The H Home: Navidad para los niños en Nogales, Sonora, México

There is a beautiful family that I go to church with. Their name is the Cardenas. The mother is from Colombia, the father is from Mexico, and the children were all born in the USA. Yesterday I had the privilege to accompany them on an angelic journey to help spread Christmas cheer to around 100 families in Nogales, Mexico.

Every year the mother of the family does a huge service project around to help children in need. This year, her father-in-law told her that he found out that there were over 20 families living on a landfill in Nogales, Mexico (just an hour south of our home in Tucson). She immediately went to work organizing an event (principally through Facebook) for people to bring her clothes, food, blankets, and toys to bring to the children and elder families living there. He then found out that, no, there were more like 70 families...so Janneth doubled her efforts and encouraged more donations. So many people gave to help the event. As one lady in the Facebook group wrote, "El granito de arena de todos ayudó." "Everyone's grain of sand helped." Here is a picture of toys and food that were organized thanks to the efforts of so many:

My precious little son also liked helping. When I was boxing up some of our food and old clothes, he had a blast giving me some of his toys and was insistent that I keep them in the box. Also, after one trip to Deseret Industries for toys, he went through and hugged several of them. I think he was sending his love to those children in Mexico that would receive these gifts.

I immediately felt a connection to this event and also had never been to Mexico, so I asked Janneth, the organizer, if I could go with her family. She graciously let me accompany them. We left Tucson on Saturday morning and drove to some of her relatives' home in Rio Rico, just north of the border. There we ate delicious chorizo, papas, frijoles, and tortillas and reorganized everything. We didn't want border personnel to think that we were bringing these things in to sell them, as that might cause problems, so we evenly distributed them through the cars and prayed that there wouldn't be any problems.

As we drove near the border, we held our breath. The father's truck full of gifts got a green light, meaning he could pass through without inspection. The aunt's van got a green light, and she passed through without inspection. As we approached the line, no one spoke. We got the red light. Inspection was needed. As Janneth got out of the car to open her back door, her daughter said a silent prayer that there would be no problems. Less than 60 seconds later, she hopped back in the car without any issues. We were now in Nogales, Mexico.

After a quick stop at another relative's house in Nogales to get some more things and do the final organization of gifts, we took off to our destination.

No matter what I expected, I was still shocked by the site. Kenny, Janneth's son, made a video to best show the situation:

Most people were living in houses up on the hill next to the landfill, having houses that seemed to be constructed from whatever they found there, but there were some people literally living on the landfill. Janneth's father-in-law was a fabulous leader for us. He spoke with the leader at the landfill, had him get word out to people to come down from their houses with their children. We gave tickets (numbers on notecards) to each family so they could get a blanket, a bag of food, and then get clothes and toys for their children. I helped with passing out the tickets and food, while the children/teenagers that came along helped to pass out their toys. We tried to take pictures inconspicuously, so we have more fond memories than good photos, but here are a few: We stood in front of the van/truck and reached inside to give people their gifts. This helped maintain order and discourage people from taking two or three bags.

Although we were told that there were 70 families, Janneth had planned enough food for 75. Around 60, we were almost out of blankets, and I saw around 20 bags of food left in the van. Quickly Janneth's daugher and I reorganized the food to come up with more. Around 85 families, we ran out of food, but thankfully still had clothes and toys, so families were able to get those. I then found a small forgotten bag of toiletries (toothpaste, lotion, etc.) and those that didn't get food were able to get toiletries. They actually seemed very pleased. One lady was excited over a new toothbrush, one lady was thrilled to have some crema (lotion), and another lady was so happy to have sanitary napkins for her daughter. (I think of all the times I complained because I didn't like this brand of toiletries or that type of toothbrush and I feel outright guilty. Even if there are people with more, I am still so blessed, and I cannot let myself forget that!)

Some children were even more excited. A little boy that received a toy truck jumped up and down and squealed. A little toddler (around my son's age) got a stuffed duck and just stared while her mom smiled so sweetly and pleasantly. Some teenage girls were excited to get colored hair ties. It was neat to see how so little meant so much. It was the best way to prepare for the day to celebrate the birth of He who loves us all, the ultimate example of service. My only regret is that I should have put a small card with a little message of love and hope in each food bag, and I should have taken a few more minutes at the end to speak more with some of the people - find out who they are, and make sure that they know I care for them as children of God. I can learn from that and remember for next time.

Here's a video of our drive leaving the landfill:

and here are two of Janneth's children's thoughts about it (it's hard to hear so I'll soon close-captioned the video):

It truly was an amazing experience, and I know that the Lord helped us because, in serving His children, we were also serving Him.

Here are some more photos of the described events: