Have you ever
wondered what it would be like to start a family without a place to live? This is the case for so many families
as they are forced to live with parents or hop from borrowed home to borrowed
home in hopes that some day, they’ll have a home of their own. This ministry helps those families get
started and is used as an evangelistic tool to reach out to the community. Change a needy family’s
future by helping to provide a home and freeing up finances for food, education
and healthcare. We take care of the logistics and you provide the labor. Join
us for a Dwellings house build!
This 600 square foot house serves the basic needs for our local families. It has a small three foot porch in the front, two bedrooms, a living room with a kitchen and dining area, a bathroom and a water cistern with a washboard and counter in the back, and an open section in the back that will have a gravel floor. We build our own cinder blocks in
advance that fit together like legos.
After strengthening the walls with columns, cement, and stucco, the roof is put on. With the floor, septic, and water cistern built before the team comes, this house can be done in one week with a group of 10 adults.
CURRENT FAMILIES IN NEED
(Alphabetical Order)
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The Ballesteros Solis Family
Fermín Ballesteros-Lucas and Carolina Solís-López,
both of Cofradía, have two children: Diana and Alexis.
This couple has been together for nine years.
Fermín is a temporary laborer working in anything from the fields to
construction, but because of the scarcity of work in the area, they have been
unable to save enough money to build a house, which has forced them to move
from borrowed house to borrowed house. They comment that the majority of the
time, owners arrived asking them to move out as soon as possible, many times
giving them only 24 hours. This has caused them a great deal of difficulty
because they have to find another place to live with very little time to search
for something more permanent. They say this has been one of the most difficult
experiences their family has had to endure, especially for the children.
Last year, Fermín was finally able to buy a plot of
land together with their brother-in-law, Goyo. They dream of one day having
their own, permanent home there, where they no longer have to bother anyone
else.
________________________________________________________________The Carrillo Valeria Family
Fernando Carrillo, of
Cofradía, first met Ana Valeria, of Agua Aceda, five years ago, when she was
attending high school with his sister and would come to his house to visit her.
However, after she graduated, Ana moved to the capital city of Tepic to work.
Once she got there, she invited Fernando’s sister to come work with her. A few
months after his sister started working with Ana, Fernando and his family went
to Tepic; his mother was battling cancer, and she was receiving treatments in
the hospital there. The two started spending time together and soon were
dating. Six months later, they moved in with each other in Fernando’s dad’s
house in Cofradía, where they have lived for the past two and a half years.
This sweet couple now has a young son named Kevin and a baby girl named Odalis.
Fernando works in the fields, and Ana takes care of the children.
Fernando’s dad gave them some land behind his
house to build a home of their own. However, after they started to build, the
money they planned to use for the house was needed to cover medical expenses
for Fernando’s mom. Sadly, she passed away in May 2016. In addition to grieving
for his mother, Fernando had to face the fact that he and Ana could no longer
afford to build their home. For this young, active couple, having a home of
their own would mean having a place where they can live in peace and focus on
raising their children.
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The Lopez Carrillo Family
Zeferino Carillo-Matías and
Jesús Lopez-Vázquez have four children and currently work as field hands only
for two or three months every year in order to support their children. When
they travel to find work, the children have to stay with Jesús’s mother. This
is because the children are young, and the home where they currently live is
unsafe. They don’t want to risk
anything happening to the children. In addition, Zeferino works in Tepic (about
an hour and a half from Cofradia) when he can, helping with construction. This kind of work does not provide
sufficent income to make improvements on their home. During the rainy season, they have to find somewhere else to
stay because their roof leaks so badly. They are seeking God’s provision of
much more work in order to provide a better living situation for their family.
In other words, they are waiting on a miracle.
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The Martinez Partida Family
The Martinez Partida Family
Diego Martinez from Las Pilas and Sandy Partida from
Cofradía live in a borrowed house in Las Pilas. This young couple has been together for 11 years. They met while working in the fields
planting melons. Sandy was
interested in Diego and wanted him to ask her out. She remembers watching other young ladies flirt with Diego,
so she decided not to wait and asked him out, instead. The couple dated for four months before
moving in together. Now, Diego
cares for cows and repairs fences, and Sandy makes and sells cheese during the
rainy season. They really want to
have children and are seeing a doctor who is helping them with their fertility
struggles.
