On our first afternoon, after learning the ropes of daily work at the ranch site, we drove into the outskirts of La Paz… a place that we were told is actually the heart of the ranch. The “colonias” is a group of informal neighbourhoods of makeshift homes and of dusty roads. It’s a place where families live, where kids grow up and where life just happens amidst difficult circumstances. It was while touring the colonias neighborhoods that Pete and Emily felt the Lord call them to the work of Rancho el Camino 12+ years ago. It was there where they told us they felt surprisingly “at home” in ways they couldn’t describe.
Most days of the week ranch staff and volunteers, many of whom call the colonias home, gather children for learning, for games, and for life together. Today we witnessed their afternoon homework club. It’s this kind of work that Pete says he nearly gave up on in his first three years. In the colonias children often grow up neglected by parents who need to work long hours just to survive, lacking clean water and good food, having poor or no education, being tempted by the pull of drugs and prostitution all too present around them. Pete was tempted to think, 'There are too many problems for anything good to happen.'
But Pete and Emily and their team just kept at it, one day at a time, one child at a time, one stone at a time.
On the day of our visit, we got to see the teachers helping kids enjoy playing word games, memory games, then culminating in some soccer. This space of time and attention with safe adults helps children with the basics of reading, writing and numbers - things that many of them fall behind in. This critical work helps just a handful of kids avoid becoming part of the statistic known as 'Los Ninis,' a term describing the eight million youth in Mexico, aged 15–29, who drop out of school or work, entrenching themselves and future generations in cycles of poverty and despair.
The smiles and simple joy we saw on everyone’s faces were beautiful. While we watched the teachers work, Pete explained all of this to us and then gave us a small way to contribute. We were tasked with helping to line the new fence perimeter with stones as a way to keep the animals out of their space.
So, for about 20 minutes our team of kids and adults piled stones of all sizes along the fence, as a neighborhood chihuahua under some nearby shade eyed our work with suspicion. I’m sure he was planning to come test out our work later.
In those 20 minutes we did work that perhaps saved an hour of work for the volunteers. Our small part, stone by stone, fit into the big big work of building joy, health, and hope for a better life.
When I entered the colonias that day I felt sadness at the sight of scattered stones and broken lives. But as we drove away, I felt encouraged that this is the way God's kingdom always grows. Stone by stone, person by person in unlikely places, always seeing through eyes of possibility rather than despair.
"Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19
Mike Bennett, Tenth's East Van Pastor in on this Justice Journey with his daughter Treah.