Fifteen students from La Sierra University spent four days in Tijuana, Mexico, building two homes during the beginning of Christmas break 2005.

“We had to lug everything uphill: wood, concrete, barrels, tools, rocks and gravel,” says Melissa Vega, junior psychology major.

“It was intense,” added Feruzi Mwero, sophomore graphic design major. “Definitely the most awesome mission trip I’ve ever been on. It was seeing how much God can do through people.”

The team of 15 was split in half, each group worked on a wood frame stucco house for a family. The construction site was 10 minutes from the United States border and the group camped about 30 minutes away.

“We first had prayer and asked God for His blessing and strength to take on the challenging task of completing two new houses,” says Sergio Rubio, freshman.

A typical day for the group began at 6:30 a.m. They would eat a quick breakfast and be ready to go to the site by 7:30 a.m. They would work from 8 a.m. until sundown, go back to their campsite, take cold showers using buckets of water, have worship and hang out at the campfire.

“There were a lot of first time campers and missionaries,” says Pablo Ariza, junior liberal studies major and one of the coordinators of the mission trip. “We faced constant obstacles. We could not get a truck until the day before we left, two people cancelled the day before and two people were added, and we had a tire that blew out just inside the border. It makes you wonder if the devil just does not want you to go.”

“On the fourth day we were finished by noon, and invited each family to their home and gave them their new keys,” says Rubio. “We prayed for their homes, and during prayer I could hear many family members say ‘Gracias, Senor’ and ‘Thank you, Lord’ in Spanish and they called us angels. It was then that it came to my mind that God has used us for this trip, and He planned to use us to answer their prayers."

The trip was sponsored by Amor Ministries and La Sierra University Spiritual Life.