"My cup brims over."  Don't you love the picture that verse brings to mind from the Twenty-third Psalm when read from the New Jerusalem Bible translation.  I imagine a cup of water or maybe a bucket or birdbath on a warm day filled to the very top, so full that the water forms a convex shape even higher in the center than around the edges, so full that with one more drop added, the water begins to roll beyond the edge and over the sides.   I remember, as children, when neighbor friends and I tried to see how full we could fill a glass of milk, much to my mother's dismay.

 Little six-year-old Evelin knew the meaning of that verse from the inside out.  On the evening of April 18, Westminster's family Mexico team joined in worship with members of the Dios Es Amor mission church in a partially completed sanctuary in La Planicie east of downtown Tijuana.  The Reverend Bill Soldwisch, a partner in the Presbyterian Border Ministry, asked us to each tell about something for which we were thankful.  When it was Evelin's turn, she replied in Spanish, "I am thankful to God because I have everything I need."  After translating for us, Bill leaned over to me and whispered, "Just like the Twenty-third Psalm."  In the translation from The New Jerusalem Bible, the first verse reads, "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing."

 Evelin, the youngest of a five-member family living in a one room house, twelve by sixteen feet in size, was especially full of smiles and laughter that night.  In fact, she seemed to be happy, secure, and loved, comfortable and trusting as she sat on the lap of her newest best friend, Robert Walsh from a Tiburon church.  With Chris Yolanis, Robert had built a doorway connected the family's one room to another and doubling their living space that day.  Evelin's ten-year-old brother, also named Roberto, and her twelve-year-old sister, Isenia, appeared to be very "at home" in the congregational circle.  The roads of their little village are unpaved and full of rocks and holes.  Dogs and kids run through the neighborhood curious about the school painting project taking place during the spring vacation week.  Water trucks bounce and splash stopping to fill large barrels placed near the entrance to each small home.  The water is not drinkable but used for washing and bathing.  Electricity was to be hooked up in La Planicie in December.  The governor of the state came to turn the switch and there was much excitement but most of the homes still don't have service.  Evelin's mother was not in worship that evening because she works the swing shift at the Matel Toy factory some distance away.  Including the commute time in a rickety bus, she is away from home from two o'clock in the afternoon until eleven at night.  Occasionally, she works an additional five or six hours coming home at seven in the morning.  During those long hours, six days each week, twelve-year-old Isenia is responsible for her brother and sister, preparing food, helping with homework, and getting them to bed.  The average factory worker salary is $350 monthly.

Along with Sony and Sanyo nearby, Mattel Toys is one of the hundreds of maquiladora factories established since the mid-60s in the border supported by the North American Free Trade Agreement.  As the number of jobs has grown, the number of shantytowns has grown with government and industry unable or unwilling to keep up with the demand for homes, schools, and necessary services to provide a healthy environment for the many families.

 The movement of people from other parts of Mexico and Latin America to the border area has created a third country, not really the Mexico that they have known and certainly not the United States.  It is a strange environment of sparkling new factories with all the necessary water and power needed for industry alongside dry and dusty makeshift villages of garage door lean-tos and shipping pallet homes.  The terrain is parched and the climate very different from that of southern Mexico and the countries south.  Few plants and vegetables can grow without valuable water and very tender care.  The words of the Psalmist take on new meaning.  "In grassy meadows my Lord lets me lie.  By tranquil streams God leads me to restore my spirit.  He guides me in paths of saving justice as befits his name."  Can spirits ever be restored or saving justice be known in this 2000 mile border zone?  The communities are a mix of people from various towns and different traditions yearning for a better life for themselves and their children and drawn by the promise of a higher income, double or triple the country's minimum wage of $4 per day but still less than one hour of pay for most U.S. workers.   Some have Roman Catholic heritage but few, so far away from extended family and community, attend organized worship on a regular basis.  Many are the poorest, those who retain their ethnic Indian language and culture and try to establish small communities near the border to reflect all that they left behind.   One such couple was also part of our worship that evening.  A mixed marriage, the husband was mestizo, a mixture of European and Indian ancestry, and his wife was Mixteca Indian.  They had moved from Oaxaca in southern Mexico.  She leaned over to have him translate Bill's words from Spanish into their Mixteca language.  Then, softly, shyly, they responded to his question by saying that they were most thankful to God for their children.

