December 9, 2009

Advent hope: Juarez mission is a light in the darkness

By Ben Lager

When I was a child living in El Paso, Texas, during the 1960s, Juarez was a sleepy Mexican town across the river.  My dad would pack up the kids in the Rambler and we would go across the border to buy fruits and vegetables and sometimes a bottle of Tequila that my father enjoyed.

The mercardo (market) was full of vendors selling all kinds of things, and getting back across the border only amounted to a hand wave by the border guard.  There also used to be a trolley that ran between the two cities.  The truth was that Juarez and El Paso were one city within two nations. 

After 40 years, things have changed.  Violent drug cartels war for turf, making Juarez the murder capital of the world.  Businesses have fled because of extortion and kidnappings, and tourists are rare downtown.  Combine this with the global recession, and the deep scar of poverty can be seen scrawled across the river.  If there is any time we should look South it is now.  And so last month I joined a group from Spirit of Christ Parish in Arvada that was generously giving its time, energy and financial support to build a house for a homeless family in Juarez. 

The organization I represent, the St. Jerome Mission, has worked for over a year with the local parish, San Carlos, to build a parish center there in the barrio.  Construction was delayed by a missing signature of a bureaucrat, who stalled the process for months.  Eventually he signed, and work began on this building that will soon provide evangelization, religious education, a rectory for the priest who gave up his house so that the center could be built on its land and a place for missionaries (lay or religious) from Denver and other U.S. cities to work in the slums. 

One night I met with Father David, the architect and parishioners to discuss the new building.  There was much joy, hope and gratitude because the construction itself is providing jobs for workers in the neighborhood.  Interestingly, the people we spoke to in Juarez told us that the No. 1 problem there is not the terrible violence, but the reeling desempleo (unemployment).  So already, before the center is even completed, it is bringing hope because it is giving people jobs.

The next two days brought a miracle, one that I was not aware of until the following Friday morning when Father David showed me the news that had made the front page of El Diario, the city paper.  Astonishingly, murder had taken a siesta in Juarez for two straight days.  Blessed peace had descended on a city that routinely sees 20-30 murders a night.  I knew a light had been struck in the darkness—an Advent hope for a city in waiting—and God was beginning something new. 

Please join us in this miraculous work of building this center, which is already paving the way for peace.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Ben Lager is president of the St. Jerome mission.

 Donations to St. Jerome Mission may be sent to: 1434 Gaylord St., Denver, CO 80210