Adult Servant Trip October 2002
ST. MATTHEW ADULT SERVANT TEAM WORKS IN MEXICO
For the past eight years, St. Matthew Lutheran
Church, Barrington, has been sending adult servant teams to work
in the area around Juarez, Mexico. On their October 5-12 trip, the
servant team extended its work into a new area of Mexico. At the
invitation of the Municipal President of Janos, Mexico, Celso Jacquez
Perez, the eighteen-member medical team from St. Matthew did its
first work among the Oaxaca Indians, migrant workers on the farms
around Janos. Oaxaca Indians from southern Mexico come north to
pick peaches and chili peppers. They work 12-hour days and live
in fetid encampments with no running water, sanitation facilities,
or medical care. Perez, and his wife, Emma, a social worker, are
trying to improve living conditions for these migrant workers. The
St. Matthew medical team set up their clinic in an open field and
examined the 39 residents of the encampment, all women and children,
who weren't in the fields working. Patients were treated for upper
respiratory problems, skin rashes, and other infections. Nearly
all the people in the encampment were suffering from malnutrition.
In addition to medical care, the team prayed with all of their patients
and provided them with milk and blankets. The medical team also
visited workers in the chili fields. Once again medical care, milk,
and blankets were provided.
During the last four days of the trip, the team
provided medical care at three sites around Juarez–Zaragosa,
San Francisco, and Kilo Veinte. The team served more than 400 patients
during the week. Most of the people who come to the medical clinics
cannot afford medical care. Seven other members of the team worked
on a construction project at Ysleta Lutheran Mission, the team's
base of operations in El Paso, Texas. The goals of these servant
trips are to experience the Christian faith in another culture,
to work on service projects, and to live as a community of faith.
Through the past eight years, St. Matthew Lutheran Church has sponsored
fourteen servant trips to Mexico. The teams include not only members
of the congregation, but others who have joined them to provide
medical care, complete construction projects, and teach Bible school.
