In yesterday’s post, you learned that the 2010 Amor Mission Trip to South Africa build a complete house for Maria.  Today, we would love to share a little bit about Maria with you.

Maria has lived in Delmas most of her life with her family.  She worked for the Mayor’s office but is now retired.  Thanks to the governing parties in the Delmas area, individuals and families receive a “housing allowance” of sorts to provide them with the means to build a decent place to live.  There is a specific protocol to get the “housing allowance” of $4,000 which requires individuals and families to get their name on an ongoing list.  The typical individual or family has their name on the “housing allowance” list for 20 years!  Maria and her family had been on the list and received their housing allowance years ago.  Unfortunately, the contractors that Maria hired to build her new home took advantage of her and stole all of her “housing allowance” money without doing any work on her house.  Her hopes of a decent place to call home for her family were completely demolished, she had given up hope.   One of the Pastors on the Amor Ministry Planning Board in South Africa, Pastor William, found Maria and requested that Maria receive the first Amor house to be built in a South African neighborhood.  Pastor William has a big heart for his community!  Through the end of the year, many of the Pastors and their congregations have decided to build homes for the poorest families in their communities.  They are reaching out to their communities and sharing the love of God to each and everyone.  We can’t wait to get back to that community and see all that God is doing!

Maria's neighborhood.

Joyful Maria

Maria making memories with Amor participants.

Maria with some of the local students that come to help build her house.

Maria working alongside the team to complete her house.

Maria's daughter joining in on the house building.

Dancing Maria!

We can’t wait to share more of the trip with you all, check back tomorrow!

Over 500 families in Mexico won’t be receiving homes on behalf of Amor Ministries in 2009. Well, this number is now about 497 families. Three houses were built during July 10-12 on our very first (and very successful!) X Project, a Mission Trip for individuals.

As a member of the Ministry Resources team here at Amor, I spent this past weekend on the X Project, helping build, interpreting, and fellowshipping with the participants. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous launching this new program, but God took care of every worry I had.

Individuals created a group of 14 three-day builders who arrived bright and early from northern California, Washington, and Nevada. The whole group eagerly jumped in to building a new house for the Verdugo family, quickly joking with the new friends they had made. Over the weekend, the X Project three-day group built simple home with a cement floor and stucco finish, and the Verdugo family could not have been more grateful. Amidst the building, we played with the children, reflected together through breakout sessions, and shared snacks with the family.

On Saturday morning, 39 more volunteers joined the X Project to participate in a one day building project, completing two houses in about eight hours! These super-charged individuals powered through the framing, siding, and painting of the houses while playing soccer, fellowshipping with the families and each other, building a dog house, and left time to spare for a short break.

On Saturday evening, all 53 X Project participants, along with the Amor team, returned to Amor Ministries’ RanchoCamp for a taco dinner and a time of sharing with Amor’s Founder and CEO Scott Congdon. We worshipped together, and then we spent time discussing the experiences of the day in small groups. After a long day, the one-day participants returned to Amor’s headquarters in San Diego, while the three-dayers had s’mores and an impromptu shadow puppet show.

Throughout the weekend, I saw flexibility, joy, and commitment to love our neighbors overflow from every individual who gave their time to join this X Project. I can’t wait for the next X Project weekends, when more people can see a glimpse of Mexico and feel God’s power as He transcends all borders!

To learn about future X Projects visit: www.amor.org/xproject

To see the X Project Video, click here.

By Katie Haar

Fundraising for Mission Trips can be challenging, but the last thing we want is for money to get in the way of your ministry!  That’s why we’ve gathered together the best ideas around in the Mission Trip Planning Manual.

One of the most compelling fundraisers for Mission Trip participants is selling elements of the Amor house your group will be building in Mexico.  You can price the foundation, walls, roof, windows, and door of the home you will have a hand in building based on the funds you need to raise.  Then, Mission Trip participants can sell or auction the Amor home to sponsors. While the money raised goes toward your fees and expenses and does not directly support the supplies to build the house, the fundraiser lets sponsors be “mortgage holders” in spirit.

