Southwood United Church

Welcome Home!

It was so wonderful to see everyone home again from their trip to Tijuana this past Sunday!  We want to thank everyone who contributed financially to make this build possible.  We also want to thank the team for building a boys dormitory AND another home while they were in Tijuana.  You have been a blessing to others.  The video below was put together by one of the team members who joined us from Carmen United in BC.  Thanks Dan.

 Mexico Update

We hope you are enjoying the friendship and festivities of the Christmas season. Maria Esther continues to open her heart and home to more children – she now has 30 children and 3 mothers living in the house and comedor , as counted by Carlton during his November trip.

 Since our March trip, we have sent Maria Esther and children $100 per month for food and also for special celebrations. We sent her an additional $100 each for Christmas and 3 Kings Celebration( January 7) for food and fun, and also $150 in the summer for an outdoor children’s day . Our funds for school and food support are now depleted and we will be raising more funds in the New Year to continue our ongoing food and education support.

 We just confirmed  Mission2 Mexico Trip for April 4-9 over the Easter Weekend! It is so exciting to return and carry out God’s plan for Maria Esther and children!  We will build a boy’s dormitory ( converting the regular house plan to have more bedrooms and a bathroom) and a small food storage building ( behind the comedor). Maria Esther is ecstatic – Carley has encouraged her to pray and pray harder for many years and her prayers are being answered. We hope to have a team of 15 which will fill every seat in Pastor Isaac’s van.

 We have a head start on the fundraising as there were some funds remaining from our 2011 trip. But we will be getting busy on fundraising in January – our first activity will be collecting bottles at church on Sunday January 9 – kindly let us know if you would like to help out. We are also planning a bottle drive in February. More details to follow….

 On another note, we have had initial discussions with Carlton and Ed about providing long term education/vocation/university support to Maria Esther and children  - we hope to set up a steering committee in the new year to guide this mission and will forward more details when known…

 Please keep Maria and children in your prayers –  

26 volunteers from Southwood travelled to Terrazas, Mexico (near Tijuana) in March to build a home for Mariela & Omar Mujica (& children) and 23 abandoned children.

Over 6 years ago, Maria Esther started taking in abandoned children when parents left for work. Since the build she has taken in more children and today she feeds and cares for 28 children mostly from the food bank and random donations, with the help of 4 other women.  The Children’s Comedor is used to house, feed, and provide after school support.

As a church community we have decided to continue to support Maria and the children over the next year by providing funds for all the children to attend school and provide some base funding for food.

100% of the funds raised are for the children’s support.   If you would like to donate to our home building fund for a future project with Maria use the donate button on the right and under special instructions (on the second page) please enter Mission to Mexico.  To provide ongoing support for food and education please enter Mexico Children.  Tax receipts will be mailed out at the end of the year.