The miracle at Juarez garbage dump

[Stunster]

I had heard ages ago of a 'multiplication of loaves' style miracle that had happened at El Paso, but had never learned any details about it until today. First detail---it wasn't El Paso! ;-) It was just across the border, in Juarez. Today, I managed to track down the story. Here are four short accounts of what happened, followed by a kind of 'update' on what's happening in Juarez now, which appears to be linked to the miracle in question. I also tracked down the priest mentioned by name in the stories--he's still in El Paso. I've numbered the items 1 through 5.

1.
In 1964 Fr Rick Thomas was appointed to El Paso in Texas. Around 1969/1970 he was profoundly touched by God and started charismatic prayer meetings in the parish. Sr Maria Virginia, DC, was also an inspired leader. During one prayer meeting in 1972 they read the passage in Luke 14:12-14 which says, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relations or rich neighbours, in case they invite you back and so repay you. Now when you have a party, invite the poor… for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again.” The prayer meeting decided that on Christmas day that year, 1972, they would give a Christmas lunch to the poor who lived and worked in the dump in Juarez, which was just across the border in Mexico. The poor people in the dump used to separate the rubbish into various types, cans, bottles, cardboard etc and then sell it to a co-op which would in turn sell it on. They lived in the dump and worked 7 days a week for $5. The prayer group had prepared food for 125 people on Christmas Day. When they got to the dump Fr Rich and the group discovered that they had two labour unions or trade unions as we say here in Ireland. One union could not go into the other’s area. Eventually Fr Rich got them to come to one area for the food. Three hundred and fifty people turned up so Fr Rich explained that there was not enough food for everyone but they would share what they had. All 350 had enough food, the dump people took some food home and then came back to take more home, they returned and took more home again. There was still lots of food left over, so much that Fr Rich and the prayer group took the leftover food to three orphanages.

It is not the only time a miracle happened in the dump in Juarez, that miracle of multiplication of food was repeated there many times, e.g. on another occasion when they didn’t have enough cartons of milk for everyone when they came to the end of handing out cartons, everyone had a carton of milk. After the miracle on Christmas Day 1972a beautiful Christian community grew up in the dump and many wonderful events have taken place since then.

2.
More than a year ago we reported on a mission church serving the barrios of Juarez, Mexico, where they have reliably reported a number of such occurrences. The most famous happened while serving Christmas dinner in 1972 to poverty-stricken Mexicans who usually scavenge food from a local dump. That particular Christmas there was only enough food for 150 of these people, report the missionaries -- but 300 came and all were fed. There were even leftovers!

The food seemed to come from nowhere.

According to Father Richard M. Thomas, a Jesuit who has spearheaded the mission, he and those who were there have encountered the inexplicable multiplication of food on dozens of occasions -- right up to today, at times aware of what is happening, in other cases noticing the miracle when they count up items in retrospect. In another example 350 cans of milk were brought to the poor, but every one of 500 who came actually got one. Sacks of flour have produced flour as if from an endless supply -- to the shock of those handing it out. Manna? They have even taken measurements of what was removed and it simply doesn't add up.

3
A number of years ago, when I worked for a magazine, I went to Texas to see a mission working out of an old settlement house. We heard that something special was happening. El Paso is a border town across the river from Juarez. The new mission was in a predominantly poor, Latino section of town. They were doing outreach at the high school, in the prisons, running summer camps, and trying to reach out to needy people on both sides of the river with food, clothing, and faith.

The mission director brought me to Juarez dump. The smell and the flies were unbelievable. People lived there in cardboard and tin shacks. They spent their days sorting through garbage looking for salvageable or salable goods, and their nights in either alcoholic or drug stupors...trying the forget the day. Water had to be trucked in and bought; food sometimes came off the piles. Malnourished children were regularly brought from there to the local orphanage, where some of them survived.

Early every Wednesday morning, people from the neighborhood and the suburbs came for Bible study. Working their way through Luke, they got to Luke 14:12 :

When you give a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, be cause they cannot repay you. You will be re paid at the resurrection of the just.

One woman said, “I’ve never done that. Have any of you done what Jesus told us to do here?”

They decided that to please God; they would bring dinner on Christmas to the poorest people they knew —the ones who lived on the Juarez dump. The people from the neighborhood scraped together what they could, loaded a few cars and headed out on Christmas morning with a small meal for 150 people— all they could afford. When they arrived they found that a fight was about to break out between two rival groups over a piece of dump territory, but they were able to negotiate a temporary peace for the dinner. 300 people gathered. One canned ham was sliced and sliced and sliced and was still there. Everybody got at lest one of the 75 burritos they had made.