More than raising money, this fundraiser helps participants “own” their trip by investing time and effort in fundraising and allows those who cannot participate to be personally involved.  Plus, the support rallied around your Mission Trip will uplift your team!

For more fundraising ideas, check out our Mission Trip Planning Manual

Most parents agree that the foundation of family is under spiritual attack. One need only look at family life statistics in the United States for proof. In 1980, for example, 77 percent of children under the age of 18 lived with two married parents. Sadly, by 2007, that rate had fallen nine percent. Even more startling is the rise in illegal, destructive behaviors amongst our youth. In fact, the use of illicit drugs, engagement in sexual activity, and participation in violent crimes has risen dramatically since 1980. Seven percent of children in the 8th grade, for example, have reported recreational drug use while those in the 10th grade are measuring at 17% and even more surprising, 22% of seniors in high school have indicated drug use within the last 30 days. This, of course, bears the question: what has become of the American family? Though the causes for the breakdown of the family and its effects on the individuals are varied, the end results are the same—brokenness.

One major contributing factor to this is poverty. About 20 percent of America children under the age of 6 were affected by such circumstances, not to mention the 16 percent of children between ages 6-17 years who were affected in 2006. Interestingly, besides the physical effects of poverty, these children are more likely to live in non-traditional family structures, which seem to be directly correlated with poverty levels. It is a commonly held belief that the traditional family is the foundation for healthy lifestyles, including spiritual life. Yet, in the post-modern culture that we live in, how will families survive the rising tide of influences to which our kids are exposed?

Clearly, these statistics reflect the state of our culture. If such information were available for other countries, one can only imagine the ramifications. In poverty-stricken nations, the results are even more dismal than expected. Because parents cannot afford to feed, clothe, or even educate their children, they often turn to orphanages for help. These families are not separated by choice or fault, but instead by the environment in which they live. It is therefore, no surprise that a cycle of poverty and crime could occur.

In spite of such grim facts and figures, there is hope for family life around the globe, as long as we are willing to work together because families are at the very core of what Amor Ministries is all about.

Amor Ministries’ Founders Scott and Gayla Congdon first began building homes in Mexico 29 years ago to help keep families together, and for this reason we continue to build today. And while a house can still bring hope to thousands of Mexican and South African families, Scott and Gayla’s concern for the state of families extended to those on this side of the border as well.

So, it was on this premise that Amor’s Mexico Family Camp began in 1995. Through the partnership of First Christian Church of Columbus, Indiana and Amor Ministries, Mexican and American families alike are strengthened each summer as homes are built and relationships are renewed.

One family builds together while another in Mexico receives, and vice versa. That’s why, the program’s motto is “Families building homes, homes building families.” Children of any age join their parents in providing a new and safe place to live. The end result is that parents and kids on this side of the U.S. border are changed as they band together with a common purpose—to serve others. Equally important, is the transforming effect this has on those receiving a new home for the first time!

You, too, can have a hand in making a life-changing impact on family, both in yours and one in Mexico. For more information, please contact Amor Ministries’ Mission Services at 619.662.1200 extension 6 to learn more about Mexico Family Camp, taking place June 20th-27th 2009.

*Statistics taken from www.ChildStats.gov Forum on Child and Family Statistics

Adapted from original story by Steve Theme

If we learn from our mistakes, I would be a genius. I was so certain prayer didn’t work that I never tried it for my first thirty-five years. Recently, in the Mexican sun, I suffered from heat exhaustion for three days.  By the third day, I couldn’t even lift myself from the floor, that is, until I said a simple prayer.

This wasn’t my first prayer.  Fifteen years ago my relationship with God, prayer, and faith changed dramatically.  But Mexico is hot in the summer; the dust is hot, the ground is hot, the shade is hot—it’s hot.  It was this extreme heat that brought me to that simple prayer and God’s simple answer.

