Father Rick Thomas S.J., the founder of our community and ministries, once said, “God tests some people with possession and some people with lack of possessions. Those who have a lack of possessions seem to pass the test better. Often the poorer a person is, the more ready he or she is to share, and the richer a person is, the less willing he or she is to share.” We have seen the truth of this time and time again.
A recent example took place on the first Saturday of January. We had been without water for two weeks at Las Alitas, our youth center located in the outskirts of Juarez, Mexico. The pump that draws water from the neighborhood well broke before Christmas so our area had no water except what we bought from the store for cooking and drinking.
We usually begin every Saturday morning with cleaning chores and need water to clean and mop, but we had none available. Seeing the situation, Francisco, our handyman, took off in his little car. He drives a two-door small sedan with a rack on top where he can carry supplies for his fix-it jobs.
Francisco went to his house, which had water, and proceeded to fill up any containers and buckets he could find and then loaded them up in his car. You can see from the pictures that he used his trunk and the rack on top to carry the water back to Las Alitas.
Thanks to his generosity and resourcefulness, we were able to get the bathrooms, classrooms, and chapel all cleaned up and ready for the youth and their parents to come for the day’s activities. Water is such a gift, and we take it for granted until we don’t have it. Thank God for water!
