A team of 10 adults and one high school aged youth from Rolling Hills Baptist Church returned recently from Juarez, Mexico, where they built a home for Jaime and Hilda Vasquez and their five children.
Although construction of the home is typically done with 18 or more people, this much smaller team was able to complete the house in the same amount of time. The keys to the house were given to the family during a dedication ceremony on Friday.
Coincidentally the house was completed on the birth date of one of the Vasquez children, so he received a very large present!
The team transformed an empty dirt lot into a safe and secure three room home for the family of six; complete with cement foundation, electricity, windows and doors.
The build was conducted in partnership with Casas por Cristo (www.casasporcristo.org), a ministry based in El Paso, Texas that partners with local churches and volunteer teams to build homes for families living in poverty in Juárez, as well as Acuña, México, and San Raimundo, Guatemala. They rely on the labor and resources of full time staff missionaries, local pastors and community leaders, and volunteers from across North America.
Juárez, México is a city of over 1.3 million people that borders the United States by way of El Paso, Texas. Unemployment is high, and many families are in desperate need of housing. In recent years, Juarez has been plagued by severe violence. Many of the families served by Casas por Cristo earn an average of $60 per week or less, and live in structures made of cardboard, wood pallets, or other scrap materials available to them. Many families live without running water. Extended families often live together, making their small living area that much more crowded.
This is the sixth house completed by Rolling Hills — five in Juarez and one in Acuna.
Rolling Hills Baptist Church worships at the NCG Cinemas at Fischer Crossings in Sharpsburg. For more information on Rolling Hills, visit http://WheresTheSteeple.org.
