Summer Home Building Options

Homebuilding is essential to the operation of our ministry. 

Did you know?

• Homebuilding provides over 30% of our operating budget for our organization

• Homebuilding supports our Orphanage's ability to house, raise and educate our boys

• Homebuilding provides a safe and secure living for 20-25 families every summer for the past 32 years

• Each home gives a family the means to live safely and thrive, educate their children and better their lives

In the event of the following circumstances here are a few options:

Delayed Season: Groups can shift to build weeks later in the summer at a date of your choosing and this includes flexible dates if our weeks on the schedule don’t work for your group

Border Closure: Alternate trips throughout the United States including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are available and we have published these on St. Innocent Service Works (www.sisw.managedmissions.com/OurTrips)

Travel: Deploy to a local site for your group to participate in a regional or local ministry closer to home in partnership with our partner orthodox ministries throughout the country

Physical Distancing: Our interns will establish local contacts in your area to assist with local homeless and homebound food delivery and outreach.  (Yes, your group could work at a soup kitchen preparing boxed lunches or delivering meals to those in need, which can be done in social distancing, with contactless delivery as social services are exempted under most stay at home orders.)

Voucher: Volunteer homebuilding trip later in the summer, fall, winter, spring break, or summer 2021.

Summer 2021: Launches May 1, 2020 with priority to rescheduled groups (reapply your group’s fundraising towards summer 2021 deposits and trip payments)

Charitable Donation: Meet your fundraising goals and dedicate it to the orphanage’s sustained operations

Financial Hardship Refund: Case-by-case, please contact Fr. Demetrios

Finally, you are our most generous supporters! Each volunteer contributes as much as our average donor, despite their young age, because of all of the hard work of our group leaders in organizing and fundraising!  We expect over 500 volunteers this summer.  We humbly ask that even if you don’t plan to join us this summer, that you use your group’s fundraising links to continue supporting St. Innocent Orphanage’s continued operations. 

If you and your group members can hold virtual fundraisers, and continue to send out requests for support for our Orphanage, our 500 volunteers can reach more than 5,000 or more people to help us support our ministry and continue our mission even during these trying times.  

Since we can no longer meet in a parish setting you may use the crowdfunding links in your profiles that are dedicated to your group’s trip! You can ask your priest to mention your home building trip fundraiser after liturgy, or during virtual coffee hour, weekly bible study, or a specially scheduled digital presentation by your group to the parish!

We will stay in close communication with you as the summer schedule develops.

Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and St. Haralambos, we pray that the Lord of the Harvest deliver us from this blight, for truly the harvest is plentiful,

Fr. Demetrios

Executive Director 

Stories of Hope: A Project Mexico Podcast Episode 2

Hosted by Luke Andruchow, Stories of Hope is a Podcast exploring the faith-affirming experiences of Project Mexico.

Episode 2

In this episode, we talk with Fr. Jacob Saylor from Scottsdale Arizona about his history with taking groups down to St. Innocent Orphanage for the past 8 years, how it has impacted his life, and why it is so important for the youth of orthodoxy to come down year after year.

Building a Home During COVID-19

Spring Break Miracle

Our Work Continues

With great hope, we share this update on Rosalba and Maximan’s home build in Rosarito! Due to the travel and border restrictions from the COVID-19 Pandemic our plans to construct a house with Real Break was canceled. However, volunteer coordinator, Oliver Fahling, his brother and several of our older boys from St. Innocent teamed up to complete the build. It was blessed by Fr. Nicholas last Saturday! The family got along great with the boys and shared many laughs together. 

This met a HUGE need for Maximan, who was recently laid off of work for the month of April because of the Coronavirus. In Mexico, we are witnessing firsthand how those who are already in economic hardship are finding it even harder to put food on the table. Maximan has found temporary work as a gardener to make enough to feed his family. Glory to God! But we ask that you fervently pray for the impoverished around the world who will struggle with even more hardships in the coming weeks. 

️Let us continue to find ways of mercy and prayer, as each of us is able, in order to bring hope to those around us!

Stories of Hope: A Project Mexico Podcast Episode 1

Stories of Hope

Hosted by Luke Andruchow, Stories of Hope is a Podcast exploring the faith-affirming experiences of Project Mexico.

Episode 1
In this episode, host Luke Andruchow chats with home building coordinator Oliver Fahling about identifying families in the community for a home, building for summer 2020 and going to law school.

