On October 4th, we watched as a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook Oaxaca, Mexico. Just a few days later, we watched as the disaster continued and Mexico City was hit with a massive earthquake, this one even more intense than the one in Oaxaca.
The entire country of Mexico and beyond felt the pain of these events. We kept hearing from our friends, telling us that the people of Mexico have been overcome with fear. Many seem to have lost all hope completely. When the very ground beneath you isn’t certain to remain stable, it’s easy for panic to creep in and rip away any sense of peace.
When we heard about Oaxaca, we immediately began gathering support and supplies from our friends in the Guadalajara community, and we planned to send out a team of volunteers that week. We ended up gathering over 1500 kilos (over 3,300 pounds) of food and supplies, and we sent out a team from Marked to go and offer support.
So they set off to the beautiful mountain region of Oaxaca, with no idea what their eyes would see in the coming days. The Mixe people of Oaxaca are a people that are intensely connected to the land they walk on. The land supplies everything they need, from food to supplies to fresh water. They lack nothing, as long as the land continues to provide. You can imagine the horror when they literally watched their land crack beneath their feet and everything fall apart before their eyes. Their only sense of livelihood and sustenance disappeared in a matter of seconds.
Our team arrived to find a people largely devoid of hope. Not sure where to even start, they prayed and asked for God’s direction. They knew that if they were motivated by need, they would never even scratch the surface. But if they were motivated by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He would use them to transform the lives of a few individuals that needed it the most. This is how we respond to disaster, not in panic, but with hope that only comes from Jesus.
The next day they encountered a man named Guierrmo. He told them that he had lost absolutely everything in the earthquake. He literally watched his land crumble down the side of a mountain. He walked us to the place where he had moved his family after the earthquake, and his new home consisted of four sticks and a blanket. That’s all that was left. He brought us in and made us warm coffee and gave us a few slices of bread. Crying, he told us “I have no hope. I have a wife and a daughter and my mother to support, and there’s nothing left.” We decided that after dispersing care packages of supplies and food to about 60 families, that we would devote the rest of our resources to building Guierrmo and his family a new home. So we brought in our building supplies and invested the rest of our time into building this beautiful family a place of their own. He asked us over and over, “Why is this happening to me? Yesterday I had no hope. Now I don’t even know how to hold on to all the hope that I have.”
“Yesterday I had no hope. Now I don’t even know how to hold on to all the hope that I have.”
The need is still overwhelming. We’ve made plans to gather more donations and make another trip to Oaxaca in the coming weeks. In the coming months, it is our goal to raise enough funds to build an additional 20 homes. Continuing to partner with that community to see them regain their strength. But we learned that we could start with one. We learned that one person full of hope is more powerful than anything. We learned that even though we don’t have enough on our own, with Jesus we have everything.
