“The city of Juárez is considered one of the most dangerous cities on earth,” Alvarado said when first announcing plans to build a church facility in 2019. As a child growing up in the heart of drug-infested Juárez, Alvarado watched helplessly as his alcoholic father abandoned the family when he was 2, and his drug-addicted mother turned to prostitution—lifestyles that eventually led to early deaths for both. Like almost everyone born into that culture, Alvarado never saw himself living any way other than in poverty—surrounded by drugs and early death.
“We lived in an area called ‘Heroin Alley,’” Alvarado recalls of his plight in a book he released in 2019, called "Prophet of My Own Life." “Hundreds of people routinely crossed the Mexican border almost daily from the U.S. to buy heroin in Heroin Alley. The entire area was, and still is to this day, drug infested—littered with bars and brothels, and crawling with prostitutes. On any day, people could be seen sitting in public—smoking dope, shooting up with needles and syringes, or cooking crack cocaine in spoons over open flames. As a child growing up in Juárez, this is what I saw every day. By the time I was 6, I understood what poverty was. I also realized that we were steeped in it.”
Poverty a Real Concern
This area in Mexico is prime for the message of the gospel and move of God, says Alvarado. Juárez is the largest city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and sits right across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso, Texas. Over 1.5 million residents live in and around Juárez. Along with El Paso, it is the second largest dual-national metroplex on the U.S. southern border, just behind San Diego-Tijuana.
Poverty is a very real concern for those living in Juárez, as 70% of its population lives below the poverty line, says Alvarado. As one who grew up in Juárez, he knows firsthand the devastation of the impoverished area and the difference a relationship with God can make.
Alvarado credits God for delivering him from extreme poverty and a life of drugs, and enabling him to return to Juárez to share the love of God with the city, and especially its children.
“Many of its children are still trapped in a vicious cycle surrounded by drugs with no way out,” Alvarado explained. “God has called me to help, and one of the ways He is helping me do that is by building a church right here in Juárez—a place where young children can find hope through God’s Word.”
24 : BVOV
