It's finally coming all together and I am incredibly excited, so there will be several more blogs about this I'm sure! Ok so I have this very talented, compassionate, and super smart friend named Mark. I met Mark while working with a youth missions organization...YouthWorks. Anyway, through YouthWorks he got a chance to help a community in Tijuana, Mexico.
side note here---> Tijuana borders San Diego CA, and although only a fence seperates the two cities they look and feel very different. Tijuana has a high unemployment rate. It's a hot spot for drug traffickers and the cartel, which means it's known for crime and violence. I was talking to a friend there and he said that Tijuana is many times a place that people get stuck...people come from all over trying to cross the border and end up here. This means that every day the population of Tijuana grows...but since it's not built for such fast growth and the people either use all their money by this point or they move into underdeveloped areas, many communities that do exist lack ammenities, roads, sanitation, schools, medicine, etc. The government...well let's just say the situation has not changed dramatically.....OK so there is this cycle you find in areas like this.--> Education is not seen as super important...soooo a large group of people are illiterate and lack the knowledge that might better their lives. This alone limits so many to lives of hard labor and unemployment. There is stress, worry, a loss of hope... People start to turn towards crime and drugs, which leads to brokeness. This brokeness is seen in the person, the person's family, the community...and it continues and continues because there is no other knowledge of something better. And that's where God (through wonderful people like Mark) comes in!!!
---The cool thing about Mark was that after leaving Tijuana, Tijuana never left him. Cheesy sounding I know, but it's true. He began dreaming of starting some sort of.. something.. to help. So his dream lead to where we are now with the project. Last Christmas Mark and I went to Tijuana to discuss what the community needed and wanted...what THEY thought would help (because nothing is worse than someone coming in and TELLING people what they need). So after a week we found out the info I talked about earlier in my side note...and some more but I'm already rambling so yeeeah. Anyway,here's the plan...here is what Archive International is--> We are going to bring in libraries and soccer fields to impoverished areas (like Tijuana) Hoping to stop that cycle of brokenness...we want to teach people how to read, about God about the world about their amazing potential. The soccer fields are there to provide a safe place to play, to come together as a community (and bring them to the library..ha) aaaand I'm all about getting some little ones into shape so that's good for that too. ;) Did I mention Mark is crazy good at construction?? well he is, and he is going to build these libraries (with the help of locals and volunteers from the states). They will be "green", energy efficient, and eventually we hope to have the locals run them...something they can really have pride in and call their own. The first place is Tijuana but some day we'll get to some other communities around the world...like in Puerto Rico and Honduras!! Oh and I'm going to end (for now) with this experience we had on our visit. A church member was bringing us around the very poor area and knew a family living there so he brought us to their house. The house was sooo tiny and full of kids. They were beautiful but the whole time the mom kept apologizing for how ugly her house was and how embarrassed she was. Mark and I both felt awful for making her feel like she had to apologize...for making her feel ashamed of where she lived. We want to help people have pride in their community, confidence in themselves, and an opportunity to grow, learn, and impact the lives of others.
< (current soccer field)
