Casas por Cristo Survives

Going out for a Sunday drive is a way of life in El Paso. The powerful spring winds which, fuel dust storms that can block out the sun for much of April, can also push out pollution and provide for perfectly clear days.

A favorite destination for many El Paso drivers is undoubtedly Scenic Dr., a tight-winding two-lane road that curls along the slope of the Franklin Mountains. High above downtown El Paso, Scenic Drive provides breathtaking views of El Paso and Juarez to the south for miles.

Throughout April 2011 Sunday drivers flocking to Scenic Dr. shared their destination with church groups praying with a purpose. Their purpose was an end to the violence in Juarez.

Organized by El Paso for Jesus, an inter-denominational coalition of local Christian ministries, Prayers for Juarez is a campaign that organized a different church group to pray at the observation platform on Scenic Dr for 40 days throughout Lent.

Some pray for Juarez, a city ravaged by a bloody drug-war that has caused a spike in violence since 2008. The city’s murder rate since that time has risen at an astronomical rate, toping 3,000 murders in 2010.
While many are praying for the safety and well being of Juarez’s citizens Roberta and Travis Sanders have found a different way to make a difference. The Sanders’ are full time employees at Casas por Cristo, a non-profit organization based in El Paso that builds houses for families in need living in Juarez and Acuna, Mexico.

Their journey to El Paso starts with Roberta. From a young age Roberta watched her father, a preacher at a church in Mt. Carmel in southern Indiana, take groups of high school students on mission trips to Juarez every year. At the age of 14 she participated in her first Casas por Cristo build and was hooked.

Later, in college, Roberta and Travis started dating and in 2003 Roberta brought Travis on his first build. On that build one of the Casas por Cristo interns, Dan Dolcen, started to talk to Travis and Roberta about the opportunity to intern for a summer.

This is how things happen in Casas por Cristo, through personal testimony and convincing; and despite Roberta’s initial skepticism the two signed up to intern in the summer of 2006. Arriving on may 12^th, what awaited them was a crash course in building a house and organizing a youth group.

For Travis “that first summer was kind of a nightmare just because the whole training program is so fast paced.” Within the first four weeks on the job interns had built two houses, co-led two builds, and were prepping to fly solo in week five, leading a church group into Juarez to build a 440 sq. foot house.

But despite the stress, and true to Dolcen’s testimony, the job grew on Travis and he took a full time position with Casas por Cristo. He has worked for Casas ever since and last September, Roberta started working full time.

In that time Travis has seen Juarez change. Less than a year after he started working full-time in El Paso he saw the violence escalate. In his first year on the job Juarez saw 300 deaths and the next year, in 2008, it saw over 1600.

Less than five years after that first summer, shortly after another church group had returned home after praying on scenic drive on a breezy El Paso Night, a local news report filled living rooms around the city with an hope-filled announcement. For the first three months of 2011 the murder rate in Juarez had slowed.

On the report El Paso for Jesus president, Barney Field, claimed that the prayers had been answered. With 183 murders in March the total for the year came to 643, how things had changed since 2007 when 300 murders for the year was a high number.

The Sanders’ have seen the city change in other ways too. Travis recalls that “on the east-side of Juarez, that first summer, I remember how wires scraped the top of our van because they had telephone poles made out of an eight foot two by four with a big U at the top and at least a thousand wires running through the big U. The wires couldn’t have hung hirer than seven feet.”

Now many of the dirt roads have turned to paved ones and on the east side of town, where Travis built most of his houses that first summer, the city has installed power lines and meters on most of the houses. There is also a multi-lane highway that circles the city, making things that used to take two hours to achieve take only 30 minutes. But with that added efficiency comes less traffic for Casas por Cristo.

Field’s prayers may have been answered but 643 murders in three months doesn’t answer one of the biggest challenges for the Sander’s ministry. When the violence first started escalating in 2008 one of Travis’ jobs was to answer the phones. “I remember back then three or four groups a day were calling to cancel. The good news, I think, is that we’ve seemed to bottom out.”

In 2008 Casas por Cristo achieved one of its highest build-rates at 400 homes. Media attention to the violence in Juarez swelled as church groups continued to cancel and Casas por Cristo struggled to reach 200 homes. Since then the organization has hovered just over 150 homes a year.

But while others stop coming some refuse. Among them is Roberta’s dad who still brings down high school students from southern Indiana, though the groups have become smaller.

Meanwhile Casas por Cristo has tightened up their policies. No driving at night, no separating into multiple groups, no going over to Juarez alone. So far these tactics have worked and the organization has not had a single violent interaction in the past five years.

Roberta answers the phones now and people still call with concerns about the violence. So what’s the best tactic in convincing church groups that coming down is worth the risk?, According to Travis it’s “a personal experience. Seeing it first hand and taking it back to their communities. That’s the only way people are going to believe its safe buts its also how you build passion for this ministry.”

To alleviate pressure Casas por Cristo has spread to Acuna, Mexico for those that find Juarez too dangerous and next summer will offer trips Guatemala for those who find Mexico in general too dangerous. But passion remains for Juarez as the Sanders’ explain that certain groups have tried trips to Acuna but come back to Juarez, “I think because they see that the need is so great here” Roberta adds.

If April’s report on the slowed violence proves to continue in the coming months then that will mean that analysts the Autonomous University of Juarez projection of 5,000 murders for 2011 was off this year. Researchers there gather data throughout Juarez, which they use to make statistical projections surrounding various issues around the city. Their projection for 2010 of 3,000 murders came close and other projections, like 8,500 orphans in the city by 2012 echo Roberta’s assertion that the need is great in Juarez.

For now Juarez has allies in Roberta and Travis and twelve others who come from around the country with the same cause. And with them they bring their congregations. Groups like Roberta’s father who carry a passion for Juarez and they bring something which, for them, is much stronger. They bring faith.