COVID-19: A Letter from Executive Director Fr. Demetrios

Operating a Non-Profit During a Crisis

Remain Calm and Minister to Those in Need

Like many organizations, we are concerned and being proactive in our response to COVID-19. Like many non-profits, we are no strangers to crisis, especially operating a home building volunteer program and orphanage in Baja, Mexico. We are responsible for the lives of our boys and staff on the ranch as well as hundreds of volunteers who join us each summer to build homes for families in Mexico. With regard to the current world crisis, we will approach this as Orthodox. Listening to the science and experts, remain calm and minister to those in need and at risk.

First and foremost, the safety of all Project Mexico boys, staff and volunteers is paramount to the successful operation of the orphanage, ranch and our teams on our build sites. At the Orphanage, we are practicing and implementing strict hygiene protocols to limit exposure and contamination. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide additional updates to the trustees as it evolves. 

First and foremost, at this time do not anticipate any change to our summer 2020 Home Building schedule. However, we are preparing contingency plans in the event that travel restrictions and travel bans are still in effect in the summer. As of now, the restrictions seem to point towards a relaxing of restrictions around mid-May, though we know this is correlated to the containment of the virus. 

We are waiving our 90-day cancellation policy. You can, if necessary, cancel your home building work trip up to 24 hours on the day of your trip. In fact, with airlines waiving change fees, and lowering fares, now may be the ideal time to book your flights and retain maximum flexibility. 

Please understand that this is a dynamic and ever-evolving response to the rapidly changing situation around the world and in the US response to COVID-19.

If business returns to normal this will leave us in good shape for the summer home building 2020 season. As we develop contingency plans and opportunities to support our ministry in response to this crisis, we will release those as soon as possible for you to have the options you need to: continue to support our ministry and to address the safety and travel concerns of your group members and parishes.

As the stock market has reacted to the pandemic,  your financial support of the Orphanage is more crucial than ever. We have a loving and dedicated staff caring for 17 growing boys. Our Orphanage may prove more crucial than ever in the event of more children being orphaned due to the Coronavirus.  

We plan to continue our ministry and grow it to meet the needs. This will only be possible through your generous support, prayers, goodwill, and strength of giving to assist us in this time.  We are also coordinating with our partner ministries of the Orthodox Church to mobilize and assist them in their own COVID-19 responses.

While we are all focused on our loved ones and our own health and financial concerns, as Lazarus laying at the door of his neighbor, the poor, widows, and orphaned are always at hand awaiting whatever generosity and humanity we can give, even the widow’s mite makes a difference. In particular, with food kitchens and homeless shelters closing due to restrictions on crowd size, this leaves those most vulnerable at particular risk for exposure and hunger.  

Orthodox have been ministering to the poor, widows, and the orphaned since Pentecost and the Apostles appointment of deacons to minister to the needy. This is our faith, this is our response, this is our way, that in times of affliction and need, we respond by conquering our fear with the hope of the Lord who conquered death by trampling down the ability of death to determine our lives. He freed us from the fear of death and gave us the hope to live more abundantly, both in this world and in the world to come.  

Therefore, it is important that we muster our strength and keep those values and work even harder than before, renewing our efforts through the ministry to those in need in times of great crisis. 

I ask that you please keep all of the boys and staff and missionaries at Project Mexico and St. Innocent Orphanage in your prayers,

With the love of Christ, 

Fr. Demetrios

Executive Director

Missionary Profile: Oliver Fahling

OCMC Missionary – Oliver Fahling

My name is Oliver Fahling. I studied at Mississippi College and played on the soccer team. My previous job was as a lift attendant at Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Sandpoint, Idaho. I enjoy reading about history and philosophy and will be attending law school this Fall, following in my father's footsteps.

Why did you decide to become a full-time missionary, and also specifically work for Project Mexico?

I decided to intern at PM after getting tired of working odd jobs for a few summers to help pay for school. As for deciding to be full-time, it was not much more than saying yes to the opportunity to be the Home Building Coordinator when it presented itself after two summers as an intern.

Describe your role with Project Mexico. What are your responsibilities and contributions to the organization?

My main responsibility is overseeing the construction of homes that are built by volunteers. Most of my work is preparation and takes place before volunteers arrive. This includes interviewing and selecting families, purchasing materials, constructing the wall systems, arranging material deliveries, running off-season work trips, and a few other things. There are also many subsidiary responsibilities that solely exist in the summertime, such as managing summer interns.

Tell us about how you have grown personally since you came to work for Project Mexico full-time?

