‘Rebuilders’ find joy in lending a hand to Mexican village

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN CYNTHIA MARTENS
The seven families involved in the Christmas Rebuilders ministry recently returned from their trip to Northern Mexico, and their lives will never be quite the same.

When they came home, their overwhelming response was to thank those who helped them along the way, said Lillian Bookless of Hillsboro.

“We could never have done this without the enormous support that Marion County provided,” she said.

“Everywhere we went, people were asking, ‘How is it going? How are the plans taking shape?’ People were offering help and support all the time.”

Although they unselfishly gave to the needy, the rebuilders also received many blessings that have enriched and changed their day-to-day existence.

“For me and my family, this was a truly humbling experience,” said Robin Blazek of Hillsboro.

“We got to see and live and be part of the extended grace that God gives openly and freely to all.”

Bookless, Blazek and 24 other adults and children assembled donations from generous Marion County residents and began their journey on Dec. 26. They returned home on Jan. 3.

Their goal was to help build a house and bring clothing, supplies, toys and aide to the depressed colony of Primero de Mayo. Their motto was “To redo what we do at Christmastime,” said Lillian Bookless of Hillsboro.

“My sister actually organized this,” Bookless said about Rose Buschman of Garden City.

In addition to the families of Lillian and Don Bookless, Rose and Larry Buschman and Robin and Aaron Blazek, the trip included Dave Goering and the families of Donna and Ernie Luna, Dean and Beth Hein and Ben and Mary Steketee.”

Organizing fund-raising efforts, the group was able to raise about $9,500 for the ministry.

“People in the community have been very gracious,” Blazek said.

Donated items included health kits; clothing for all ages; small baby beds; linens, bedding and blankets; toys and stuffed animals; candy and cookies; and Christmas gifts, such as nativities and vases of dried flowers.

Roger and Cynthia Fleming, owners of Fleming’s Mini Stor-All, donated a storage unit in Hillsboro to hold the boxes of supplies gathered since August. About 280 boxes, donated by Golden Heritage Foods of Hillsboro, were eventually filled.

Mary Steketee organized the boxes and created an inventory log so the rebuilders knew where every item was located in the storage unit.

“They were labeled, and Mary was incredibly accurate,” Bookless said. “Mary was a lifesaver.”

About two days before the trip, the group received a call from a Canton woman offering a donation.

“We didn’t know her, but she had read about us in the newspaper,” Bookless said. “She said, ‘We were going to put a roof on our house, but we changed our mind. And we’ve got about 10 or so of these huge 6- by 8-feet sheets of plywood. Would you like them?'”

The plywood was a welcome gift. It was used as table tops for the distribution of donations and would later by used for roofing the house built at the colony.

The group packed up four vans and took two trailers for their journey down to Mexico.

“One van was donated by Flaming’s Plumbing of Marion,” Bookless said. “It was an oversized cargo van that we left that down there.”

In order to avoid problems at the border crossing into Mexico, the group left the trailers on the state side and ferried the boxes and supplies back and forth in the vans when needed.

“The missionary down there did not want us to take our two trailers,” Bookless said.

“He said, ‘If you get stopped with those, you’ve got a big problem.’ So we had to go back and forth and back and forth to bring the next load of boxes in our vans.”

Lodging for the rebuilders was in Mission, Texas, in homes provided for missionaries visiting the area.

Although the group enjoyed good weather in the high 80s while in Mexico, they were plagued with mud from an unusual weather pattern before arriving.

“The Saturday before we came, on Christmas Day, they had their first snow in over 100 years,” Bookless said.

“By the time we got there, it was very muddy. Apparently, rain was in the forecast all week, but it didn’t rain until the day after we left.

“Had it rained, it would have ruined it for us, because part of our set up was in a courtyard that had no roof. That would mean hundreds of people would have been standing in line in the pouring rain.”

The people in the colony knew the group was coming and were looking forward to their arrival, Blazek said.

“They were excited. Their anticipation was just tremendous. There were a bunch of people there by the time we pulled in the first day.”

The missionary at the colony, Johnny Cox, helped the rebuilders with distribution of the donations. Each family was given coupons worth points to be traded for donated items of their choice.

“The coupon depended on the size of the family,” Blazek said.

About 850 adults and children were able to receive the donated items of their choice. Each family also received a health kit containing such items as Band-Aids, shampoo, combs, bar soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes; something sweet; and a vase of dried flowers.

About nine of 20 baby beds were distributed. They were made out of plastic storage containers and included a foam mattress, towel, face cloth, blankets, diapers and baby clothes. The remainder were left in storage to be given out on an as-needed basis.

The mayor of the community was responsible for choosing the family to receive a home from the rebuilders, who supplied all the materials. Although the men in the rebuilder’s group were prepared to help erect the house, they were sent away by the recipient, who happened to be a professional cinder-block layer.

“He didn’t think we would do a good job,” Bookless said. “So the men are all there and ready to build, but they came walking back and said, “We’ve all been fired. So now what are we going to do?'”

The turn of events proved fortunate for the group, because the men were able to help with much of the heavy work in distributing the supplies.

“They helped us sort and open boxes, hang up clothes and drove back and forth across the border to get those boxes,” Bookless said.

“And the colony women ended up with way more than they could carry, so our men would walk them home.”

The house was about half completed when the group left.

“The point is, it was getting done whether we built it or not,” Bookless said. “And maybe, in the future, they will make a different choice of somebody’s house we can really help build.”

In addition to distributing supplies, the rebuilders did other things, such as mingling with the adults and children in the colony, painting a mural inside a church, building needed shelving for a storage room and office and holding a hot-dog feed for the colony.

Members of the rebuilder’s group were able to take breaks at various times and enjoyed side trips to shop for trinkets and T-shirts in Texas.

“On our way home, we went through South Padre Island so we could go to the Gulf of Mexico, because we were so close,” Bookless said. “And that’s where five of us went parasailing. But they used their own money for that. It wasn’t Hillsboro money.”

When they returned, Bookless summarized that the group experienced Christmas in a new way, bonded and became closer with each other and made a positive difference in people’s lives.

“It also rebuilds our whole-world view,” she said. “We see people who are extremely poor, but they come up with faces and names. It’s actually a person and not just somebody out there.”

Realizing that it’s important to make a lasting impact rather than putting a Band-Aid on the situation in the colony, Bookless said her sister is also starting a program to help educate the children in that area.

“Education is what’s going to get them out of the colonia-nothing else,” she said.

“For the adults, it may feel like you can’t make a permanent change, but you are enhancing their lives. For the children, you can get them moving and maybe they can have a different world to grow up in.”

Wanting to keep the members no larger than about 35 people, Bookless said the rebuilders welcome others-to join them at their monthly meetings, share what they learned and plan for the trip next Christmas.

In the future, the group is scheduled to tell their story with a power-point presentation at area churches.

They also hope to refine what they did last time, by reducing the amount of women’s clothing and increasing the amount of children’s clothes and blankets.

“We’ll probably do way more blankets, and they need clothespins,” Bookless said.

The group may also decide to develop their own fund for the education of children in the colony.

“It costs $120 to get a kid ready to go to school,” Bookless said about the program her sister was involved with last year to send about 17 children to school.

“That will buy him a uniform, pay the fees and maybe a backpack full of supplies.”

And that’s all part of rebuilding, she said. It’s just one life at a time.

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