For more than four decades, Amor Ministries has been bringing people together to make a lasting difference in the lives of families in need. Founded in 1980, Amor provides families in Mexico with safe, stable housing through short-term mission trips that bring volunteers and local communities together to build homes. Beyond housing, the organization partners with local churches to address challenges such as food insecurity, limited educational access, and unemployment.
Through its commitment to service, relationships, and empowering local leaders, Amor continues to create opportunities for families to build a stronger future. We’re excited to share more about Amor’s mission, the impact of its work, and how volunteers and donors help bring hope and stability to communities across Mexico.
Tell us about Townspeople.
Amor was founded in 1980 by Scott and Gayla Congdon after witnessing orphanages in Tijuana that were filling up with children whose parents loved them, yet simply could not provide for their basic needs. They decided to offer an alternative: provide adequate housing to keep families together.
Since its founding, Amor has continued to build homes in Mexico for families in need. We organize short-term mission trips in Mexico, called Amor Trips, for groups and participants from around the world to build these homes.
What is your primary goal?
We create global church-based partnerships to assist and equip local leaders to serve the needs of their communities. Our community-based programs seek to address issues separating families, such as: inadequate shelter, food insecurity, lack of educational access, and unemployment.
Can you describe your mission, vision and core values?
Learning – We are committed to continually learning about God, other, and the world.
Relationships – We are committed to strong partnerships with our Ministry Planning Boards, our participants, and our financial partners.
Unity – We believe that all people are image-bearers of the Creator and have an equal right to dignity.
Distributed Power – It is our work to give away power. We must acknowledge that we often overlook the power structures which benefit us and actively work to break those structures down in ensuring every voice is heard, valued, and considered.
Integrity – We say what we mean and mean what we say. We want our actions to match our words and vice versa.
Accountability – We strive to be good stewards of what has been given to us.
Mission Statement:
Amor’s mission is to bring people together to manifest Jesus.
Who are the communities you serve?
Amor builds homes alongside families throughout five locations in Mexico: Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito, Puerto Peñasco, and Ciudad Juarez. Every home built is a gift, and nothing is expected from the family in return. The families that Amor serves are among the poorest of the poor, with a family of 4 earning an average of $100-$200 a week. The majority of families live off of one income in homes made of plywood walls, dirt floors, and tarp roofs. The families Amor serves are often stuck in a cycle of poverty, having to choose between purchasing food, sending their kids to school, or purchasing new materials to fix up their home.
How are volunteers a part of your organization? How can people get involved?
Volunteers are a part of our organization through participation in our short-term trips. The different groups that participate in Amor Trips encompass a wide range of people – from churches, universities, families and friends, high schools, and can range from as little as 5 people to even as many as 150. On these trips, groups stay at our campground in Mexico and spend 3-7 days building a home alongside one or multiple families, traveling to the worksite to build each day. These volunteer trip participants, guided by an Amor representative, build the homes themselves all without the use of power tools – from laying the concrete foundation, framing the walls and roof, to finishing with stucco. People can get involved by visiting https://amor.org/trips/ to check out the different trip options we offer.
How has your organization grown?
Since 1980, we have facilitated short-term trips for nearly 400,000 participants to build homes alongside over 20,000 families in Mexico.
What do your donor dollars allow you to do?
Donor dollars keeps our ministry running — from building homes alongside families in Mexico, supporting the salaries of our Mexico staff that run our trips, purchasing food for our pastors’ Food Banks so they can feed families in their communities every single month, to putting gas in our vehicles and maintaining our
campgrounds.
What makes your organization unique?
Our relationship with and emphasis on empowering the local church is one of the aspects that make Amor unique. Amor partners with a local community of pastors in Mexico, called the Ministry Planning Board. These pastors live and work in the communities we build in, so they know the need better than we ever could. They
are the ones in charge of nominating and selecting the families to receive homes. After the home is built and our trip participants return home, the
pastor is there to follow up with the family and continue a relationship with them.
What are the biggest challenges your organization faces?
The demand outweighs our ability. We get many requests for assistance and we don’t have enough participants or donors to help all that need it.
How has Evergreen Alliance impacted the work you do?
To keep our promises to our partners and donors it is imperative for us to have quality audited financials every year. Evergreen Alliance brings the non-profit accounting knowledge and expertise to this process and allows us to have confidence in our financial submissions and reports.
