In July of 1989 Rich and Cheryl Mackey were in Ensanada, Mexico building a basketball court at an orphanage.  It was a test.  An experimental outreach.  Their team was composed of 10 - 12 year old boys.  The question was, "Could boys successfully do this type of work?"  The knowing would be in the trying.  It worked!  While at the orphanage Rich met Sergio Juarez, a Mexican architect and contractor.  Rich mentioned to him that he felt the Lord nudging him regarding the idea of building small houses in a very poor community, using boy power.  Sergio replied that he knew of a place where this might work.  The next day, they traveled to the hills west of the city.  It was a desperately poor area.  The air smelled of burning garbage and untreated sewage.

    As Rich stood in the midst of this barrio, his eyes glanced upward locking onto a pink church at the top of the hill overlooking the area.  One lesson he had learned from years of mission work was the importance of partnering with a local fellowship when entering a new area.  Any work that was accomplished was then left as a deposit in that fellowship's account with their community.  They drove up the hill to the church to meet the pastor.   The pastor was a husky brown skinned man, in his early forties with a thick mustache and wearing heavy black rimmed glasses.  His name was Robellio Roblero Arriaga.  On the church was the name, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Mexico.  This was an appointment made in heaven.  From the time the Mackeys met Robellio in 1989 until 1992 when they began taking groups of 10 - 13 year old boys to Mexico to build small homes,  they came to know this man as a suffering servant in Christ's image.  Pastor Robellio's small house was always full, day and night with family and church members, as well as others passing through who had no place to stay. 

    In late 1992, Robellio transferred 900 miles east to Juarez.  The Mackeys lost track of him until December of 1993.  Following a visit to Juarez, they scheduled a youth / basketball camp for the following summer and proceded to build a basketball court at Robellio's church.  For the next couple of years, the Mackeys continued to work with him doing camps and construction in the church community in Juarez. 

    In 1995, following the youth camp, Robellio and his wife, Flor escorted Rich and Cheryl to a run-down property three miles west of his church on what then was the edge of the city, across the street from the Juarez prison.  Rich asked him, what was his vision for this site?  Robellio went on to share the dream of a Center that would serve the community, through camps, medical help, church retreats, feeding programs, Bible studies and ultimately the building of a church.  Later in the summer, as a result of that meeting, the Mackeys agreed to a five year commitment, a necessary length of time to see such a project through.

    As in most things of a church and volunteer nature, things take longer than envisioned.  Plans were drawn, meetings were held, churches were contacted.  It took until the spring of 1997 to really get under way.  Over the next five years, church teams came from Colorado, Kansas, all over Texas and as far away as North Carolina to join in the work.  First a wall was built around the property.  Then the dilapidated church and parsonage were restored.  Group after group poured more and more concrete and the walls started up first on the dorm building and then for the cafeteria.  Summer Youth Camps continued, VBS's around the city became a regular part of our team outreaches and in 1998, the first year end Christmas Party was given. 

    As the construction requirements at the Family Center lessened, more construction work and ministry was done with approximately seven churches across the city.  We took part in repairing, expanding and remodeling the churches, in addition to working on the small homes of church members. 

    Finally, in July of 2002, the Family Center was dedicated.  In May of 2003, we put a full time pastor administrator on staff at the Family Center, Felipe Barriantos.  In June of 2003 a part time doctor and nurse began working on staff at the Center. 

    Today, the Family Center operates with a mission church, clinic and service center to the community.  Clothing is distributed, youth programs are ongoing, classes for English and computer usage are a regular part of the week.  Teams from the U. S. stay at the Center through out the spring, summer, and fall.  Homes are built for needy families by visiting teams.  In 2008 a facility expansion program commenced at the Family Center.  This will take a number of years to complete and will allow for the expansion of programs to meet an ever growing need in this community.

    In varying degrees these same ministries and services are duplicated at the partner churches across a 25 mile swath in this large city.  Additionally, hundreds of children are served through our partner churches each year with the VBS programs carried out by our visiting churches from the states. 

    Beginning in 2003, the building of an elementary school at a very poor desert Colonia twenty miles south of the border was begun.  Multiple visiting church teams spent 4 years constructing classrooms and facilities on the property.   A total of eight buildings were completed and a partnership with the Mexican Educational Administration was forged.  Today over 300 students attend grades one through six at Socorro Rivera Elementary school and the education partnership continues.  Presently over 200 children annually from this school and in our partner churches in Juarez are benefactors of a scholarship program encouraging and helping these children to stay in school, after they finish the compulsory first six years of school.

     In 2006 construction work began on a desolate sandy hill 15 miles east of downtown Juarez in the Loma Blanca region.  The vision was for a new Family Center called “Tocando Puertas”  (Knocking on Doors) led by our longtime friend Pastor Jesus Nunez.  Today the facility is home to a Mission Church and is operational with a number of programs offered to this very poor community. 

    One of the programs offered is accelerated education instruction and support for elementary through high school children, who are too old to attend public school at their grade level.  Other ministry services include training for children and adults in computer usage, English lessons, sewing classes, hygiene training, a feeding program, clothing distribution sports and youth activities and a clinic.

    The future will see growth of more of the same programs and ministry efforts, plus the introduction of new programs for the youth, expanded classes and hopefully the beginning of cottage ministries for the local folks.  As always our guiding principle is to serve the Lord through the serving of his people.  

      We can not meet all needs.  We look for God's direction and respond obediently to those He places in our path.