CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO (July 22, 2010) – Building what they say will be the largest orphanage in Latin America makes living in one of the most dangerous areas of Mexico worth the risk to personal safety, say Quinn and Lisa Seaman.

The Seamans are full-time missionaries commissioned by United Covenant Church in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, to work at the orphanage near Juarez, which is being constructed by the Tapestries of Life Ministries. Tapestries is based in Faber, Texas. The Seamans have served in Mexico since 2008.

The children’s home is a 55,000-square-foot building standing two stories tall and in the shape of a cross. It will be home to more than 250 orphans as soon as the doors open, the Seamans say.

“It is such an honor to be Covenanters and missionaries to this ministry and to this country,” says Lisa. (While members of the Evangelical Covenant Church, the Seamans are not missionaries sent through the ECC’s Department of World Mission.)

The violence in Juarez caused by drug cartels has claimed several thousand lives, according to news reports, but those accounts don’t tell the story of all the people. “We are living in the middle of a ‘war zone’ of drug cartel violence,” Lisa says, but adds, “The Mexican people are such an easy people to love.”

Construction has suffered indirectly because of the violence, which has caused mission teams to stop coming, Lisa says. The work teams also had been the main source of funding for the project.

Lisa says she is excited though about the possibility of winning up to $100,000 through a contest that will benefit nonprofit organizations. An alarm company and Facebook are partnering to provide the funds to the organization that receives the most clicks on their website. Tapestries is currently fourth in competing for the national prize and second in their region, Lisa says. For more information, visit the couple’s blog.