2024 Tijuana Ministry Trip Reflection by Joan Mibach …
This year we celebrated the 20th year of the BASICS Tijuana Ministry mission trip, and the 15th year St. Simon has participated in this immersion mission. Each year the trip is slightly different based on the travelers who go and the programs we can offer. What doesn’t change for me personally from year to year is how miraculous God’s love is, and how that love calls us to action and allows miracles to happen as we immerse ourselves into the lives of our brothers and sisters who live in one of the poorest areas just 20 miles across the US border.
In addition to our home building, this year we were able to offer programs that were postponed during the pandemic years. I invite you to join us on the Tijuana Ministry mission trip to understand the opportunities travelers experience from sharing their love and participating in the various activities this unique trip offers. The Tijuana Ministry immersion trip is safe and inexpensive way for travelers to experience God’s love up close, and most often return home feeling that they have received much more from the experience than they have given.
We completed four homes this year. You can learn about the four families we built for on our website. With the help of a few local carpenters to prep the home sites and prebuild walls, we are able to erect the house in about two days. The house includes 3 bedrooms, and bathroom with shower, tub, sink and flushing toilet, and electricity in each room. We thank God for the miracle of bringing together a group of people, some of which have never lifted a hammer before, to complete the house building. When you see the house completed and we gather for a house blessing, we are humbled imagining the impact on the family. Perhaps for the first time they will be able to flip a switch to light a room or feel secure able to lock their own front door. When we visited one of the families the day after the house was completed, one of the daughters came running up to tell us that she had a swimming pool in her house! Of course she was referring to the tub, a new experience in her young life. It is the miracle of love that brought us to be a part of each family’s experience. We are grateful for them as new homeowners and are overwhelmed by the miracle of handing over a set of keys that will change their lives for generations.
This year we are grateful for the deliberate way we were able to offer daily immersion trips into the local area to help our travelers better understand the local situation. The miracle of this ministry of presence allowed travelers to interface one on one as we visited a migrant shelter for asylum seekers waiting at the border to cross into America. We visited an Aids and TB clinic supported financially by BASICS and learned the stories of its patients and residents, including many children. We went to Friendship Park and learned its sad history and saw where the border wall extends into the Pacific Ocean. We packed and distributed food bags to surrounding chapels in the area and met many people who struggle each day meeting basic human needs. We visited families that we have built homes for over the years which allows us to maintain our relationships and better understand their daily lives. The miracle of love for all God’s people happened daily.
This year we were able to re-engage our children’s day camp program and we able to offer arts and crafts, Legos, sports activities and many other fun opportunities to local children who normally don’t have access to this type of summer program. We held the camp at a chapel site that also has a school for special needs children who joined us each day. It was the miracle of inclusion that inspired all the teens and adults who helped to make this program possible this year.
This year we had 56 travelers on our mission trip. Twenty-two were from St. Simon Parish and School. This was a first-time trip for 30 people. We had 29 women and 27 men, including 10 teens and 5 young adults. Our home site team worked hard each day to maintain our housing facilities, provide three meals a day to keep our travelers healthy, well nourished and hydrated for the fulfilling day’s activities, and managed logistics to keep things running smoothly throughout the trip. We were reminded each day that Love Builds Miracles, and we are grateful to God for the safe, successful, and inspiring completion of our 20th mission trip, and look forward with gratitude to year 21!
I would like to highlight that one of our immersion day experiences was at the Casa De Magrante shelter which, when we visited in past years, only housed men who had been deported from the US back to Mexico. Due to global plight of migrants, we learned that this center is now mainly housing asylum seeking families from several different countries who were forced to flee their homes due to fear for their lives. Several members of our Outreach and Social Justic Council have been serving on a committee to identify ways and means to help transition asylum seekers who are brought to Santa Clara County. More than 250 asylum seekers were bussed to San Jose last over previous years. We are studying how we can be a participating parish to provide support to these families who seek freedom in America. More information will be forthcoming as plans and opportunities evolve. If you are interested in this topic, please contact Michelle Nealon mnealon@earthlink.com or Joan Mibach, jmibach@stsimon.org.
You can learn more about the precious families that we built homes for this summer here. Visit our 2024 Tijuana Ministry Trip Photo Gallery here.
Blessings,
Joan Mibach