished, I came over with a towel, lifted his face just enough that I could wipe the broth that covered his face. He wasn’t very coherent but he wanted to reassure me that he was grateful and was trying not to waste the food. I felt like my patroness who wiped with compassion the face of my suffering Lord who needed as small bit of comfort along His journey to the cross.

We ate again at the Taqueria which punctuated the whole day. Most of us were so spent but still took time to reflect on the events of the day and how blessed we are to witness things like home, faith, family, joy, which were so abundant in God’s plan of reality for each of us and as a community.

What a blessing! Even in this post, so many details go unmentioned, but mainly that God is in charge and the author of this trip.