We're Back! Project Mexico Homebuilding Returns! By Anna Cunningham

Project Mexico has welcomed Spring Break groups many times in the past, but this year stood out to me. The family chosen to receive this home waited two full years after being accepted to our program before we could build for them. To say they were excited to receive my call announcing the build date is an understatement.

I met with the wife numerous times prior to construction. The family of four has been living with her parents and siblings in a trailer, slowly making payments on their land each month. Like many of our families, their wages can cover monthly land payments and food, leaving no surplus to invest in building materials. This has been the situation for many low-income families in the area for as long as we have been here building homes in the community. With the price increase in construction materials in recent years, the need for secure housing is even more critical.

After the initial call and visit the family prepared the land so we could build. Throughout the build, dozens of people approached us inquiring about our homebuilding program. Project Mexico and other non-profit organizations have built many times in the area with as many as four of our volunteer-built homes visible from the site. Due to the pandemic and subsequent border closures our programs were put on hiatus as such the community was thrilled to see us back in action.

The last day on site was charged with a special energy. Various people drove by expressing their gratitude in a mix of English and Spanish. A blue pick-up truck parked across the street and the Driver had a contagious grin. His eyes lit up as we put on the first coat of paint and he said, “Wow, it’s so big!”

Then, I noticed the woman who we were building a home for exit the truck. The man was her husband. He was seeing his brand-new house for the first time!

Much to our satisfaction, the family chose our newest Project Mexico-made paint for their new home. We all secretly hoped it would be the color chosen. We are thrilled this beautiful family has a safe and secure home to raise their family.

Homebuilding is back and we can’t wait to welcome the first groups this summer.

A total of 18 families were accepted to our program in 2020. One-by-one we have been able to build for seven of them through our Community Build Program along with smaller groups over the course of the last two years. The remaining families will be first on our list for the upcoming summer and we will finally be able to complete our long-waited promise to them.

Over the past few years, I have worked in several different capacities. In some ways, this work for Project Mexico has become normal and routine. However, this week was a beautiful reminder that the only way this program and my job exist is through kindness, generosity, and God’s grace. I’d like to thank our donors, volunteers, and community family for your kindness, time, generosity, and for your prayers.

Anna Cunningham is an OCMC Missionary and is funded via donor support, if you would like to contribute towards her mission with Project Mexico follow the link to OCMC’s donor portal here https://secure.ocmc.org/site/Donation2?df_id=2182&2182.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T

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Project Mexico and St. Innocent Orphanage

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On the Border by Fr. Nicholas Andruchow

Christ is in our midst!

For over 13 years I have lived in Tijuana. Because of my work, I often travel back and forth from Mexico to the San Diego area. During the pandemic, the world became more isolated and closed off. In the spring of 2020, the southern border of our great country was closed to "non-essential" travel. It was clear that bringing relief to young abandoned children would be considered essential. Therefore the work of Project Mexico and the St. Innocent Orphanage seamlessly continued. The Lord was truly watching over our boys.

From the beginning of the pandemic, it was debated that if volunteers for the homebuilding program would be considered essential travelers. The Mexican families without hesitation considered the acts of mercy of receiving a home unmistakable labor of relief. For this reason, this past summer we began to bring down groups to help the families who are suffering. By implementing COVID protocols, we responsibly came together not letting worldly fear dictate our actions. Courageously the staff at Project Mexico has planned for the summer of 2022 to be a blessed season to build homes and live the Gospel. This is encouraging to so many of us. The Church continues to live and be a vessel of God’s love.

The reason I am writing to all of you is to remind you that faith without action is a faith that is dead. (James 2:17) With hopeful sobriety, I inform all of you that the border closure is being lifted. We, people who live on the North American continent, are finding relief to travel more freely. For American citizens vaccination for those traveling outside the U.S. is a personal choice. Similarly, leaving your comfort zone, traveling to a third-world country, and building a home for a suffering family is also your personal choice.

Hundreds of Orthodox Christians are already planning to make the trip just in nine months. I challenge you to truly live your faith and make the Christ sacrifice and be an example of compassion and love.

In Christ,

Rev. Fr. Nicholas L. Andruchow
Executive Director
Project Mexico and St Innocent Orphanage

Celebrate Abundance by Faeli Heise

You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance. Psalm 65:11

(NKJV)

I am meditating upon this promise from the Psalms as we all enter a new season. A new Church year, a new school year, a new fiscal year. It has barely even begun, but I have already been reminded of God’s providence in so many ways.

