History - Three Decades of Ministry

1992 – Rev. Jose Luis Portillo, Operacion Hogar, & Proyecto Abrigo
Proyecto Abrigo was founded in the small rural neighborhood of Tierra Nueva by Rev. Jose Luis Portillo.

Rev. Jose Luis Portillo, who grew up in a low-income family of ten children, has lived in Juarez all of his life. Thanks to scholarships provided by the United Methodist Church, he was able to go from selling cigars on the streets of Juarez in order to help support his family to attending Lydia Patterson Institute, a United Methodist High School across the border in El Paso. While there, Jose Luis became fluent in English and ultimately heard God calling him into ministry. After graduating from Lydia Patterson, Jose Luis attended John Wesley Seminary in Monterrey, Mexico and was appointed to a church back in Juarez upon his graduation and ordination in the Methodist Church of Mexico. While serving his first church in Juarez, Jose Luis invited volunteers from the United States to come and help build the church building. Those volunteers saw the people living in cardboard houses and asked how they might help. Through the help of Volunteers in Mission, Jose Luis began Operacion Hogar (Operation Home) in 1992 which partnered with teams of volunteers from the United States to build concrete block homes for families living in cardboard and chicken-wire shacks. In order to expand the number of families served in Juarez, Jose Luis founded an ecumenical organization named Proyecto Abrigo in 1996 to continue the ministry of home building. Over the course of his ministry since 1992, Rev. Jose Luis Portillo has been responsible for building thousands of homes, five churches, a medical clinic, a vocational school, and community center all across Juarez.

2007 – Violence Begins to Escalate in Juarez
In 2007, Juarez, Mexico held a homicide rate of 0.82 deaths per day. However, a power struggle between the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels began, quickly turning the city of Juarez into ‘the most dangerous city in the world.’ At this point in time, Proyecto Abrigo hosted teams throughout the year who came not only from all across Texas but also from Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota, building over 200 homes per year,

2009 – U.S. News Outlets & Federal Troops
In 2009, it became evident to those in the U.S. that Mexico was in a state of violent unrest. At this time, national news outlets picked up stories which covered the growing violence in our neighboring country. In Mexico, President Calderon sent over 8,000 federal troops to ‘police’ the city of Juarez in an attempt to fight against the dueling drug cartels. These troops, who were often just as corrupt as their cartel counter-parts, caused much more damage in the long run than intended. U.S. churches who had previously led several trips per year to work with Proyecto Abrigo began to receive concern from members and pastors alike as to the safety of taking teams to Mexico.

In 2009, Proyecto Abrigo built 180 homes.

2010 – Violence Peaks in Juarez
In 2010, Juarez recorded a devastating 3,116 homicides, nearing 8 deaths per day. During the peak of this violence, a few small but faithful teams continued to venture into Juarez, braving the conditions of the city to serve those most affected by the violence. At the end of the year, Proyecto Abrigo made the difficult decision to no longer accept mission teams from the U.S. due to safety concerns for both the teams and those such as Jose Luis who lived in Juarez and ran the mission year round.

In 2010, Proyecto Abrigo built 20 homes.

2011 – Violence Begins to Decrease
The withdrawal of federal government agents and para-military forces from the city of Juarez lead to a dramatic decrease in the rates of violence. These government forces, often proven to be extremely corrupt, seemed to cause more violence than they were intended to prevent. With their withdrawal, the local municipal police forces received more resources, including better salaries, equipment, and training under the direction of the new Chief of Police, Julian Leyzaola.

In 2011, due to the continued monetary donations of a few faithful churches, Proyecto Abrigo built 3 homes.

2012 – Rapid Decrease in Violence
In 2012, the city of Juarez recorded 750 homicides through the course of the year – the fewest deaths the city had seen since violence began to escalate in 2007. August of this year marked a 56% drop in homicides from 2011. With 580 of these deaths recorded in the first seven months, only 170 came in the last five months of the year. This averaged 34 deaths per month, or 1.13 per day. While the statistics encompassing the entire year list the rate as closer to 2 deaths per day, the drastic drop in the last five months of the year began to show a great deal of hope for both the present and future of Juarez. In October of this year, Proyecto Abrigo agreed to host two college students, Ricky Harrison and Taylor Smith, who had been longtime supporters of Proyecto Abrigo. With the invitation to cross-over for a day to do photography and videography work, these two students represented the first U.S. citizens that Proyecto Abrigo had let come back in almost two and a half years. During this October visit, Rev. Jose Luis Portillo made the announcement that Proyecto Abrigo would again start hosting mission teams beginning in 2013 due to the decrease in violence and his confidence in the safety of himself and the mission teams.

2013 – New Beginnings for Proyecto Abrigo
On January 1st of 2013, Proyecto Abrigo welcomed a small team of eleven people to do repair and renovation work around the dormitory facilities where teams are hosted. This team worked for three days painting, repairing plumbing, and cleaning up the Proyecto Abrigo facilities which had lain vacant for the past two and a half years. The goal was to ready the dormitories so that Proyecto Abrigo might once again host teams to come and build homes. Throughout the rest of this year, Proyecto Abrigo hosted eight additional teams who built nine homes and continued work around the dormitory facilities.

2014 – 2020 : Over 100 New Homes Built
From 2014 - 2020, teams from Proyecto Abrigo built over 100 homes and several partial-home construction repairs. Teams came from all across Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. Four different U.S. colleges and universities partnered with Proyecto Abrigo, hosting teams and supporting students who sponsored local events at their colleges. Overall, these years were a great blessing for Proyecto Abrigo, its many ministries, and the countless volunteers who poured out their hearts in service.

2020 : The Birth of Operación Abrigo
With the onset of the Global Coronavirus Pandemic, it became clear that the time was right for God to usher us into yet a new season of ministry. For nearly three decades we have shared in life changing ministry together, building bridges of love between communities in Juarez and the United States. Under the trusted leadership of Rev. Jose Luis Portillo, Operación Abrigo was born to continue the core ministry of home building, aiming to touch the lives of 1,000 more families in our fourth decade of ministry.

During this season of the Pandemic when travel is not yet possible, our ministry has expanded to provide groceries to families who have lost jobs and can’t afford to put food on the table. We have been distributing food packages filled with rice, beans, cornmeal, flour, pasta, canned meats, oil, salt, and sugar (and sometimes a chocolate bar for the kids!). Just like the homes, these food supplies have made all the difference for these families in need. We do not know what our world will look like in the face of this Global Pandemic, but we do know that God is always at work – and God continues to bless us so that we might bless others even in this new season.

Operación Abrigo continues to partner with churches old and new to provide the basic necessities of shelter to families throughout Ciudad Juarez. One by one, we are faithfully “serving with love” all those people on both sides of the border whom God has called into ministry together. 

Dios te bendiga y gloria a Dios!