The Summer of Grecia

The summer we met Grecia, a curious 10-year-old neighbor girl, our short-term volunteer teams were working to renovate a baseball field complex in the Reynosa, Mexico, neighborhood where Isaiah 55 Ministries, an MTW partner ministry, is located.

Short-term teams working to improve ballfields? What on earth could that have to do with sharing the gospel of Jesus? How can an enthusiastic but relatively unskilled team laboring on fences and dugouts and bleachers possibly contribute to anything more than a “social gospel”—a bunch of American Christians spending a week doing good works at the U.S.-Mexico border? And how could that week with a neighborhood ministry impact one girl’s life?

The “Wrong Side of the Tracks”

First, get to know our neighborhood. Geographically, on the north it borders the Rio Grande River (or the Rio Bravo, if you are on the Mexican side). The river looks lazy, but we know that the current can be deadly. Over the years we have seen that the riverbanks near us can be the entry points to crossing for migrants who pay coyotes hoping to enter the United States without documents. One time years ago, we took neighborhood boys fishing on the banks of the river and watched a U.S. Border Patrol agent watch us until we left. On another fishing trip, we saw a group of women and children hustle to board an inflated rubber raft to cross the river right in front of us.

To enter the neighborhood, you pass the “Zona de Tolerancia,” or “Boystown.” This guarded and walled area allows for regulated prostitution and forms much of the eastern boundary of the neighborhood. In recent years, the area has been in decline, suffering the consequences of a drug war and then a pandemic, followed by a mass infusion of migrants into the city. But historically, it was the known landmark of the neighborhood.

On the west side, just past those ballfields, sits one of the city’s largest dumps. Until just a few years ago, garbage in Reynosa was most commonly collected by a horse or donkey pulling a wooden cart. After a change to the law banned animals from the streets, garbage collectors shifted to mechanical horsepower, exchanging their carts for pickup trucks. But even now, neighborhood streets remain the primary route to the dump. Plumes of smoke rise from the dump frequently after either spontaneous combustion or deliberately set fires to compact the refuse. Many on the outskirts of the neighborhood make their living picking up trash, collecting recyclables, or picking through garbage. Our streets seem more littered than others, as garbage sometimes flies off of the precariously stacked and often overfilled truck beds.

Railroad tracks delineate the southern border of the neighborhood and so truly, many would say that the neighborhood lies on the proverbial “wrong side of the tracks.” For years, the neighborhood was seen as a place that only those participating in illicit activities or waste management would be interested in. These days, Domino’s delivers pizza and DHL brings packages. Even so, when we tell others in the larger community where Isaiah 55 Ministries is located, we often receive raised eyebrows and questioning. “Really? Aren’t you afraid to be there?”

Ballfields of Dignity

And so again, you would ask, “Why use short-term mission teams to renovate community baseball fields?” Considering the history of the neighborhood, we saw the ballfields as an opportunity to bring light into darkness. We want our neighborhood to lose the stigma that has clung so closely for generations. Step by step, something as ordinary as city teams playing on the ballfields can do that. As the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites in exile, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city … Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

In one of his final messages to the church, Tim Keller exhorted believers to “engage, but at the same time, be different.” Let’s be honest, there’s nothing that says “different” more than a group of Americans working to improve a dusty Mexican ballfield just 250 yards away from the border.

Yes, short-term volunteer workers stand out in our neighborhood, but hopefully, in all the best ways. As part of their orientation on arrival, we remind volunteers that they are guests in the country. We encourage them to ask questions of our national teammates when practices and customs differ from those they are accustomed to. We remind them that the week isn’t a social media photo op (and besides, our mission policy requires volunteers to give up their phones for the week!). As John Perkins taught, “You don’t give people dignity, you affirm it.” American missionaries didn’t bring Jesus to this neighborhood. Our Triune God has known this place since Creation, and nothing that happens here surprises Him.