It is a lonely existence as economic refugees in their own country.  Families endure the same sadness that we do when we move to a new city and must experience that difficult time period of feeling that nothing is familiar, without friends or a sense of belonging.  Families have come long distances with little money and there is no Welcome Wagon to make them feel at home.  People handle the depression, the disappointments and the sadness in a variety of ways, not all of them healthy.  Evelin's father is a victim of this kind of transition.  He has spent time in jail recently for his involvement with drugs.  Evelin and her siblings and mother are adjusting to his presence back in their home now.  Will he be able to acquire and to hold a legitimate job?  The words of the Psalmist take on new meaning.  "Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side.  Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me."

Into this mix comes a partnership of the Presbyterian Church of Mexico and the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.  Established in 1985, the Presbyterian Border Ministry seeks to be a equal partnership with nine sites along the 2000-mile US/Mexico border. Small ministries have developed to help these communities offering health care, worship services and a support system to ease the burdens of life in this new place.  Martha Gonzales, the driving force behind the work of our team, symbolizes the hope of this relationship.  Martha is a public health nurse and a member of the larger Dios Hablo Hoy Presbyterian Church in Tijuana.  Her primary nursing responsibility is to the school and community in La Planicie.  There she administers a low-cost breakfast program for school children.  She also teaches classes to children on issues of nutrition and in drug abuse prevention.  She offers parenting classes for fathers and sewing classes for women learning skills to add to their small income.  As a result of her work and her involvement with the local Presbyterian mission church, our Westminster team of fifteen was recruited to assist in a small painting project. However, once we started, the project grew when twenty or thirty women, men, and children of the community came volunteering their help.  Suddenly, instead of one classroom, we found ourselves working together to repaint the entire New Creation Public Elementary School that serves 450 children.  Alejandro, our twenty-three year old team leader and translator, made at least five separate trips to the supermarkado for more scrapers, brushes, rollers and paint.  As we talked, he told me how happy he was to be working with the Border Ministry translating and hosting groups that come from the U.S. to build relationships with the local communities.  He had learned some English when he had a job in a movie theater in Chiapas near the Guatemalan border.  After leaving home with no money about one year before, he found his way to the Mexican town of Agua Prieta, near Douglas, Arizona, where he was able to get a job working in a seatbelt making factory. The Border Ministry now provides housing for him and a very small stipend.

I sometimes hear the question and even ask myself,  "Instead of all these mission trips, why don't we just right a check?  Wouldn't we be able to give more bang for the buck if we didn't generate all our own expenses of time away from work, travel, and lodging?"  In the case of our High School Youth Group which takes its fourth trip to a location not far from La Planicie to build three houses this year, a tremendous about of time is spent to organize our 45 youth and 10 adults, to plan the fundraising, the transportation, the food, the tools and camping supplies for the week.  However, these experiences are not so much about "us" doing for "them" but about building relationships and understanding.  The project is merely the vehicle to bring us together developing friendships and memories that affect how we relate to others in the future.  After playing basketball in the school playground, I heard one of our boys say, "You know, they are just like us!"  The high school youth return with story after story of the young kids they meet as they are building. Westminster youth went back the second year to see homeowner Sebastian and his house they had built together and to meet his family.

Today, we remember Evelin and Martha, Alejandro and Sebastian as we come to the Lord's table and the words of the psalmist take on new meaning. "You prepare a table for me under the eyes of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup brims over."  As people of faith, we are all invited to the Table prepared for us.  We are blessed with new friendships.  Our cups brim over with laughter and love and a realization that we will never see a news story on television about Mexico or read an article in the newspaper now without seeing a friend's face in our minds.  It is no longer "them, over there," unknown people easy to ignore, but now it is "us", mutually holding each other in prayer and responding to needs in every way that we can.  In this relationship, we know the words of the Psalmist in a new way.  "Kindness and faithful love pursue me everyday of my life.  I make my home in the house of the Lord for all time to come."

We of the Westminster congregation are being held in prayer by Evelin, Martha, and Alejandro in the little Dios Es Amor mission church this morning.  Let us come together to the table remembering each of them today grateful for cups that are filled to the brim.