Last Day for Shoebox Donations:
Sunday, 11/22/2009 

Did you ever wonder what love looks like? We usually think of love as a verb; as an emotion. But if love was a noun what would it look like? Could you fit it in a shoebox? You could, if you were involved in our annual "Love in a Shoebox."  
 
Each year, in November, we send our love in the form of practical items placed in a shoebox for a Triquis boy or a girl who would, otherwise, have little or nothing at the holidays. The "Love in a Shoebox" program was brought to First Baptist Church of Galt by a single mom named  Tony, who had taken her kids there to live as a  missionary with her children. She met Rance and  Brandy Cook who had started a ministry there. They had been doing "Love in a Shoebox" with a number of churches in California.

First Baptist Church of Galt sent six delegates, including our former Pastor and his oldest son to personally deliver the shoeboxes in 1997. Since then, we have relied on a semi-truck to deliver the shoeboxes each year!

The Triquis live in Mexico's San Quintin Valley, 130 miles south of Ensenada. It is an area of significant seasonal migration, attracting up to 30,000 mostly Oaxacan Indian farm workers (including Triquis) to work in the tomato and strawberry fields that dominate the Valley. The Valley has only recently been developed and agriculture is the main economic activity there.

There are two main types of Indian farm workers: those who live in camps on private land owned by their employers (ranchers), and others who settle permanently in settlements, or colonies. The population living in camps is mostly seasonal, with the majority moving on to other sites of migration in a yearly circuit. Settlers tend to stay in San Quintin year-round.

Although state presence in this developing region is growing, it remains far behind the needs of the population settling there. There are no paved roads in the Valley except for the peninsula highway passing through, limited public health facilities, no sewage in any communities, poor coverage of water and electricity, and the absence of many public services and institutions (such as a full capacity hospital, public courts, etc.) which can only be found in Ensenada over 100 miles away. Settlement in the Valley has been haphazard, resulting in a disperse population removed from whatever services are available in the larger population centers.