The couple has lived in the borrowed house for five
years, and they are ready to feel the security that comes with knowing they are
in a home of their own. This home
would also be a place where they would start their family and raise their
children.
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The Oronio Flores Family
Olrando Oronia, of Cofradía, and Carmen Flores, of
Las Peñas, have three chilren: Yeremi, Zoe, and Omar.
When Orlando and Carmen married, they were living
with his parents, as is the custom, but it was very difficult because of
conflicts between Orlando's mother and Carmen. They borrowed another house for a while, but when Orlando’s
job ended, they went to live in the city, which was very difficult for Carmen
and their children. Some time later, Orlando’s father was diagnosed with
cancer, and before he died, he bequeathed to Orlando and his family a plot of
land for them to live on. Through
much effort, they were able to build a small one-room house with walls made of
sticks and mud and a palm-thatched roof.
This is where they currently live.
For them, having a cement block home would be a
great blessing because they live very close to brush-filled hills in an area
prone to fires, causing them to live in constant fear for their home and their
lives. Orlando has considered
going to the U.S. as a contracted laborer in order to earn enough to build a
safer home for his family, especially when his children beg him for a room of
their own, but they have determined that it would be not only sad but unwise to
leave his family alone for so long, especially since they cannot count on any
help from their families.
________________________________________________________________
The Solis Huizar Family
Gregorio (Goyo), of Cofradía, and Rafaela, of
Rosarito (a small community in the mountains of Nayarit), are a young couple
with two daughters, Mairani and Karla. Goyo’s mother, Modesta, and her grandson
Luis also live with them. (It is very common for indigenous families to live together.)
Modesta has no husband, so Goyo has taken on the
responsibility of caring for his mother and nephew in addition to his own
family. At this time, he works as
a brick layer, earning enough to cover the cost of food and some of their
necessary expenses, but that is insufficient for building a house. After expenses, they have only been
able to save enough to purchase just half of the parcel of land where they one
day hope to build a house.
They currently live in a borrowed house. Rafaela
says it is difficult knowing that at any moment the owners could require the
house again, leaving them without a place to live. Having their own home would
provide a long-desired sense of stability for their family.
The Vázquez Family
María Vázquez is a hard working single mother raising
her young son, Eric in the nearby town of Santa Fe. When she was younger,
María worked in Ruiz where she met Eric’s dad. He moved to the United
States, and later María and Eric moved there to be with him. It didn’t
work out for them, so María and Eric moved back to Mexico and stayed with her
sister. However, when her sister’s husband returned home, they had to
move out. She rented a house for a while, but it was very difficult for
her to make the payments with money she earned selling meals. When her
brother and his family moved to Cofradía, they loaned María their house in
Santa Fe. Everyday, she worries that her brother will need his house
again, and she and Eric will be asked to move. For her, having a home
would mean happiness, peace and the security of having a place of her own where
she knows she would never be asked to leave.
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The Vázquez Martinez Family
José Vázquez and Silvia Martinez are raising their
young son, José Alexis in the nearby town of Santa Fe. The couple met in
Chihuahua where José was working in orchards picking apples and peaches.
Two years later, Silvia came to work in the same fields, and José fell for her
right away. After dating for five months, the couple moved to Santa Fe
where José now works in the nearby fields, and Silvia cares for José
Alexis.
The family lives in a home they
are borrowing from José’s parents. The house floods during the rainy
season. The couple remembers a particular rainy season two years
ago. Their son was sick and after being exhausted from caring for him all
through the night and taking him to the doctor the next day, they were so tired
that they slept through the rain and didn’t notice the water coming into the
house. When the neighbors came to wake them, their clothing, furniture,
bed and other household items were soaked. For this family, having a
house would mean having the security of being in a home of their own on their
land. It would also be a safe
place for them to live that wouldn’t flood every year.
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