Allow for the Unexpected in Your Support Circle

Xochitl in Mexico was in mine. Our faith community was already supporting a tiny, church on the edge of a remote hillside in Tijuana, Mexico.  

We built a kitchen that Pastor Ben G said after 15 yrs, still stands.  

When we first saw it next to the church, there was nothing but a concrete floor, two walls on the sides and one in the back.  Nothing else.  No roof, nothing else.  

Now it’s a two floor building; a working kitchen on the first floor and a church on the second floor.

The rocks you see on the walls, old men put in thousands of hrs to go into the surrounding hills, cart the rocks down, break and shape them, then make cement and build, all by hand with donated tools. 

Xochitl was a member of the church there, she had no leadership position.After we got home and researched options on how to proceed, we decided to request a conversation with the stellar organization, The Rotary Club.  One of their initial asks was to have a survey contractor assessment of the area, and the ball dropped.  Xochitl found out the need for the survey report and went into action.  She went to the local contractor office, day after day, never entering, she just showed up and stood facing the storefront for days, until an employee finally came out,

“Hermana, ?Que quieres”  “Sister, what do you want?”

She was ready, she told the need, the intention of her church to build, the connection with our South Bay community, and the initial interest of Rotary.  Because of her grassroots advocacy, a survey was conducted and interest increased.  The report was sent to Rotary and the ball dropped; again, Rotary’s interest was not welcomed by the church.  Pastor Ben said, “We’ll do it ourselves!”

Fast forward, to date, in a destitute community where most still live in gouged out holes in the sides of the hills, a score of women and children have been fed weekly from the constructed kitchen.  Xochitl’s support, without being asked for or even mentioned, cannot be minimized. I never physically met Xochitl, all of our communication was thru email; both of us limited in each other’s languages. 

Who is there, right in arms reach, or maybe distant, but able and willing to help you?  Who is in your circle to get things done?