For most people, traveling to Mexico means sightseeing, shopping, eating fabulous food and kicking back on a beach at the end of the day with a cerveza.

That’s not the case for Michael Apodaca, deputy G4, U.S. Army Operational Test Command.

Since 2001, Apodaca spends two weeks of personal leave each April and October as part of the missionary outreach of Casas por Cristo, building houses for families whose annual incomes are $3,000 or below.

The nonprofit organization, headquartered in El Paso, partners with local churches and volunteer teams from around the country to build two- and three-room homes in Acuna and Juarez, Mexico, and San Rainmundo, Guatemala.

According to Apodaca, the teams lay the concrete floors, build the wood frame walls, install insulation, sheetrock, electrical wiring and roofing, and apply sheathing and stucco the outside. They don’t install plumbing, because most families have an existing outhouse and most areas aren’t equipped with sewage systems.

“My parents live in El Paso and started volunteering with Casas por Cristo in the late ‘90s,” Apodaca said. “They got me involved, and I am one of more than 50 Family members and friends who have participated in one or more of the 41 projects we have completed.

“I get to donate to my favorite charity and volunteer with my Family,” he said, “and I know that I helped each family in Juarez.

“I believe that if everybody does a little bit, we can accomplish a lot,” he said.

Now a member of the First Baptist Church of Salado, since 2004 Apodaca has taken young people from the children’s ministry of his former church, Memorial Baptist in Killeen, on missions. They must be at least 18 and have a passport or have a permission letter from their parents if they’re under 17, he said.

“I wanted to open their eyes so they can see that three-fourths of the world doesn’t have the things we as Americans have,” he said. “I recruit people by telling them if they can pick up a hammer, they can come with us.”

Families who apply for a home must own the land, Apodaca said. The volunteer teams must raise the support – tools, building supplies, funds – and pay for their travel and lodging.

“My parents and cousins, plus some churches, usually put us up and feed us,” he said. “Casas por Cristo is an all-volunteer effort.”

Apodaca said he always registers the October projects as part of Make a Difference Day.

“In 2001, our Family team was selected by Make a Difference Day as one of 10 honorees to receive a $10,000 grant,” he said. “In 2006, we got another $10,000 grant as encore honorees.

“In 2004, my mother Maida was invited to appear on the Wayne Brady Show where she got us another $10,000 from Florida orange juice growers,” Apodaca said. “We donated all of these grants to Casas por Cristo.”

A graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, Apodaca served in the Army for 14 years as an enlisted Soldier and a field artillery officer. He started working at OTC in 1993, first as a military officer, then as a temporary hire, then as a contractor and finally in 2008 as a Department of the Army civilian. He is married and he and his wife Jane have three children.