In a Gospel spirit of service and solidarity, we accompany the migrant, homeless, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region through hospitality, advocacy, and education. We place ourselves among these poor so as to live our faith and transform our understanding of what constitutes more just relationships between peoples, countries, and economies.

Mission Statement, Annunciation House

Things have been quiet here at mmlindsey over the past six months and we have missed posting, we have missed you! We want to thank all of you who have encouraged us and worked alongside us throughout this pivotal time of transition and reconstruction of the Amigos organization.

For nearly four years now we have been growing in love, friendship and solidarity with our friends and neighbors in Juarez. We proudly call them our family, our compadres. Thankfully, we are not alone; we are not the only ones who have chosen to stand alongside this incredibly valiant people, we are not the only voices rising up out of the dusty Borderland.

Annunciation House, based in El Paso, is one of these voices. This is a well-rooted and steadfast ministry serving both in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Since the late 70’s, Annunciation House has been reaching out to “the poorest of the poor” in the Border region, with a passionate focus on the immigrant through their homeless shelter. Since their beginning, over 100,000 immigrants from over 40 countries have been ministered to by over 600 volunteers from the U.S. and 12 other countries.

Ciudad Juarez has been ravaged by brutality beyond comprehension, compounded by the silent neglect, the inching away in the darkness. We cannot ignore the flagrant oppression of our brothers and sisters in Mexico or neglect them any longer; we must act. 10,000 individuals have died in Juarez since 2008, over 50,000 in Mexico. Annunciation House is dedicating the entire week to remembering the victims of this senseless violence, their voice rising up from the earth on behalf of so many anguished souls calling out for all of us to remember, to take action. They began this past Sunday by hosting a press conference to kick off a weeklong vigil, projecting the names of each one of the 10,000 victims on the side of their building in downtown El Paso. Every night this week they will continue the vigil along with the projection of the names and images. The week of remembering will end with a forum on immigration and a Solidarity dinner honoring Javier Sicilia, one of Mexico’s most famous poets who is now a powerful activist and crucial voice for the oppressed in Mexico. (Sicilia was also one of Time Magazine’s persons of the year, 2011.)

Our love and support goes out to Annunciation House. Please pray for their voice to ring out loud and true this week.

One comes to appreciate the reality that there can be no we and they in our lives, but only brothers and sisters all sacred and dignified.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo courtesy The New York Times article, Violence Suffocated a Father’s Poetry, but Not His Voice

It’s better to light a candle than to curse the dark

K´naan

A few months back, our beloved friends from Yobel Market connected us with the amazing Darci Nolan, the co-founder of Eye See Media, a stunning organization confronting oppression and injustice. Eye see is a voice. The hope that pours from them, the promise of restoration of the broken, continues to inspire and encourage our spirits. Eye See, Thank You for your heart-felt work, bringing light to annihilate darkness, going after a better way. Keep it up!

We recently had the pleasure of having Juan and Carmen’s incredible, selfless story of love and service published in the latest issue of Eye See Magazine. Pick up a copy of the Food issue or subscribe to their incredible magazine here.

Eye See Magazine Issue_4 from sean marin on Vimeo.

In our life with others, the one thing on which everything depends is love.

Andrew Murray

Epicenter of God’s love. Lighthouse. Beacon of Hope. Refuge. Safe house. These are all words that have been spoken about Casa Palo Chino. I know it may sound a bit starry-eyed talking about a half-finished building project tucked away in a small, poor neighborhood in the murder capital of the world. Even so, if you were to stand there with us you’d feel the spirit of God, the spirit of Hope, Life, Possibility and Love. That’s the irony of Juarez right now. There is beauty. There is always hope despite the darkness.

Casa Palo Chino is a tangible expression of the kind of hope that we are talking about. For two and a half years we watched the building decaying before our eyes. I don’t know how many rocks we thew at the pigeons that had infested the open rafters like flies on a carcass; it was the biggest bird house I had ever seen. Each day that we looked up at it there was a tension in our hearts, a bittersweet blend of hopeful anticipation and discouraging frustration as we saw what Casa Palo Chino could be even as it was deteriorating.

The vision for Casa Palo Chino is infectious. It’s not about a building project, but the building of community and solidarity, a dream-center in the the midst of the dark storm over Juarez. It’s a reflection of God’s love demonstrated through palpable action. For example, since last spring, despite it’s unfinished and dusty state, the building has been used at least 2 -3 times per week by the youth of Juan & Carmen’s church. They have been meeing there to worship, celebrate and pray for Juarez. Also, over the last five months on Saturdays and Mondays the beautiful ladies from the Tailoring Project have been honing their sewing skills and building their burgeoning micro-business inside the building.

We have asked folks visiting us in Juarez to pray, listen, and to write what they hear all over the skeletal structure of the building. The promises, the hope, the power of what God is doing in this little building is awe-inspiring.

Current Goals for Casa Palo Chino:

1. Hub for community growth in Colonia Palo Chino
2. Center for education and empowerment
3. Place of Worship
4. Community celebration & gatherings
5. Place of Rest – safe haven/sanctuary for the people of Palo Chino

Since October of 2010 we have hosted a handful of some of the most skillful, knowledgeable and thorough tradesmen. They have made five trips to Juarez to work on the Casa alongside some of the local tradesmen, investing their gifts, talents, energy and love into the community of Palo Chino. We’ve gone from dilapidated over-sized bird house to a striking, up-and-coming community center by their hard work and commitment. We could not imagine a more valuable crew to serve alongside!

