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 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 a school at a very poor desert colonia 20 miles south of the border was begun.  Many visiting teams spent time working on the Soccoro Elementary school and by September of 2005, the campus was holding classes in buildings with seven classrooms, a basketball court, soccer field and playground.  Quite a transformation from the original pallet building single classroom and gutted school bus.  Currently over 180 children attend the Kindergarten thru 6th grade at this school.  The local church which is partnering with us in this Colonia (Torres) is thriving, growing and becoming the center of this impoverished community and also is in the focus of the Mexican Department of Education as a model for other communities in which the government has plans to improve the school facilities.

    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 principal 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. 

This site was last updated 12/12/05