Six seniors from Jesuit High School in Carmichael were at work beside a group of Mayan Indians near scorching cornfields in Chiapas, a poverty-stricken state in southern Mexico.

These were students on a mission, to serve and come to know better people in need.

While Jesuit has long provided students with Christian service opportunities in other locations in Mexico, this was the first time a mission to Chiapas was an option.

Andrea Nareau, a Spanish teacher at Jesuit, was one of two teachers making the trip to Chiapas July 8-21, a journey made so its participants might directly experience the poverty and hope that exist side by side in the city of Yajalon.

“We wanted for the students to have an open heart and open mind as they met and lived with these indigenous people, people living in very poor conditions, working very hard, and not complaining,” Nareau said. “We wanted them to see firsthand a different culture where everybody is so rich in faith.”

Following their arrival and orientation in Mexico City, the students traveled to Yajalon where Father Loren Riebe has been at work for 30 years empowering the Mayan people to not only survive economically, but to grow in knowledge.

Beginning in 1974, Father Riebe, now a priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, served at St. James the Apostle Parish in Yajalon. It was at this time he founded the Mission Teaching Foundation (MTF), a non-profit corporation whose work it is to empower indigenous Mayans through Scripture study, prayer and service.

In 1990, the MTF established a 16-acre ranch for indigenous boys, ages 15 to 18, whose families struggle to eke out a living as farm workers. The boys ranch is operated as a cooperative in which its students work 48 hours a month growing produce and in turn receive a public school education in Yajalon.

In 1992, the MTF started Casa Santa Maria, a residence similar to the boys ranch for indigenous teen-age girls.

The Jesuit students went to Casa Santa Maria to visit and work on various ranch projects to assist the Mayans. Their jobs included using a machete to chop down vegetation for compost and building a rather rudimentary cooking stove.

They also spent time with young Mayan teen-agers at the camp, and with their families, and attended Mass together at churches always filled to overflowing.

James Kilton, one of the six Jesuit students making the service mission to Chiapas, said he was impressed by the generosity of a people who had little in the way of material possessions. When the delegation arrived at their dorm at Casa Santa Maria, blankets, pillows and a new fan were waiting to make their visit more comfortable.

He recalled the pride of the Mayan people in talking about the accomplishments of the MTF, of the struggle to keep their projects going in an area where their success is opposed by wealthy plantation owners and the government.

“We wondered what keeps the people going. They have their families and the work they do every day,” Kilton said. “What keeps them going is their faith.”

For Kilton, one of the highlights of the mission was time spent having conversations with young people who, like the Jesuit seniors, were making plans to attend college, an experience that would have been unattainable before the creation of the Teaching Foundation. He spoke at Casa Santa Maria with people like Elda Encino, a young woman who was working her way toward a college education.

“It’s a real motivation when you have a girl to speak Spanish to,” said Kilton, who has yet to master Spanish. “She was wondering if she would be able to go to college because it’s a very hard thing to do there, while for me it’s only a question of what college do I go to.”

Joaquin Razo was another member of the Jesuit delegation. He recalled a part of the mission experience in which he had an opportunity to live for a few days with a family whose tiny home was built of cement with a tin roof.

Razo spoke with one member of the family, a young man named Jaime, who was enrolled in a university, a luxury made possible by working at the boys ranch. Conversations like these, he said, were learning experiences not possible in the classroom.

“You could see on these people’s faces they were dying to go somewhere, do something with their lives,” Razo said.

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