Unplugged Yet Plugged In

I am back from an amazing six days in Mexico. I joined 24 high school students and 7 other adults from my church on a house-building trip through a group called Amor Ministries. It was a profound week in the lives of everyone - both in our group and the family who has a new home. I wish we had one of those "reality" TV crews following us so they could see the kids in our group and how they worked so hard to improve the life of a family they had never met. We built a home in four days using pretty much nothing but hand tools. That's right - kids from the OC were digging dirt and mixing cement and pounding nails and sawing wood and working long days. And why? Just because they love God and they take seriously his commands to look after the poor.

Of course, they were still teenagers so there was also a lot of cement fights and acting goofy and having a blast around the campfire each night. This group of kids were amazing and I had so much fun just hanging out with them. If you get depressed when you see the narcissistic, selfish, superficial teenagers that are constantly portrayed on television, don't worry - there are some great kids out there also. I was proud to be associated with them.

If you are reading this blog, you are probably a lot like me and are constantly connected to the Internet. One of the aspects of the trip that was so refreshing was to be completely unplugged - no Internet access, no computer, no cell phone service (we were camping so unfortunately there was also no hot water, no showers, and no electricity). I tend to be pretty compulsive about checking my email and using Bloglines to keep up on my favorite blogs. Even going a half-day without checking those services is unusual for me (weekends and vacations included), but it was amazing how quickly all of the things that seem so important suddenly became so irrelevant. Our entire group was focused on helping the family by getting that house done and everything else faded away. It was an awesome experience when we turned the keys over to the family. They went from a 6x12 foot shack with a leaky roof and dirt floor (shown above) to a 22x22 home built with pride and love (see below).

I think it struck everyone in the group how much we have. The home we built would just be a garage by our standards, but to this family it was literally their dream come true. The disparity between our standard of living and the standard just a short drive down the freeway is remarkable. We can argue all day about why it's that way, but the kids in our group wouldn't be interested in that conversation. There is a need, God tells us to meet it, and so they went. And they can hardly wait to go back. And I can hardly wait to unplug again and join them.