Having lived in San Diego for sixty-eight years, I have seen it by day, by night, and from every angle; from the shopping malls to the restaurants, through my windshield orderly traffic, and from the air many, many times, however the most impressive view of San Diego I've ever seen was from the hills of Grupo Mexico three miles south of our border. In a slight fog and when the sun is just right, San Diego looks like a heavenly, celestial city in the sky. Maybe it's the dirty, cluttered frame around this awesome sight that makes it so impressive, especially to the Mexican poor who view this city of San Diego day after day.
A paradise so near ... and yet so far away. Spawning impossible dreams.
Contrasting this is the view south from San Diego. The masses of little unkempt buildings and rabbit-trail roads on dry dirty hillsides where the invisible poor live out their lives; barely surviving. A sprawling unkempt city held together with graffiti.
Can we call this living ... or existing? Or do we even care?
Unfortunately the contrast is becoming more apparent. Pressure continues to grow.
To many, but not all, Tijuana is simply a staging area where potential illegals nightly amass to storm the border. To others farther north, it's simply Mexico's problem.
For those of us who work in Tijuana with these poor families, it's a huge field of ministry with countless opportunities. Unfortunately with little or no funds we are limited.
People are people and God sees no fences. People are eternal and they are our treasure. As I read the Bible, God loves the drunk laying on the sidewalk of Zona Norte in his own vomit as He does the educated clean hard working Doctor in his office in San Diego. As a Christian I have to see people the same way.
The unwanted truth is becoming a growing pressure. Tijuana is pretty well bankrupt. At this point the trinity of drugs, prostitution and robbery are holding it together. Employment? There is a high turnover of police, so they continue hiring but ... few factories, no construction, family clans moving in together and pooling their resources ...
And things are not improving!
All of that makes that northern paradise they see every day more inviting then ever.
