Punta Colonet – Lighting for Literacy

Passing the Torch, and

Shining Our Lights

We actually did it!

The COVID pandemic has plunged many people around the world into insular, huddled, fearful, and metaphorically dark existences.  But, as COVID’s almost intolerable darkness might have begun to lighten just a little here, our team of ten Colonet – Lighting for Literacy (L4L) missioners found ways to deal with various COVID-related inconveniences so that LGUMC once again could send its Volunteers in Mission (VIM) team to actually build a new casita for a needy rural Mexican family as well as to personally install Lighting for Literacy solar lighting systems in several homes there. There is light (both metaphorical and actual) after COVID, indeed!

And, in the process, we witnessed some initial steps toward “passing of the torch” in some of the supportive groups that have made our “short-term” Punta Colonet mission trips possible each spring for over 20 years.

Our 2022 missioners included four folks from LGUMC (Pete, Ken, Christine, and Erik), two from Los Gatos Morning Rotary Club (Tom and Jim), one youth and two adults from a local family (MaryClare, Kevin, and Elizabeth), and a new missioner (Steve) who traveled from Reno, Nevada to be a part of this dynamic VIM team!  Our UMVIM team had six veterans and four brand new missioners.

Our mission’s story this year can be told with some images that you see here.  During our mission’s five days in Punta Colonet, our VIM team built a casita with its attached water tower and its own L4L solar lighting system, and we gave that safe, new home to Ana Ruiz and her husband, Amadeo Landeta. But the mission’s story isn’t just about building a casita.  It never is.

Now let’s get to the passing of the torch:

There are several pivotal pieces to our Punta Colonet-L4L mission work that make this enduring mission the powerful experience that it has been for LGUMC’s UMVIM missioners for over two decades. Two of these are central supporters who reside with their families in Colonet itself.  Our contractor, friend, and build liaison, Ivan Rubio Ortega, and our Lighting for Literacy liaison and needs-assessment leader, Pastor Antonio Dueñas.  Our work in Colonet certainly could not be nearly as effective at it has been without the very substantial contributions of these two great, community- minded, committed men and their families.  It’s impossible to overstate Ivan and Pastor Antonio’s importance to our “short-term” mission work.

This April, Ivan had to step aside while our UMVIM team was in Punta Colonet when he suddenly became ill during our visit. And, true to his enduring commitment to our mission work in his small community, he still found ways to make his incredible contributions to support us.  First, he sent his younger adult son, Gabriel, and a helper, José, to work on the build site in his place. Yep, it absolutely takes two men to do Ivan’s work! And when Gabriel was not available, Ivan then sent his older son, Jesus, and a friend to the building site to perform important construction tasks. And Ivan’s wife, Adriana, continued to prepare and to serve us a very warm welcome and incredibly delicious “cenas” (dinners) in their own home every evening despite the added strain of Ivan’s sudden illness. These were remarkable acts on the parts of all of the members of the large Rubio Ortega family in Punta Colonet.

This April, too, Pastor Antonio had a conflict that unexpectedly arose with the dates of our UMVIM team’s visit.  So he provided all of his wonderful foundational help to us in advance of our arrival in Colonet, and then he turned over the reins of the actual Lighting for Literacy solar lighting system deployments to his 16 year old son, Isaiah. This is a great realization of one of the many potentially powerful benefits of L4L in the sense that youths can be taught to do almost every aspect of this work independently … from creation of the individual systems (STEAM education) to deployments in the mission field.  It’s a fabulous development!

And there’s more. We’re seeing an important transition at the helm of Lighting for Literacy, too. Many people are aware of Doug McNeil and Jesse Salem’s creation of the L4L program a decade ago. They’ve been recognized at the White House in 2013 as “Champions of Change”.  But with Jesse’s passing a few years ago and Doug’s very serious illness and devastating disability with ALS, Lighting for Literacy has sought new leadership.  So, shortly before our Colonet mission team’s April departure southbound this year, Lighting for Literacy chose new co-presidents to gradually take over the reins from Doug.  Doug’s daughter, Jessica McNeil Eastland, and her L4L co-president, Christina Enneking, will now begin to direct L4L’s efforts going forward. And L4L will continue to look toward the future as it now searches for a CEO, as well, to take that vital responsibility from Doug.

So we’ve just witnessed a re-starting (after COVID-forced VIM team absences in 2020 and 2021) and rejuvenation of our charitable efforts in rural Punta Colonet, Mexico!

In summary, we’ve been generously blessed.  Our UMVIM work in Colonet this year came about with greater effort than had been necessary in prior years due to the ongoing COVID pandemic as well as to pivotal changes that became necessary due to some foreseen and to some unforeseen challenges. And that’s the very nature of mission work.  Successfully meeting the various challenges of doing mission work is part of what makes mission work itself so rewarding.

Respectfully, Pete Taylor

LGUMC VIM

UMVIM International Team Leader

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy! (Rabindrinath Tagore)

Special recognition:

Our 2022 Punta Colonet UMVIM team needed and received a tremendous amount of support!

We recognize and thank those who provided the great help that our VIM travelers had from people / organizations who donated building materials, funds, and / or their expertise as well as prayerful support of this mission team. The Los Gatos Morning Rotary Charitable Foundation provided substantial financial support again this year. And more than 34 individuals who didn’t personally travel to Colonet still walked every step with this VIM team by providing their own vital forms of support. This includes administrative assistance from personnel from the North Central, the Southeastern, and the Western Jurisdictions and the Cal-Nev Annual Conference UMVIM offices.

Iván Rubio Ortega (see the article) is seen referring to the casita’s construction plans (flanked by our construction leader, Christine Finlayson, to his right … and by me to his left).

The new homeowners are seen as I hand them the keys to their new home in our Thursday evening “Keys Ceremony”. It’s always a very moving occasion!

Playing “Ring around the Rosie”. Ana Ruiz, the new homeowner, is a “niñera” for many Colonet families. She watches many children while their parents labor in the fruit & vegetable fields that are in this agricultural area. Kids on the construction site readily participated in painting tasks, but there was also always time for fun!