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Mexico City Trip

Encounter with our neighbors of faith
Mexico trip participants say they are changed and empowered by their immersion

“I was humbled and brought to my knees, filled with
despair and lament, while at the same time moved to
see and continue seeing hope and places for rejoicing.”

“I saw the face of God in the faces of people I met.”

“It was an opportunity to look from the other side, to
experience from the other side, and to be confronted by
God, who calls us to the other side where we encounter
our neighbor.”

Such are the reflections participants in the Rocky
Mountain Synod trip to Mexico City and Cuernevaca,
Mexico, sponsored by the Global Mission Committee.
The group of 11 included the ecumenical perspective of one Episcopalian and one Presbyterian. “The program through the ELCA’s Lutheran Center in Mexico City far exceeded all expectations,” said Madelyn Busse, Rocky Mountain Synod assistant to the bishop. “One of the special gifts of this well-designed program is that most of the speakers are grassroots people who live, work, and participate daily in the realities of Mexico today. The eight days were filled with speakers and experiences that filled our hearts and minds for months to come,” she said. Beginning in Mexico City, the group toured the cathedral and historical sites that date back to the 1500s. They learned of the history of Mexico from the time of the first Spanish conquerors to the present political, social, and economic situation in order to provide a frame of reference for the days ahead.

While in Cuernevaca, the group visited one of the poorest colonias, where two women who live there shared their stories of struggle and hopes for the future. They also met community organizers and members of a Base Christian Community who graciously hosted group members in their homes for the evening.

Back in Mexico City, they watched and discussed videos on Border issues, environmental issues, and the story of assassinated archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. They met and talked with a Lutheran woman who fled El Salvador and is now living in Mexico City and with a campesino farm worker and organizer. Throughout the experience, time was
devoted to biblical reflection, worship, and conversation to reflect upon all that they had seen and heard.

After returning home, Virgetta Johnson and Ed Eckart,
members of Mt. Hope Lutheran Church, El Paso, Texas, shared a temple talk and adult forum when they returned home. They were especially moved by their home stay, which was arranged by a leader of the Christian Base Community (CBC) group in a neighborhood of middle-class families. The CBC develops women leaders to organize self-help projects to raise their standard of living.

“Our host family, the Sarianos, was most welcoming and most gracious and most giving to a couple of visitors whose language skills are minimal,” said Eckart. “Madre Ricarda and Padre Joaquin have four teenage daughters, the youngest of which just celebrated her quinceanera [the celebration of a
young woman’s 15th birthday]. We saw hundreds of pictures of that wondrous event and I have begun to understand the extreme importance of that event in Mexican families. It was only about a 14-hour stay, but we came away changed in our understanding of Mexican families.”

Busse agreed that this type of a trip often results in a change of perspective and a change of heart. “The time in Mexico City concluded with the opportunity to begin to reflect and consider how we might live and act differently in our personal lives and in relationship to the political realities in the United States that impact our neighbors in Mexico,” she said.