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From Cardboard to Concrete
Maida
Apodaca of El Paso, Texas, pledged to sponsor a tidy new house for a poor
family in Anapra, Mexico. The little family, a single mother with two
children, lived in a cardboard-walled shack just across the border and
within sight of America's riches. Working through the charity, Casas por
Cristo, the elderly Maida vowed to raise $2,500 for materials plus $225
for the use of a van, and recruit 16 workers to build the house in three
days. At first, things didn't come together. "I couldn't seem to raise
the money, so I decided to forget building the house and selected another
project"—collecting 2,000 toiletries and socks for a homeless shelter.
Maida doesn't drive, so "I went door to door asking people if they had
an extra bar of soap. If they didn't, I asked them for 50 cents." As she
went, she told everyone about her dream of building a better house for
a poor family, and amazingly, people began to respond. Money and volunteers
trickled in for the project, and soon construction was underway. Says
John King, who drove 300 miles from Santa Fe to help build: "This really
opened my eyes. These people live in squalor, and they can look across
and see us, how we live. They were in tears when the house was finished."
New homeowner Paula Luna Garcia, who has a $33-a-week income, said of
her new, snug concrete-and-wood home: "All good gifts come from the Lord,
and Maida provided the means that I have received one."
Learn
more about Casas
por Cristo
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