Just 16-years-old, Castro has had her life irrefutably changed by the works of a budding organization dedicated to church planting and discipleship named Church Mexico operating out of Sonora, Mexico. The ministry has built her family a home, created an education program, supported her growth in academia through scholarships, and guided her into young adulthood through community programs founded for just one purpose: to serve an area struck by poverty in the name of Jesus Christ.
Sitting alongside Alexia is her pastor, mentor and friend, David Power. After being called to Christ shortly after graduating college, Power returned to his home town in Yuma, Arizona where he joined a local church and became a pastor after a few years. Part of his ministry was preaching the gospel to those in poverty across the Mexican border while also delivering food and supplies. Little did he know at the time that this ministry was the seed of something that would grow much larger and much more influential over the course of the next twelve years..
“That led to us starting an outreach ministry from the church in Yuma where we would take things down and build homes for people,” Power said. “Those people asked to do a Bible study, that Bible study grew, then we were holding services and baptizing people, and that’s when we knew the Lord was calling us to plant a church in Mexico.”
In coordination with his church in Yuma, Power was sent to Mexico in January 2012 and began a journey of service in Christ’s name lasting to this day. Funding much of their journey through charity, Power works to create a lasting organization that helps local communities with supplies, seeds new churches, and trains locals to take positions in clergy and start their own organizations.
“We decided that, whatever the Lord gave us, we were going to utilize every single day to be a light in the darkness,” Power said. “So we built these facilities from the beginning through Church Mexico with the intention of impacting the community – to build up the community every single day as the church. We believed that that was what we were supposed to do.”
These new facilities were equipped with classrooms ready to host a budding education program, dubbed King’s Kids, that has helped young women like Castro. Through donations and volunteers from their first church plant, La Iglesia de San Luis, these classrooms provide electricity, air conditioning, internet, laptops, printers, and tutors to students – almost all of whom would go without if not for the ministry.
“These kids normally wouldn’t have these in their homes because they are living in poverty. Most of them don’t have electricity and those that don’t even have an A/C in their house. They don’t have the internet. They don’t have laptops. So they wouldn’t be able to do their schoolwork if Church Mexico didn’t provide this,” Power said.
Power met Castro when she was just a little girl. Her family was one of the first to receive a home from his group's services. To this day, Power fondly remembers sitting and studying with Castro and her family on a small table outside their family home. Her family was large, and had little they could give to their newest generation. Still, with consistent aid and guidance from her church and her family, Castro has grown into a capable young woman with big aspirations.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do after school yet, and that's one of the things I am praying about. But I can say today that maybe I want to be a paramedic. Whatever it is that I do, I just want to have a good career to have enough financial resources to help other people that are struggling,” Castro said. “Two other options are working in human rights or as a dentist. I’d like to help people in a situation or environment similar to what I grew up in and am living in currently. If they have a basic need for food or water, I just want to help them.”
The difficulties of obtaining an education while in poverty are not new for those living along the Mexican-American border. Her family story is filled, like many others, with crime, drug abuse, poverty, and a generalized lack of resources. While Mexico is not a particularly impoverished nation, corruption has left those living in rural areas with a lack of infrastructure and the support necessary to foster a healthy life. These limitations, all of which create tension when studying in school, can lead young women down the wrong path.
“I can relate to other girls in my situation. I understand how difficult and how hurtful things can be sometimes. I know what it feels like to have a knife or something sharp poking through your heart. You’re desperate because you don’t know how to get out of that situation. You feel like everything should just end,” Castro said. “Even though it doesn’t seem like there’s a solution. There is one. His name is Jesus, and what they need to do is believe. Believe that there’s a big God who can do all things.”
“If we didn’t have the child sponsorships and financial assistance for education to keep these girls in school, she would have been out a long time ago,” Power said. “Way too often, what happens when an adolescent or teenage girl drops out of school in this area of poverty – they often find a boyfriend, get married at a young age, get pregnant at a young age – and that continues the cycle of poverty.”
Still, Castro, in conjunction with the aid provided by her church, has grown into a vibrant and intelligent young woman showing no signs of such an outcome. She attributes the majority of her academic success to the female mentorship she receives from the sisters in her church who meet and work with her weekly on her studies. Additionally, she thanked all those who’ve provided the funding for the scholarships that make her schoolwork possible.
Castro’s latest victory is just one of many stories of success brought about by church community organizations within these rural Mexican communities. Power, who has already been working within the area for over a decade, says the Church Mexico organization has big plans to help more people by expanding and seeding more organizations throughout the nation. As a local 501c3 nonprofit organization, these programs depend on volunteers and charity to expand and continue. For those who feel called to help, visit
churchmexico.org. 
