Mexico

Over the years a strong relationship has been built up between Tadley Community Church and the work of Armonia in Mexico. Armonia is a Christian organisation which works among the poor, particularly in Mexico City, providing medical care, housing, education, nutrition and discipleship training, as well as marriage and parenthood training to those among whom it works. Armonia also provides legal support and advocacy for communities, working to press the government to treat them well. Saul and Pilar Cruz, who lead Armonia, have worked for over twenty years among the poor, and particularly the indigenous Mexican poor, seeking to alleviate their conditions and to promote social and economic justice for them. Our desire is to continue supporting them in this vital work.
 

Teams from Tadley Community Church have travelled to Mexico most summers since 2001, helping to run clinics, and a number of our members have become quite proficient at dispensing eyeglass prescriptions, using the thousands of pairs of secondhand glasses that have been donated over the years through an American charity. In these clinics our members support a group from Florida in running dentistry, ophthalmic, paediatric and nutrition clinics at three of Armonia’s centres in Mexico City for a week during the summer. While our people serve and seek to show the love of God to those we help, we also learn a great deal from these people who live in situations that are far more difficult than our own circumstances, and we also see something of what it means to build authentic Christian community among the poor.
 

As well as the work in Mexico City, our teams have also travelled to Oaxaca to visit a programme which Armonia runs to provide education to the indigenous rural poor in the south of the country. These young people are housed in purpose-built homes in the city by Armonia to enable them to complete their education, and are expected to give a year after completing their education to serve and support the younger students.