We had three new boys join our family at St. Innocent Orphanage on August 19th, 2021. They have entered this new season with us, and on Monday, August 30th they had their first day of school with their brothers here on the ranch. At the end of that first day, one of our head counselors asked the youngest (age 7) how he liked his first day in his new school. The boy replied with huge shining eyes, “It was a delicious day! A delicious, delicious day!”

At first., watching our boys rally and return to online school was difficult to fathom. But with God’s grace, they are doing it with resilience, and even savoring it! In a time of discouragement, this boy’s enthusiasm was a remarkable reminder to me that God’s goodness always prevails.

The fact that we have three new boys to care for is proof of that, alone!

And speaking of God’s goodness, how could I not mention the overwhelming response we received to our announcement about our need for school supplies? Within a day, all supplies for the first day of school were purchased. So many people reached out to encourage us and bless us with their generosity. Our Lord is working through all of you to provide for His children and meet their every need. Thank you.

As we all move forward, let us rejoice and remember: the paths of the Lord drip with abundance. They are rich with opportunity, love, daily miracles, and sustenance. He has crowned this year and this new season with goodness. I hope you will all join me in giving thanks for these delicious, delicious days.

Faeli Heise

OCMC Missionary, Project Mexico Resident

Excited for the New Challenge: A Letter from the Executive Director

Christ is in our midst.

This summer has been filled with blessings and hope. Courageously we have all persevered within the effort to recover from a year of crisis.  With Christ like gratitude, I communicate that Project Mexico & the St. Innocent Orphanage has survived and is planning for great things.  As a humble servant, I address all of you as the newly appointed Executive Director.  After four years of dedicated service, Fr. Demetrios Andrews has moved on to pursue other callings. We wish him well as he continues to serve the Lord.

In June the Board of Directors approached me to consider leading Project Mexico in this new position.  After prayerful consideration and consultation with my dear wife, Presbytera Merilynn, I, wholeheartedly, decided to embrace this opportunity and challenge.

Most of you know that I have served in the capacity of priest for the orphanage for the last nine years. Further, I have played a vital role in Project Mexico’s homebuilding efforts. I deeply support both of these vital ministries.

I want to express to you my excitement in assuming the role of Executive Director. I will bring to this position passion, deep love and hard work. Be assured that this position has been placed in the hands of someone who deeply understands and intimately knows what is entailed in these ministries. I am eager to serve the Lord in this new capacity.

In closing, I, humbly, trust and ask for your continued support. This great ministry of the Church flourishes when Christ works through all of you. 

In the loving service of the less fortunate,

Father Nicholas Andruchow

Executive Director

Project Mexico and St Innocent Service Works

Fr. Nicholas on Ancient Faith Radio - Listen

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Nicholas Andruchow, the newly appointed Executive Director of Project Mexico. Together they discuss the ministries of Project Mexico and St. Innocent Orphanage, as well as the bold and exciting vision Fr. Nicholas has for future expansion.

Christ in Every Eye That Sees Me by Eliza Corder

When I arrived at St. Herman’s House, the first thing I encountered was an inebriated homeless woman. The second thing I encountered was the Theotokos.

I’ll explain.

I reached Cleveland after an eight-hour drive, parked in front of St. Herman’s House—the men’s shelter where I would spend the rest of my summer working—and walked up to the gate.

On the front porch stood my soon-to-be boss and soon-to-be coworker. Between us, just inside the gate, swayed a woman in her mid-fifties. I could tell just by looking at her face she’d had a hard life, and I could tell by the way she moved she was under the influence—probably of a less than legitimate substance.

I’ll admit I was startled. Even more so when she asked my boss for a cigarette.

Even as this scene unfolded, I glanced to the right and noticed St. Herman’s beautiful garden and, nestled within it, an icon of the Theotokos. Her presence was as unexpected as it was familiar and a wave of comfort washed over me. I remembered then that the woman who stood before me was my sister and an image of Christ; in fact, she was the very reason I’d come to St. Herman’s to serve.

Before I had time to reflect further my boss talked the woman out of a cigarette and ushered me inside. And just like that my summer had begun, with all the chaos, joy, hard work, friendship, and memories it would bring.

