​Piedmont church’s yearly home-building trip to Mexico coming up

By Lou Fancher

​Remember the Pythagorean theorem? Lots of folks can drone “a² + b² = c²” or “the sum of a right triangle’s squares on its legs equals the square of its hypotenuse (the opposite side).” Remember using that equation in everyday life, though? That’s another matter.

Unless, that is, you’re among the hundreds of kids and adults who participate in Piedmont Community Church’s annual youth spring break mission journey to build homes in Mexico for families in need. Over the years, as many as 20 teams — each consisting of 13 students and two adults, a 15-member cooking team and up to six “rovers” who provide construction expertise — have trekked to the campground near Tijuana where they stay.

Working with incredible speed and essential precision, each team in mere days builds an 11-by-22-foot home with two rooms, a single-pitch roof, windows and a locking front door. The houses have no running water or electricity but are permanent structures that are still a vast improvement over the housing that preceded them, said Scott Kail, the church’s pastor to students.

After COVID-19 pandemic measures caused the mission trip to be canceled for two years, a fully-vaccinated and masked contingent of 300 Piedmont students and adult leaders returned to Mexico in 2022 and 2023 to build 15 homes. This year, 12 teams will travel April 7-12.

“We go as partners with Amor, a ministry based in San Diego that’s been doing this since the ’80s,” Kail said. “We stay in their tents and have an 18-foot trailer that lives down there with all our stoves, burners and the 60-by-80-foot circus tent that’s our kitchen.

“We bring in tools, chairs, coolers — things we can’t depend on finding there, but all the materials for building and food are bought there and support the local economy. We hire local laborers to set up camp the day before we get there and repack the trailer when we leave.”

Amor works with Mexican pastors and churches in the barrios where Kail said families who are “the poorest of the poor” often live in cardboard boxes or lean-to wood shanties.

“When we arrive, they’re living out in the elements. The homes we build have no infrastructure, but the families have water barrels, and water trucks drive around and fill them weekly.

“They use propane stoves for cooking. We’ve gathered statistics showing that when we build, the children have an 80% better chance of getting an education and staying healthy.”

After Kail and the teams leave, Amor continues supporting the families to make sure their homes are not stolen and that the support network of schooling, a food bank and medical check-ins remains operational.

Kail has lived in Piedmont for 21 years, and all three of his now-adult children have participated in the Mexico trip. He said his sons and all the kids who have made the trip have had trajectory-changing experiences.

“When they’re 15 and I look at what they’ll become by age 30, I see they become more other-focused, they advance spiritually. About three-quarters of them write their college essays about it. Later in life, I see there’s more chance they go into social work and community service.

“Kids don’t have to believe in Christ or go to our church or be from a Christian family, but seeing the differences between the U.S and Mexico and in a week changing a family’s life causes them to experience a true Biblical community. They learn what it takes to support each other. The whole vibe is positive, do-what’s-needed, contributory.”

The “rovers” are a big part of that helpful, can-do energy. Scott Willis is retired from a career working as a project management professional for oil companies and has gone on the Mexico trip 11 times.

“I’m going again this year as a rover,” he said. “A rover’s an at-large position that provides accurate, timeline expertise to improve the overall build quality. No one likes to be called an ‘expert. so we settled on (the name) ‘rovers.’ My son, Austin, age 27, and daughter, Sydney, age 23, both participated during my first seven years.”

Willis said most often the support he provides relates to the basics: cutting straight lines on 2-by-4s, using a shovel to dig a trench and safety tips.

“They start by never having done any of it. They go from being scared, not knowing how to start or get the wood lined up. By the end of a week, they can cut a straight-and-square 18.75-foot piece. After that, you get into how to build a house. Like the walls; we put up chicken wire, then paper, then cover it in stucco.

“You teach them that if you put on the roof, the plywood has to be square. We can give them the squares (tools) to use, but there are better ways using Pythagorean theorems that they learn in school and can actually apply in real life.”

Willis said he enjoys watching kids learn and witnessing their generous spirits.

“There’s not enough giving in our society, and the opportunity to do that with them is of great value to me. It helps with my faith, my belief in mankind. One thing I discovered is that kids can take on a lot of responsibility if you give it to them.

“I remember with my son — who was displaying all the trouble you have with an adolescent teen — the adults on his team said he was doing great. I asked why I never saw that behavior, and we laughed. But after that, I started to see him as the potential man he has grown into.”

Like Willis, Kail said he gets an immense reward from the trips.
​
“Adolescence is a hard, squishy time, and I get to encourage them at their best. That does my heart good. I can be used in service to teenagers and continue to celebrate their lives: serving to marry them, speaking at grandparents’ memorials, congratulating seniors graduating from high school.”