SEATTLE – Gela Gibbons drives nails, digs trenches and tackles maintenance chores in the arid Mexican climate each year.
It’s love that drives the 82-year-old Blessed Sacrament parishioner to keep helping the children at two orphanages in Tecate, Mexico. Gibbons, a founding member of her Seattle parish’s Pan de Vida ministry, has been organizing volunteer trips to the orphanages since 1995.
“I get carried away with my enthusiasm because I think Pan de Vida has given me a big opportunity,” said Gibbons, who volunteers with her husband, Richard. “The Lord has given me this way to be part of the world.”
The idea for Pan de Vida (which means “bread of life”) began when University of Washington biologist Dick Neve came to nearby Blessed Sacrament with the idea of helping the poor by producing vegetables in hard-to-grow regions. The first parishioners to volunteer were Gibbons and Bruce Brown (who has since moved away). Born in Mexico, Gibbons knew she could find a place there to start the garden.
The trio settled on Rancho Nazareth, an orphanage for 48 boys run by religious sisters. Later the group added Asistencia de la Salvatierra, home to 16 to 25 girls under the care of another women's religious order.
The group started a garden, but rabbits, squirrels and the climate ruined it after just one year. They scrapped the garden idea, but discovered the orphanages needed maintenance help. “They are out in the boondocks and their needs are great,” said Gibbons, who serves as an interpreter on the trips.
Over the years, Pan de Vida volunteers have built a fence, helped with plumbing and septic systems, repaired buildings and stairways, and erected a chicken coop and pigpen. Volunteers also share meals, prayer time and Mass with the children and nuns.
At the beginning, Pan de Vida went to Mexico twice a year with 25 volunteers. They’ve also made one trip to Guatemala, where they worked on a stucco building. Now, with a dwindling core group that is aging, the ministry makes one trip to Mexico each year.
When the work is done, “you feel tired, dirty, satisfied,” said Nina Butorac, director of outreach at Blessed Sacrament, who has gone on 20 of the trips. Butorac credits Gibbons for the ministry’s longevity: “She is the driving force behind it and her dynamic personality is infectious.”
Three years ago, the original idea of growing a garden in the arid climate came to fruition. Pan de Vida connected with Growing Gardens for Life, a Camano Island nonprofit with expertise in growing arid gardens. Last May, Pan de Vida volunteers built a shed at Rancho Nazareth to store tools, seeds and everything else needed for the new garden.
Pan de Vida is returning to Mexico in May, with a mission of improving the pigpen so the manure can be used in the garden, said Jon Stevens, president of Growing Gardens for Life. Pan de Vida’s four-day trip is open to anyone. Volunteers buy their own plane tickets to San Diego, then the group makes the one-hour drive into Mexico. Food and sleeping accommodations are provided. “You don’t need to bring money,” Gibbons said, “just your hands and your friendship.”
Pan de Vida isn’t just a charity or a working vacation, Butorac said. “It is what Jesus asks us do to — work out of love.”
Learn more about Pan de Vida, including how to make a donation to help pay for materials needed to complete the maintenance projects at Rancho Nazareth and Asistencia de la Salvatierra.