When I came to Anapra I had five children. The youngest was 5 months old.

We moved to Anapra looking for our own place to live where our kids could run and play and feel free. We had been renting close to downtown where there was running water, electricity and schools were close by. But, it was hard for the kids to feel free because our landlord was always saying “Don’t run! Don’t touch! Etc. Etc.”

So Luis, my husband, found out that in Anapra you only had to squat on a piece of land and after five years you would own the right to the land. Anapra didn’t have any running water; at that time water trucks would come once a week to fill water barrels. There was no electricity, no streets. Really, it was just like a desert with just a few houses far apart from each other.

We moved in July and Luis built a wood pallet house with blankets for the walls inside and a plywood roof without paper and tar. That year it was very rainy and for three months I rained almost every day. We had to put plastic bags over ourselves to keep dry. I would put Adrian, who was the baby, inside a dresser to keep him dry.

I would cry every day and complain to God, “Why!?! Why God!?! What did I do wrong to deserve this!?!” I wanted to move back to where I lived before, but Luis kept saying “No, we need our own place.” This made me very unhappy and hopeless.

My kids never complained, thank God. Luis didn’t have a stable job at that time. We had a lot of struggles for food, for school for the kids, and for resources to build a good house. I thought those were our most important needs. But no, it was not. My most important needs were faith, love, hope and happiness.

Two years later my sixth child, Lulu, was born. I was still a very unhappy person with lots of hate. One day I went to the store and there was Brother Jim, who I did not know. He was struggling to communicate with the people at the store. After several minutes I offered to translate for him and that made him very happy. So he offered to drive me home. Once we were home he asked, “Is this your place?” I said “Yes.” He asked, “Can I come and get you when I need help communicating.” I said, “Sure.”

Every day he was there, ‘Can we go to the store? To the hardware? To downtown?’ and so on. “Sure” I said. After several weeks has asked me to help translate his mission bible study on Saturdays. I was supposedly going to help translate for people. But NO, I was the one being helped. Every Saturday the story was about my life. I would go home and think, ‘do these people (the ones doing the Bible study) know my life!?!’ That is where my faith began. That is when I knew why I was here.

Brother Jim provided beans and rice weekly to families. I was one of them. It gave us confidence to have a daily meal for our six kids. At that time, we were only eating one meal a day. Those beans and rice were a blessing, believe me! I began to be a different person. I was faithful, happy and with a big commitment to my life: serve others and do as much as I can for other.

Here I am 23 years later. I am a part of Manos Amigas mission, the library, assisting groups from a Lutheran Church that comes during the year to visit Anapra and know about life in Juarez. If feel soooooo blessed, soooooo happy and more than anything SOOOOOO GRATEFUL and very very FAITHFUL. My lesson was to pray for what I need, not for what I want.

Luis and I are a family that receives beans and rice from Lakeland and we are very grateful for this. This has helped our family, especially in times that Luis has not had a job. Your generosity, love and care for us is God’s gift. May you all be blessed.