I don’t get as angry anymore. In dealing with many things at one time and many different personalities all at the same time it is absolutely necessary for one’s mental stability to realize that some things won’t go the way I planned it. And that they might take a little longer than they should. I also realize that I am not always right. So, these revelations have helped me be more patient.

I’ve also noticed that I now love meeting people who land anywhere on the personality spectrum. I suppose I’m learning to appreciate people more as they are.

What is a personal talent or interest that would surprise people to learn about you?

I have a tendency to sweat while I eat, I think it’s genetic.

WATCH the Building Hope Documentary (VOD and Streaming)

DOWNLOAD

Directed by Adam Lowell Roberts, this documentary follows five teenagers as they build a house in Mexico for a homeless family. They signed up to give, but what they received was tenfold.

Download the film or stream it on Youtube below.

Directed by Adam Lowell Roberts, this documentary follows five teenagers as they build a house in Mexico for a homeless family. They signed up to give, but what they received was tenfold. Please consider subscribing to this channel to be notified about future films.

Project Mexico Gap Year Internship

Project Mexico is happy to announce its first formal year-long internship program.

The program will be held in Eagle River, Alaska and begins September 15, 2019 and will conclude in August 2020 in Mexico. Interns will go to Mexico in early May to prepare for the summer home building season.

The program will be done in conjunction with OCMC and Saint John Orthodox Cathedral, which will provide a loving, supportive church community for the interns during their stay in Alaska. OCMC missionaries Michael and Jennifer Saur are bringing their immersive missionary experience from Project Mexico to Alaska to help set up and run the program.

Learning service development will include work at the Downtown Hope Center in Anchorage in addition to other social service agencies in Anchorage, Eagle River, and Wasilla. Work with the OCA Diocese of Alaska will be done as well as it becomes available.

There will also be opportunities for Alaskan adventures (i.e. snowboarding, skiing, hiking,etc).

Tuition for the program is $15,000. This covers the entire year and includes travel costs, rent, and a living stipend.

Space is limited, so apply immediately!

To Apply:

Contact program overseer Fr. Matthew Howell FrMatthew@ProjectMexico.org.  

Love Your Neighbor by Anna Cunningham

Home building season is upon us and we started our first week with a training build to teach our summer interns the ins-and-outs of the construction. Because this is the first build of the season, we chose the family with the most immediate needs. In this case our “family" was an elderly woman, her dogs, hens, and plants. 

She makes cookies and sells them in the market for money. All of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren live in southern Mexico and do not have the funds to visit her very often if at all. Because of this, she relies on help from friends in the community and refers to her dogs as her, “familia.” She has limited mobility in her knees and recently had surgery to regain movement in the fingers in her left hand.

She was living in a quaint apartment in Rosarito for years, but the landlord decided that he didn’t want to rent out that unit anymore and told her she had to leave by mid-April. Through the glory of God she had a lot of support from friends in the community who saw her through this difficult time. A friend she works with in the market told us about her situation, so we decided to build our first house of the season for her. Another friend owned property near where we were building the new house and let her stay there during the 45 day transition. Someone else has been looking after the dogs.

Her friends constructed temporary housing near the new home out of left-over wood, boards, and bricks. Tarps were stretched over the top to create a roof. The space was well-constructed, and she was able to adjust her routine to acclimate to it. But each time we went to see her there was a new leak in the tarp roof. 

The land she bought is in a beautiful, peaceful area out in the hills on the outskirts of town. The owner of the land gave her 200 cinder blocks to use as she wished. Similarly, when we arrived on the first day there was a water tap conveniently located near the build site. She told us that a neighbor had put it in the night before so that we would have water during the build. She also prepared the land by hiring out a man with a machine, as many families do, striking a deal with him to exchange a chicken for his work.

Her community stepped up and helped her every step of the way above and beyond the services we provide. Project Mexico arrived with the gifts we are able to offer, built the house, and secured her living space. Project Mexico survives and thrives by blessings from God in the form of donations, interns willing to give their summers building homes, volunteers who work with us, and the local community that has welcomed us since 1988. 

“Let a friend be with you on every occasion, and let brethren be useful in necessities, for they are begotten for this reason.” (Proverbs 17:19, Orthodox Study Bible)

Glory to God for help from friends! 

The Straw-Bale House

Building Naturally at the Ranch

by Tina Cooper

One of the wonderful things about Project Mexico is the diversity of talents and gifts that God brings our way through our staff and missionaries as they work in synergy with the local Mexican community.

