May 2004

Another approach to drugs in Tijuana

Mission teams from the United States are an important part of the partnership between Mexican and U.S. Presbyterians at the border. In Tijuana, mission teams have done lots of construction (this spring: six houses, two school rooms, a church sewer connection, work on church bathrooms and Sunday school rooms), but also a lot of praying and evangelism. In the El Pipila neighborhood, teams spend a few hours each day walking through the neighborhood with Pastor Enrique Romero or other church members, praying for the families in the homes they pass, for the areas of drug distribution, for the places where people have been found murdered. As they meet people in the street they may stop to chat a bit and ask if they have concerns that they could pray for them. They invite people to the church services.

Thus Javier, attracted by the friendly Americans with the friendly Mexican church members, came to church a couple weeks after Easter, listened, came again, and accepted Christ into his life as Lord and Savior. But Javier is addicted to drugs, and in spite of the wonderful testimonies of people who have turned to Christ and been cured instantly of their addictions, the vast majority of drug addicts who come to Christ must struggle against drugs daily, with Christ at their side. So it was most appropriate that a couple weeks later a mission team of two doctors from Lake Oswego, Oregon, specialists in addiction and counseling, arrived during the “Week of the Home,” which Mexican Presbyterian churches always celebrate during the week of Mothers Day (which is always on May 10 for them).

The “docs” as they called themselves (and shared some of their “doc jokes”) brought good news and bad news. There is no magic bullet. Fighting addiction is a long, ongoing struggle, one day at a time. They helped people see that an addict has to want to quit of his or her own volition, and that happens when the bad part of the addiction is felt more strongly than the good part (there certainly is a good part for the addict or they wouldn’t be taking the drugs).

Docs Brad and Mike were good at listening to the addicts and leading them to evaluate their own present situation. What is the good they get out of their addiction? What is the bad? How much does the good weigh? How much the bad? How ready are they to change? What would they need to move that readiness up a notch? Explaining to families much of what they know already about the difficulties of addiction, letting them know that there is hope, but not a magical one. Giving them some tools that some have been able to appropriate more than others. All of this was done through translators (myself and Efrain Romero, our mission team coordinator, and his brother John), who in the process were learning a good bit about this counseling method—the motivational interview, developed in New Mexico.

My co-missionary from the Mexican church, Pastor Enrique Romeo, has been following up by visiting the addicts and their families. We ask for your prayers for Javier, Edgar, Juan, Susana, and their families.

Drugs continue to be a growing problem in Tijuana and all along the border, as Mexico has moved in the last decade or so from being a transit point for illicit drugs on their way to the United States to being a consumer market, along with all of the concomitant problems of personal and family disintegration, crime and violence.

The grace and peace of God be with you and through you,

Bill Soldwisch

P.S. What drug kills more people worldwide than all other drugs put together? Hint—it’s usually inhaled though sometimes chewed and is legal in most countries.

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138