Well everyone, we are sitting here in the McAllen airport waiting to board our flight back to St Louis. We first want to apologize for not updating the blog until now. The internet at the hotel was spotty at best, and when it did work, Mr Stewart's computer would not connect. We had a great week--everyone worked very well together, and all of our houses got built, decorated, and dedicated on time.
Randy Pausch, who gave the "Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon, said that brick walls show up in our lives so that we can prove how much we really want what is behind them. Being here this week, coming on this trip, amid the many walls placed in front of us made us know that it was all worth it. Being here taught us that hope and love are stronger than fear and hate. Trust in the people who care about you is more valuable than the cynicism and doubt so prevalent in our country and especially in our media. Seeing the brightness of the smiles of beautiful Mexican children, and the tears in the eyes of their moms as they entered their homes for the first time dispelled any darkness that worried us before coming.
It is our hope that through this experience, minds have been changed and hearts have been moved toward peace, truth, and love. We pray that we can have the courage to return to our lives in St Louis remembering Reynosa--not just in our minds and hearts, but through our daily actions. Through being generous as the families in the colonia were generous; being patient as Roland and his staff are patient; welcoming others with the awareness that we are all brothers and sisters.
Louie said that this trip is not about building houses, but rather building relationships with people. It is about realizing that our world does not merely consist of the events happening around us, be it in our school or our city. The world consists of people living in many different places in many different ways, but are basically the same. People all over the world have hopes and dreams, stories to tell, histories, and friends and families they share their lives with. We are grateful to be able to fulfill some of those hopes and dreams, but are more grateful and humbled to become part of their story, their history, their friends and even a part of their family. The back of our t-shirts have this quote: "Where charity and love are found, God is there." This trip demonstrated this in a tangible way, but with a twist. God was not there because of the charity and love we brought with us, but with what we found already there.
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