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A couple of years ago, St. A's was sponsoring a Corazon repair build. We usually try to book our builds in Spring or early Fall, but this time, we ended up sponsoring a build deep in November. As we pulled into the familiar driveway of the Chula Vista Ramada Inn, a steady rain was pelting the marquee. The rain continued through the night and greeted us at 5:00am as we struggled across the highway to Denny's.

Within the hour, we were on the road towards a little town outside of Ensenada. Up we traveled through the foggy, rain-swept mountains. At one point, we noted a yellow bus on its side halfway down a steep hill. We prayed that its occupants had managed to climb to safety. The nearer we got to Cumbre (the village), the foggier it got. Finally, we pulled up to just outside of the town. Our mission was to go down into the Valley to repair a house. Unfortunately, only four-wheel drive vehicles could make the treacherous climb down the hill. There we stood: muddy, wet and discouraged. Several of our number argued to return to Chula Vista. Some did just that. Many more stayed. Slowly, slowly, we were ferried down into the village by the few sturdy SUVs and trucks that were able to make the descent. The children we had brought along were delighted to be driven into the valley, sitting in the back of an open truck. We parents were a little less enthusiastic. One parent - me - got a whole lot less enthusiastic when the SUV driving us into the village ran over a big boulder hidden by the mud in the road. The rock took out practically the entire undercarriage of the car. My boss' car. Not good. I wondered how I could put a positive spin on this. My boss, Joel, seemed remarkably calm about the accident. His main concern was getting the car back to San Diego, which at that point seemed as likely as my making it to the finals of "American Idol". I sent up a silent prayer that Joel would be able to get his car back to safety, and that we would be able to complete, or even start, the build.

Well. As Tennessee Williams once said, "Sometimes so quickly, there is God." In this case, it wasn't actually God, but certainly his Corazon Angel. There in front of us, riding down into the Valley on a large brown horse, was John Torrence, one of Corazon's original leaders. I had met John on a previous build. I ran, or rather slogged, up to him and told him what had happened. John dismounted his steed and walked over to Joel. He shook his hand. "Stay with your car." John instructed him, "I'll send someone to help", and off he rode. Sensing that there probably wasn't a big AAA presence in downtown Cumbre, we wondered what John had in mind. We only had to wait about 15 minutes to find out. A weather-beaten truck sputtered down into the valley, driven by an equally weather-beaten man. He stepped down from the cab and pulled out a large tool box. The man spoke no English, and our Spanish was rudimentary at best, but soon this mechanic was working away on the bottom of Joel's car. He pried, he hammered, he cajoled and with duct tape and probably a little spit, within half an hour, Joel's car was driveable. It wasn't pretty, but it was driveable! We trooped down to the house and joined the rest of the crew. A few hours later, all were trudging back through the mud, our repair build complete!

Later that night, my very tired, very muddy son and I drove back to Santa Monica. On Monday, I learned that Joel had been able to drive his car all the way back to San Diego. The mechanic at the repair shop there was amazed at the skill of our Cumbre repairman. I later found out that he had learned his trade through the Corazon Familia program. Corazon does a lot more than build colorful houses - it quite literally builds lives.