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February 2002
Memo’s House
Dear Friends,
For several months last year, Guillermo "Memo" Venegas
Fuentes awoke each morning and left his house in Guaymas, Sonora,
Mexico, to go downtown. He was headed for La Ultima Cosecha (The
Final Harvest) Presbyterian Church, a mission church of "Compañeros
en Misión," one of seven programs of Presbyterian
Border Ministry. Since coming to Christ several years ago, Memo
has been a loyal member of the church, located in a commercial
district just a block from the main street. Guaymas is a seaport
city on the Gulf of California, a place where fishermen and other
seafaring men can find plenty of distractions from their difficult
lives. There are prostitutes, drugs, alcohol, and diversions galore.
But Memo turned away from all that after becoming a Christian.
He had worked on the fishing and shrimp boats, had been a carpenter
and a welder. He developed an inner ear problem and occasionally
lost his balance, and was unable to continue working. Then, when
he became a Christian, his wife left him and took their children.
Those daily trips to the church were Memo’s way of expressing
his gratitude to God and to the congregation that had helped him
to get through his tough times. The rented storefront church had
seen some tough times, too, after a church-sponsored drug treatment
program dissolved and the previous pastor left. Many of the congregation
went elsewhere to worship, and nasty rumors about the church spread
throughout the downtown area. So Memo went downtown each day to
help other volunteers and the new lay pastor with renovation work
on the church building. They repaired plumbing and electrical
wiring, patched holes in the walls and painted. As a result of
this labor of love, the building was in better condition afterward
than when it was originally rented by the church.
Lay pastor José Rodriguez Castillo recently moved into
a residence within the church building with his wife, Diana, and
their daughter, Genesis. They are working to restore the church’s
reputation in the community and to rebuild the congregation. It
has not been easy, but they are now beginning to see results,
as more people are coming to Sunday evening services and participating
in the life of the church.
When José and the congregation were identifying work projects
for visiting mission teams from the U.S. through Compañeros
en Misión, they decided that Memo’s own house needed
some work. This could be a way of thanking him for his faithfulness,
they agreed. Built of termite-infested wood and damaged by the
tail-end of a hurricane that passed near Guaymas, the house leans
and sways in the wind. Attached to his father’s more substantial
house, it has wood siding but provides little shelter from the
elements. Daylight streams through gaps in the siding. When I
first saw this house several months ago, it appeared unoccupied
and I was surprised to learn that someone was living in it.
A mission team from Mountain View Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale,
Arizona, was the first group to work on Memo’s house. They
reinforced the posts holding up the roof, so it would not collapse
while they dug a trench for a new footer and poured concrete for
the start of new walls. Eventually, other mission teams will put
up concrete block walls and rebuild the roof, creating a virtually
new house for Memo.
My wife, Susan, and I are mission co-workers in Compañeros
en Misión, serving alongside our Mexican partner, the Rev.
Dr. Jorge Pazos. One evening while the Mountain View group was
at the church in Guaymas, Memo and I had a conversation that showed
me how much the work of visiting mission teams meant to him.
"I told my neighbors that some Christian brothers and sisters
from the U.S. were coming to help me repair my house," he
said, "but they didn’t believe me. They told me that
no one was going to come, that I was just dreaming." He said
that his father was skeptical, too, as well as his sister, who
had just become a Christian herself. "But then everyone saw
the group arrive, and saw how they were working together,"
Memo related. "This has been a testimony to my neighbors
and to my family of the love of Christ, expressed through these
people."
Memo said his neighbors were impressed with the organization
they saw among the mission team participants, with everyone joining
in the project. "This has meant a lot to me, because many
people have questioned my involvement in the church here,"
he added.
In our work in Sonora, we sometimes wonder what effect there
is from these short-term mission teams. We know that participants
from the U.S. often return home with a better understanding of
life in Mexico with its economic challenges and a new appreciation
of the spiritual vitality and faith expressed through the church.
We hope and expect that visitors from the U.S. will have life-changing
experiences. But what happens in the lives of the Mexican people?
Beyond the physical improvements to Memo’s house, will this
project have any lasting impact? Is there a life-changing experience
for them, too?
The answer is a resounding "yes," because the people
in Memo’s life have seen Jesus Christ through the lives and
the love of his Christian brothers and sisters. Our mission here
is a joint mission—of the National Presbyterian Church of
Mexico and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—and in this instance,
people on both sides of the border have had life-changing experiences,
through the unity of the church and fellowship of believers.
"May they be brought to complete unity to let the world
know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved
me" (John 17:23).
David Thomas
The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 248
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