When we strive to dwell in community with one another, we see how each person’s offering contributes to our developing vision. Whether producing our own naturally made, environmentally friendly and vibrant limewash paint by iLia Anossov. Or our most recent venture into sustainable building. We see our ministry developing in fresh and creative ways when we allow space to bring forth ideas and collaborate together.

In partnership with OCF during the Spring break build session (March 11-16th, 2019) we will be building the new tiendita (Ranch store) using the straw-bale natural building technique. Natural building methods like straw-bale, cob, adobe, light straw clay and many similar methods can be traced back to ancient times. The word “Adobe” means “mud-brick” and originated in 2000 BC in Ancient Egypt.  In Omaha, Nebraska you can find houses built with this method that are over 100 years old and still standing!

Thomas Ingram, a Project Mexico missionary who specializes in developing agriculture on the ranch, recently visited a Montessori ecological school in Tecate, México. He met with established teacher and naturalist, Cesar Valdarama, who created a native plant palette for the ranch at Project Mexico. With his love for botany and ecology, Cesar has researched the biodiversity of native plants and their benefits for human development and the entire ecosystem in which we live. While there, Thomas was intrigued by buildings on the site that were made of natural building materials. The buildings were the work of the architect, Tonatiuh Magaña.

Thomas and homebuilding coordinator, Oliver Fahling, explored the advantages of building with natural materials. This construction had the potential to become a mainstay of our ministry. They contacted Tonatiuh and the proof-of-concept project of building our new tiendita using the straw bale method at Project Mexico was proposed. Tonatiuh agreed to lead the build! The project was approved by the rest of the Project Mexico team.

Tonatiuh Magaña

Tonatiuh, who holds a Masters degree in Architecture specializes in construction with natural materials. He began building natural structures about 12 years ago. Trained by international and national experts, he has worked on various ecological farm projects in South America. For the last five years, he has designed houses, cabins and educational spaces (such as the school in Tecate) made of straw bales, bajareque and Adobe. He chose to specialize as a natural builder because it allows him to leverage reusable materials and because he likes having the ability to build his own home. Likewise, Thomas who has some experience of cob building likes this approach because, “it allows for better stewardship of the environment.”

Aside from the benefits of using natural materials, these buildings have efficient insulation properties, reducing or even eliminating the cost of heating or cooling the home during winter and summer. Once they are very old, they can then be torn down and allowed to decompose into the ground without having to dispose of drywall or deal with any harmful chemicals.

It’s not just about sustainability for Thomas though, he also prefers the aesthetics of the natural built home stating, “You have the ability to make a natural building for the same cost or less than a conventional building while achieving a much better aesthetic value. These buildings look really nice when completed”.

Interestingly, the idea of using natural building methods are not new to the vision of Project Mexico. Greg Yova, Project Mexico’s founder had similar objectives from the very beginning of the ministry. Greg was intentional in establishing an environment on the ranch that was self-sustaining in a time when sustainability wasn’t as highly valued or practiced. Alongside staff that had an interest in gardening they recognized the importance of growing plants that are native to the land so that they could thrive and use less resources. Greg and his staff created a plan to assess which plants would do well on the ranch, paying attention to sun exposure and shade. From the outset, grey water (water from bathroom sinks, showers, tubs, and washing machines) has been used to water the plants of the ranch instead of being processed through the septic system.

Pigs were also farmed and fed discarded food from local restaurants. The pig waste was then used for soil fertilization. Utilizing resources in different ways through their life cycle was something Greg valued and part of what he considered to be good stewardship of the earth and its resources.

The straw-bale method was also researched as a viable option in the early days of the Project Mexico homebuilding ministry. The team were much in favor of this technique for building their homes because of the numerous benefits including the acquisition of materials locally instead of internationally imported lumbar. However, the lack of expertise at a time when the ministry was still being established meant that it would have been a challenging road to take.

We’re thrilled to announce preparations for this exciting new endeavour are underway! During our Spring build session, we’ll be building the new Tiendita using the straw bale method. First, we must raise funds and recruit volunteers. You can help bring this to life this March! College students are encouraged to register through OCF. Parish groups of all ages are invited to register as well as individuals.

We have also opened up our Spring building schedule! Parish groups or individuals can provide a great service to our ministry and help Project Mexico on many different projects.

Day trips and week trips are available!

If you believe in this venture but can’t come and build with us your contribution to our Tiendita campaign. Your generous contribution will help us bring the project to fruition.