The Equipo Experience

By Bruce Harrison
- 3 min read

Those of us who were part of the Equipo team that traveled to Mexico to build houses in March 2025 experienced a mix of work, fellowship, food, comradery, love, joy, laughter and much fun. 

During the trip, we traveled more than 40 hours together.

During the trip, we traveled more than 40 hours together. On one stretch of the way home, I sat by a millennial. Being a senior citizen, I should expect that I and this young adult had different experiences, especially when considering how we would each respond and describe them.

I heard about previous trips but
couldn’t grasp the complete picture.

During our conversation, I described my encounter with our fellow believers at Iglesia Bautista Nueva Esperanza.  I mentioned seeing a gleam of brightness when we made eye contact. There seemed to be a radiance—motivated by some internal joy, I said. And I mentioned the flash of a ready smile of greeting and acceptance, not of naiveté, but the innocence of pure love as an expression of the love of God. 

"Does that make sense?" I asked my seatmate.

Finally, I asked my seatmate:  "Does that make sense?"  The young man responded with a shrug and a half-hearted, "sort of."

So, I decided to condense my comments into language more suitable for a millennial. “Um, you know, like, it was awesome," I said, to which he replied with two thumbs up and a hearty "yes."

There is no way to describe it in words, because it is an experience.

Before my trip, I had heard it all before—the work, the tears of joy, and the relationship building, but I could not really grasp the complete picture. It is only through personal experience that one can understand what happens on such a mission trip, but even then, it is shrouded in the mystery of eternity.

If you go with Jim and the Equipo team to build houses, you too will come to realize that all you have heard former team members share is a lot like the grown-up's voices in a Linus and Lucy movie, "Wah, wah, wah, wah," when compared to actually going there and immersing yourself in the love, joy, work, sweat, illness, heat, Jim, hugs, conversation, food, rest and all that is part of the spring trip..

A part of my heart now lies in
San Luis Rio Colorado.

Alas, I am afraid I can describe my feelings about this trip no better for you than I could for the young millennial. I related some of this to my friend, Dennis Nice. I was experiencing re-entry, he said.  It took him six weeks to reacclimate to being home after his Equipo trip, he said.

A part of my heart now lies in San Luis Rio Colorado with Edger and with Nikandro, Lucre, Aliceia, Caleb, Martha, Rafael, Jr., baby Anna Gracia and many lovely, nameless faces I see in my mind’s eye.

When I think about leaving these experiences in the past, feelings of love and joy and nostalgic memories well up in me and begin to leak out my eyes.