Our short-term volunteers work under the guidance of our Mexican national employees, using local practices. They mix concrete with shovels, not electric cement mixers. They stretch the backstop fence link by link. They paint dugouts and bleachers in the bright colors typical of the area, parakeet green, tangelo orange, and turquoise blue. It’s not unusual for locals crossing the fields on their way to their homes or to the dump to stop and ask “What are these gringos doing and why are they here?” That gives those of us who are always in the neighborhood, our team of Mexican and American missionaries who remain through the ordinary days after the volunteers return home, a natural opportunity to share about Jesus.

We look for opportunities to share about His life and death and resurrection, about His free grace, and about the hope He offers for those who trust in Him. We get to ask questions to learn more about our neighbors and their families, about their hopes and their struggles. Admittedly, our best efforts can sometimes get derailed. Ready to share the good news of the gospel is salvation by faith alone, a missionary teammate once asked a local youth working alongside him, “Do you know what you have to do to get to heaven?” The kid answered, “You have to die.” True. Next question …

A Curious, Spirited Girl

All that brings us back to Grecia, the girl at the beginning of this story. Grecia lives not far from those baseball fields. The youngest of three sisters, she loves sports and music. She’s not what anyone would call a girly girl. Grecia’s parents work long hours and are not always around to know what she’s doing. That summer eight years ago she saw the teams working out on the ballfields and wanted to join in the fun. Probably, a free lunch and all-you-can-drink Gatorade sweetened the deal. At the end of each workday, she would quickly take off. The next team week, she would be back. Through the summer, she became a familiar face on the ballfields. It took us a while to figure out where she lived.

At the end of that first summer, we invited Grecia to the end-of-season vacation Bible school. She didn’t come. Then, we started weekly activities at the ministry community center and she returned. Grecia was there every week, almost without exception. She didn’t always behave well. She had a lot of words and not a lot of self-control. But she was faithful. The next summer, she was back out with the teams, getting dirty working and soaking up time with American teens. She was also learning to trust our missionary team more and more.

Grecia graduated from elementary school, Mexican Primaria, in sixth grade and also from our kids’ ministry program. She moved on to our girls’ youth group, Club de Chicas. Like most teens during the pandemic, she struggled with school, her parents, and friendships. Like many teens, she also has wrestled with her faith and what devotion to Jesus requires. But she remained vulnerable and transparent with the ladies on our team and never quit coming around.

When we started a neighborhood Bible study in 2022, Grecia was there, every single Monday evening. She started meeting weekly with a missionary teammate, a relationship that has been a blessing to both of the young women. Similarly to Jacob wrestling with God, it is almost as if Grecia cried out to the Lord, “I won’t let you go till you bless me.” And He has.

Grecia recognizes the specific grace of the Lord in her life and trusts Jesus for her salvation, though like all of us, the process of sanctification is a winding road. Now about to turn 18 years old, Grecia is among the oldest of the teens participating in our Club de Chicas. She testifies to seeing the Lord at work in her life and wants to know Him more. She is taking a leadership role in Club de Chicas. With mentorship and the help of the Holy Spirit, her edges are softer and she listens more. She still participates faithfully with short-term teams. And she asks for a ride to Sunday worship, attending services at our partner church, Camino de Fe Reynosa. Camino de Fe plans to be part of a work to plant a church in this neighborhood.

A couple of those ballfields are gone now. In 2021, we watched the day a backhoe pulled down two backstops to make room for a migrant camp during the influx of asylum seekers at the U.S./Mexico border. Local leagues changed their logos on the dugouts a couple of different times. Honestly, the bleachers the volunteers constructed at the soccer field are a bit creaky and could use a new coat of paint. Nonetheless, the work of the gospel continues through those projects in the ongoing relationships with the many we meet because of them.

We frequently hear American church-goers question the work of short-term teams, anxious about traveling to serve in unfamiliar places, and asking if their money would be better spent in other ways. Should they come? Without hesitation, we answer, yes! Come! Serve alongside missionaries and their neighbors and see what the Lord will do. Should they give? We also answer, yes! Give! Support missionaries on the field and the ministries where they serve. But also, pray, pray, pray! Pray for the workers on the field, pray for their communities, pray for disciples, and pray for God’s kingdom to come.

Interested in a vision trip, mission trip, or summer intensive? Learn more at mtw.org/trips or email [email protected].