Now, several weeks into my internship and with a little more time to contemplate, I realize that my first moments at St. Herman’s were a timely summation of one of my greatest challenges this summer. Every day at St. Herman’s I engage with dozens of homeless people. Sometimes the interactions go well, sometimes they go less well, and often they’re just strange—this morning, for example, someone aggressively and incoherently explained baseball to one of my fellow interns, seeming to mistake him for someone else.

It’s easy for me to see the painful outward dysfunction of the people we serve and mistake it for the people themselves. But that moment in the garden, my very first at St. Herman’s, reminded me to turn to Christ and the Theotokos and that, through their aid, I can perceive the image of God in every human person and love them as myself.

It’s hard, and I suspect I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to get it right. But if anything is worth attempting, this is. 

Stationed in Cleveland, OH with our partners at St Herman’s House in FOCUS Cleveland, Eliza Corder is a Media Intern for summer 2021. You can directly support her and our ministry work by clicking the support button below.

Building in Mexico This Summer!

Homebuilding in Mexico 2021 - by Anna Cunningham

Project Mexico started 2020 just like everyone else, carrying on as normal, planning for the year to come. In that planning stage, we interviewed and accepted 17 families to receive houses from our summer Homebuilding program. But as the entire world shut down, we saw our US/Mexico border limit traffic as well. No volunteers were able to come that summer, and no homes were built. We had high hopes for the summer of 2021, but as the first week of June rolls around, the border limits have not been lifted, and the summer program is still suspended.

As Work Trip Coordinator, my primary goal and responsibility are to provide homes to families in our local community. Project Mexico has always relied on volunteer labor to build the homes and volunteer participation fees to buy the homebuilding materials and fund the orphanage. As 2020 ended and we trudged into 2021 the border remains closed.

After months of border regulations I realized that if these families were going to get homes this year, it would have to be done in a different way.

Because volunteers are still not permitted to travel to Mexico, we found ourselves with a labor deficit. This season we will implement a new building plan that involves the local community. As the need increased everywhere, our ability to help disappeared. This inspired the creation of our Community Build Initiative.

I have been meeting with each family asking them if they can gather people to do the labor if we provide the materials. The response to this idea was received very positively and the families immediately began to look for help.

I am working with the families and our material providers to organize dates and building plans but the missing piece of the puzzle is sponsorship of the materials. Because we are not receiving participation fees from visiting volunteers, we do not have the budget to fund these homes.

This is why we are calling on our community to participate remotely and sponsor the homes of our selected families.

This is new. Brand new. In our over 30 year history, we have never used this model, but current circumstances forced us to adjust our plans so that we can continue fulfilling our mission and provide homes to the families who we promised houses to almost 2 years ago.

Each time we encounter adversity we have the opportunity to succumb to it, and let it defeat us, or we can rise above, adapt, and handle it with grace. Homebuilding in 2021 will not, and cannot, look like it has looked in the past. This does not change the fact that we have committed ourselves to provide shelter to those in need.

We are doing what we can with what we have and ask for your support in our new initiative so that we can continue providing homes for those in need.

Project Mexico Announces New Executive Director Fr. Nicholas Andruchow

Dear supporters and friends,

As the chairman of the Project Mexico board I have been blessed to help lead this great ministry.  In 2015 I started serving as a member of the board and in 2019 I became part of its executive committee.  I have seen much healthy growth and various challenges.  No matter what, I have constantly been amazed to see God working through it all.  The Lord’s hand is truly watching over this ministry.

The reason I am writing to all of you is to announce some exciting changes to the Project Mexico team.  After more than four years of service, Fr. Demetrios Andrews will be moving on from this ministry as the Executive Director.  The Orphanage and the Homebuilding program has truly benefited from his skills and zeal for the Lord .  With this in mind, we realize that the ministry must continue in order to serve the neediest here in the Tijuana area.  After 35 years of existence, Project Mexico has learned to overcome the most challenging of circumstances.  The faithful have risen to the occasion time and time again, and God never abandons His servants laboring to bring relief to the suffering.  We know God is with us.

Once again God’s sovereign presence shine forth in Fr. Demetrios’ successor.  In humility and excitement Fr. Nicholas Andruchow will be leading our organization as its next Executive Director.  Many of you surely are familiar with Fr. Nicholas’ involvement with Project Mexico.  He has been a priest for almost 20 years. He has worked with Project Mexico for 13 years and he brings both the pastoral and administrative perspective which lends itself to success.  This last year during the COVID pandemic we were faced with many challenges including border closure, lockdowns, budgetary cut backs and a reduction in the number of volunteers to help us.  The times are now much better and thank God we are now returning to normal.  We are starting to build homes again and looking to expand our ministry once again.  We know the ministry will continue to be faced with challenges to come, but we have full faith that the Lord with continue to work through Father Nicholas who has great organizational skill and love for the ministry.

As the chairman of Project Mexico’s board, I ask you all to keep Fr. Demetrios in your prayers as he continues on his next journey within the Church.  In addition, we request your petitions to the Lord for Fr. Nicholas so that he can be blessed in the ministry and be granted many years of fruitful leadership with Project Mexico.

Sincerely in Christ,

Dennis Awad

Chairman of the Board

Project Mexico & St. Innocent Orphanage

Chairman@projectmexico.org

Hope Rising in Detroit by Niko Deffigos

When I told people that I would be serving as a missionary in Detroit, Michigan this summer, I received a nearly unanimous response: a look of confusion and uncertainty followed by a mixture of, “Why would you go there”, “Isn’t it dangerous” and “Don’t get shot.” To be frank, my perception of Detroit was very similar. I tried to approach my service with an open mind, but I harbored doubts about both the safety of the work and the impact that a couple college students could have in solving the deep-rooted issues the communities of Detroit experiences.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of this city and the mission we have been called here to do after the first week.

On the east side of Detroit, there is a street called Alter Road. Alter Road separates Detroit from Grosse Pointe. Grosse Pointe is a picturesque Midwest suburb. Well-manicured parks and quaint well-kept brick homes line the streets, unthreatening and inviting. When you cross Alter Road heading west into Detroit, the beautiful parks are replaced with abandoned lots, garbage dumps, and dilapidated homes near collapse.

The difference between the two places, separated by one single street, is like stepping from one world into another. The suddenness with which you can transition from one side to  the other is unnerving. There are numerous reasons for this drastic disparity, one of the most prominent is race related. Decades ago, the city of Grosse Pointe placed physical barriers along certain roads that intersected Alter Road, and forced  one-way streets, so that it was difficult to enter Grosse Pointe for people living on the Detroit side.

These barriers separated white from black, suburb from neighborhood, and wealthy from poor. The last of the barriers were removed in 2014. And even though the physical barriers are gone, the effects of the barriers and what they represent are impossible to ignore.

Alter Road is an important landmark in beginning to grasp the generational trauma of this city. No human or assemblage of humans, has the capacity to heal this city on their own. No politician, legislation, or social justice movement is capable of healing this city alone. New politicians with new policies have come and gone and nothing has worked. Neighborhood outreach organizations drop in and dry out just as frequently as it rains here in Detroit (which is nearly every day as I’ve learned). Despite their good intentions, they struggle to achieve peace in Detroit.

For us as missionaries it can be overwhelming to face this challenge where many have failed. I want more than anything to help people heal, but oftentimes I feel that on my own, I am wholly incapable of reaching them. I find beauty in that, as Orthodox Christians we are called to allow God to work through us to serve those thirsting for His grace and love. In this way, Christ provides us the strength we need to properly serve. The knowledge that He is by our side in our effort to help His people provides immense encouragement. St. Paul writes,

“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11).

Christ provides us with hope even in the darkest of circumstances, and with His strength we can reach peace in the communities that have been abused and neglected. The Detroiters I have met are wonderful, kind, and generous. Many have been born into difficult circumstances, but they continue to exude a joy and exuberance for life that is a clear sign of God’s presence within each of them. The work we have been doing in service of Detroit has been both humbling and enlightening.

In our short time here we have cleaned up abandoned houses, sorted and organized donations to the FOCUS Detroit Outreach Center—so that people in the community can come grab what they need, whether it be canned foods, sweaters and hygiene items. There is a garden we have been tending with the hopes of harvesting fresh fruit and vegetables to distribute to the neighborhood. These are small and simple forms of outreach to the community, and through them we are hoping to weave God’s love into the fabric of the community.

Detroit is a beautiful city, one of the greatest metropolises in America. Although Detroit has struggled through decades of decline and neglect, it remains vibrant and steadfast. God has not abandoned Detroit, and neither will I.  

I ask for your prayers that us interns at FOCUS Detroit may humbly give ourselves to God and that He may work through us to reach those who desperately need what only He can provide: hope.

Stationed in Detroit, MI with our partners at FOCUS, Niko Deffigos is a Media Intern for summer 2021. You can directly support him and our ministry work by clicking the support button below.