The family of five we were building the home for lived in a one room shack, with no windows and a dirt floor.  When it rained outside, it rained inside.  There were three children, Rico, Jose, and Stephania. Though their mother was always present with a smile, we hardly saw her husband.  He worked fifteen hours a day in a shirt factory to provide for his family.  We caught a glimpse of him one morning as he was finishing the glaze to the slab of his family’s new home; he had spent all night applying it!

When day five came, we were down to the wire.  Typically, if a group doesn’t complete the home, another follows behind and finishes it.  But since we were the last group at Rosarito for the year, we had to finish.  Yet as the sun positioned itself above, I started to fade. My head and stomach went into a spinning dance, while my arms and legs could hardly move.

At this point I figured the “mission” part of the mission trip was over for me.  I sank.  At the moment when the family needed me the most, I could only lay on top of the garbage in our van.  Once I got over my sense of failure, I prayed: “God, this is our last day here, and there is still so much work to do.  How can I help?”

A rhetorical prayer, I thought.  When I opened my eyes, I noticed the van’s dome light wasn’t spinning and my stomach was quieting down.  Suddenly, I could feel my energy and strength returning to normal.  My disbelief pushed the question “What’s happening?”

I continued to lay there a bit making sure I wasn’t hallucinating.  Then I sat up easily and was quickly filled with simple acceptance.  I don’t recall even saying thank you.  I just rose, walked back to the job site, and worked for the next five hours through the heat of the afternoon.

Rico, Jose, Stephania and their parents must have needed the house finished that day.  After surviving many trials, they deserved a new home.

Thirty-five years spent closing the door on God’s love, but He is still right there every time I seek Him.  God is always with us.  We just recognize it some days more than others.

Just as God is working in Mexico, the horizons have broadened for Amor Ministries in South Africa! After a successful pilot program in Ennerdale, Johannesburg in March 2008, God continues to build new relationships and open doors to expand the ministry worldwide.

Despite a strong infrastructure, South Africa still suffers from economic and social problems from the apartheid era. As a result, one third of the population lives on less than two dollars a day. Extreme poverty in rural areas continues to drive people to the cities in search of employment, with almost 10 million South Africans living in poverty housing. Overcrowded shacks pieced together with cardboard, corrugated iron, and scrap wood are grouped together in “townships” surrounding the modern cities. The occupants of townships are predominantly black South Africans who often live without adequate services, and it is these very conditions that Amor hopes to change.

Project South Africa will do more than just make life easier for a family in need; we will open hearts to truly see the grace and love of Jesus by providing the tangible objects of security, safety, and stability and it begins with a home. Physical and spiritual needs will be met, while Project South Africa provides the opportunity to reach the 23% who do not know Christ personally and to see love-in-action firsthand.

In June 2009, Amor Ministries South Africa is offering its first house-building Mission Trip for anyone who feels led to serve the 10 million South Africans living in poverty housing. For information about joining this exciting new chapter in Amor’s story, please contact Mission Services at 619.662.1200 extension 6.

For those unable to travel to South Africa, there are other opportunities to partner with Amor. In order to offer the same life-changing experience as we do in Mexico, Amor needs your support to make South African Mission Trips possible. Please contact Melissa Salazar, Director of Ministry Resources at 619.662.1200 extension 129 if you would like to know more about partnering with Project South Africa!

Bridalwood Golf Club in Flower Mound, Texas

“Chip” in for the purchase price of Amor’s new Chihuahua campground.  All proceeds go to the Chihuahua Camp Fund.

For more information go to http://www.amor.org/golf or contact Cristy at 619.662.1200 extension 115

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE0xHbYpsfo&feature=channel_page

If you have a church group of two or people,  Amor invites you to venture to south Africa with us this summer for only $600 per person! Contact LaDonna Barron at 619.662.1200 extension 121 for more information.

Come camp, build, and grow as a family! For more information, visit http://www.mexicofamilycamp.org or contact Linda Barringer at 812.379.4491 extension 236