The pile of fruit did not seem to go down. When everyone had eaten seconds and thirds, they were offered the leftovers and bagful after bagful disappeared into the shacks. The folk drove back to El Paso in a state of shock, sure that they had seen a miracle like the loaves and fishes. The next week they found that the summer camp they usually had for the kids was being sold and would be unavailable. A few weeks later, someone deeded them a small ranch in Arizona… on which they found water on the first drilling...and the story goes on from there. Small acts of faith and tiny steps of obedience opened the doors to greater and greater opportunities for God to show his power and glory.

4.
Frank Alarcon was a mail carrier. But Christmas Day of 1972 he was a witness to the multiplication of food at a simple Christmas dinner served at the public dump in Juarez, Mexico, the sprawling and poor city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Jesuit Father Rick Thomas, whose work among the poor of the two cities has since become somewhat legendary, responded to a call from God to go and do that simple thing that Jesus calls for: offering food and drink and love to those who cannot repay us. Father Rick said later that it was a simple thing, but something that, in obedience, he had never done.

The group of charismatics from the area that he led found that the people they sought to "throw a little party for" were squared off into two very hostile groups who competed for the chance to salvage and sell recyclable materials from the Juarez dump. Essentially, they were at war.

Through a series of peacemaking discussions, Father Rick and his little band were able to establish a one-day truce around a makeshift set of tables and the tailgate of a pickup truck. They sang some traditional carols together and managed to be on the same plot of land with each other without hostilities, drawn together by the love of God (and of them) in this little group of faithful Christians.

And that's where Frank comes in as a witness to a miracle. As he later told the story, he noticed that as the women serving ham from a pickup tailgate sliced and sliced, the ham grew no smaller. It so caught his attention that he just settled down and observed the miracle of the multiplying ham.

There's more to the tale than the increase of a slab of pork and a little Christmas party for the poor. In time, the two groups ceased their warring against each other, took ownership of the dump's recycling concession from the former owners during an economic downturn, and experienced a vastly improved way of life and health (not to mention the deep conversion to Christ of many of their number).

It's a bit like this Sunday's readings. Yes, the Spirit of God descended on Jesus and a voice came from the heavens, but there's so much more to the story of how Jesus came into our earthly poverty and made us rich. So much more.

5.
Cuidad Juarez Dump Project
by Joan Cruz
I discovered the dump in Ciudad Juarez to be holy ground, a place where I felt God truly present among his people of this community.


Joan Cruz reading a parable story to children at Sister Margaret Smith's mission.
Frankie Alarcon, a retired post office worker, has lived at the dump full-time since 1986 and truly believes that he works for God. He has given up all to help and be present to the poor and struggling people of this barrio.

The dump is dry and hot and covered with much glass and dirt and garbage, but on the top of the hill, there is a miracle. When I arrived at the dump, I found a clinic and dental office, a daycare center and carpentry shop, a dining room and kitchen, classrooms, a chapel and a hope for a library. It s a busy place because there are many people who need help to survive.

Children come to be fed 2 meals a day. Mothers drop off their children as early as 5:00 am so they can work in the foreign-owned factories of the city. Classes are offered to children who can t go to the public school, and the dining room turns into a giant store on Saturday so that hundreds of families can buy food and supplies at low cost. The clinic is always filled with people who need medical care, and a MMAF couple, Linda and Joe Michon, offer their services in the evening clinic two days a week.

I discovered many children with special needs and tried to help the teachers discover how they might respond to the needs of these children. I guided the teachers to divide the children into groups and to plan age appropriate activities for them. I pointed out the needs for nap time and healthy snacks, and the teachers began a brushing-the-teeth program. The teachers and I also began to pray together.

Two classrooms were added to the daycare center while I was present at the dump in January. We celebrated this addition with prayers and blessings, songs and food and the gathering of parents and their children.

I learned a special lesson while I was at the dump. One day I bought many new posters to decorate the daycare center posters of Big Bird, Donald Duck, Bambi, etc. When I happily showed Frankie the new decorations, he asked, But where are the angels ? He reminded me why I had come to spend time among God s people.

Before I left Frankie asked me to write to Fr. Richard Thomas, SJ. in El Paso because he said he needs more volunteers to help him do God s work. He is now 69 years old, getting tired and in need of some help.

I hope to return to this dump mission in September and if there are any Affiliates who would like to join me please call or write to me. There is much need.

Joan Cruz

[elshiva]

1. I'm a true believer! Anything is possible with God!

Thank you Stunster.