Hats off to the Under Construction crew and our Californian Sparky the Electrician

Visit our Gallery to see the latest photos from Casa Palo Chino

There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

1 John 4. 18

Seeds of hope are emerging under the warm desert sun. The Tailoring Project that began this past January is teeming with momentum, excitement, and hope.

Two months ago, these five beautiful women from Palo Chino knew nothing about how to sew. Yesterday they stood before us after over 48 hours of sewing classes, and proudly displayed the items that they, with their own two hands, had created: pillowcases, kids’ fleece pajamas, tablecloths and place-mats, tortilla warmers, boxers, skirts…

The hearts and spirits of these women have been infused with strength and hope. When we asked how their families had responded to their involvement in the tailoring project, the majority of them said: “You can’t learn to sew”, “You’re too old to be starting new things”, or “Why are you wasting your time?” But despite the daily opposition, these women have ascended and developed a new fortitude. “They are exuberant light, full of confidence and strength. It is beautiful to see them shine for their community. Negativity has the potential to destroy, but these women have chosen to rise above it”, says Joy Stanley, head of marketing and public relations for Yobel Market.

The tailoring project is the first of many initiatives focusing on building a strong, sustainable community. And far beyond our expectations, these women have joined together and are standing behind one another, cheering each other on and growing together with new bonds of unity.

Regardless of the climate on the border, Yobel has chosen to wholeheartedly invest in our Mexican brothers and sisters in Colonia Palo Chino, believing in the extraordinary ability and potential of these women to bring tangible change to their families and community. They are a truly dedicated team, learning through leaning on each other and pulling each other through.

The honor of serving and sharing life in Juarez grows in our hearts day by day. Thank you to all who have contributed, supported, and invested in this amazing community of people!

Visit our Gallery for a deeper look into our incredible weekend.

Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God’s Sunrise will break in upon us,
shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.

Luke 1.78-79

Gardens, life, color. These were some of the things we first wrote about on this blog. It didn’t seem like a revelation or anything back then, just a longing – like something was missing in our hearts and we simply wanted to fill that empty space. It was natural to think of planting flowers and trees, painting walls and picking up trash – anything to combat the suffocating torrent of garbage in the sweeping sea of gray.

I must admit that for a time I chose frustration and disappointment over hope and anticipation when I came up against the in-your-face sites and smells of Juarez, her lack of beauty and color. Now when we enter Juárez, when we are in Palo Chino, we sing songs of hope and peace over the city, we speak the beauty that already exists over Juarez, and our eyes rest much more quickly on that invisible-landscape, the hope in the unseen.

One major dream we have that is sprouting from the desert sand like a flower shooting up out of a time-lapse video is our first community garden. We were given a space in front of Carmen’s Cocina, an old sandbox on the elementary school property, to build a garden/greenhouse. Our friends from Yobel Market invested in this space, helped us rake out the garbage and back-fill the sandbox with fresh, rich garden soil from a local nursery.

We are just a month into 2011 and for the first time we are seeing real movement in the Juárez desert. Dreams are emerging from the sand – the seeds of our hearts’ dreams that we planted several years ago. Yobel Market has been key in jump-starting some of these stellar projects and it is difficult to fully express the gratitude in our hearts for their investment in Colonia Palo Chino.

Imagine arriving at the kitchen at six a.m. to prepare the days meal for 400 children. After putting on an apron and hairnet, you walk out the door and into the garden, pick 20 or 30 fresh, organic jalapenos and a grip of cilantro and head back into the kitchen to dice it all up and toss it into a fresh salsa…

Our aspirations for this garden extend far beyond growing vegetables and watching green life sprout miraculously from the dry ground. This garden is a pivot point that we believe will establish deep roots of education, opportunity and betterment in the community. Together young and old, through projects like the Cocina Garden, we will explore sustainable practice, cultivate creative dreaming in each others’ hearts which will open up new pathways of hope.

We will keep you posted on this first community garden of Palo Chino.

The unfunded, low-budget grassroots effort, organized by ordinary citizens who call themselves “Peace and Justice without Borders” (Paz y Justicia sin Fronteras), was publicized simply by word of mouth and social media. But hundreds gathered nevertheless on both sides of the border.

Billie Greenwood, Border Explorer

One Love.

The U.S. / Mexico Borderland has its own absolutely incomparable culture. It has a unique burgeoning language, its own rhythm and style and a shared outcry for justice, peace and hope.

Our friend Billie continues to be  a strong voice for our family in the Borderland. This past Saturday, January 29th, two nations met at a multi-billion dollar border fence which segregates theses sister cities, joining forces to cry out for peace and justice. The images are compelling: brothers and sisters uniting together despite the ironic fence dissevering them.

Please stop by Billie’s blog to read her story and see more images of the rally.

This is the truth: unless you change and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3

We are indescribably thrilled about the tailoring initiative that just began here in our Colonia Palo Chino. I have been undone by the extravagant excitement behind this project, the cheering on for these ladies as they begin to hope for a better life for themselves and for their community.

We have a dear friend in Indiana who is fired up about this initiative, and with the help of her community has been collecting and sending supplies for the ladies’ first tailoring project. The most striking piece of this story is, well, the children. One of her little girls’ school class had been doing extra jobs, shoveling snow, cleaning the house, to raise money to buy supplies. And her youngest daughter, along with a few other children, threw in their whole piggy-bank… every penny. What inspiration. I hope to grow into the simple, childlike trust that these little ones have. Thank you, Laine and Tess. You are an inspiration to us all!

They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new.

-Isaiah 61:4

Seeking our own glory with men makes faith impossible. The deep self sacrifice that gives up its own glory and seeks the glory of God alone, and that awakens in the soul spiritual sensitivity to the divine – that is faith.

A. Murray