Our Facilities
The Tree of Life campus is a secure, 12-acre property where children find shelter and educational opportunities all in one place where they can feel safe. Thanks to our generous supporters, the campus has expanded over the years to meet the needs of our growing community.
The Church was built by hand, without the help of machines, by John Walker, some Mexican men from the area, and with support of Christ for the Nations of Dallas, Texas, where John's father, Richard Walker, was a board member and their general counsel for many years.
Click here to read the history of the Church's construction.
Services are held here every weekend. We also have Christmas programs, quinceaños celebrations and other special programs. During the week, we use the Church for school
activities, band practice and for Bible study. It's also home to our kitchen and is used as an indoor recreational center.
The residential building is a two-story, 14,552 sq. ft. building designed to provide a family atmosphere for the children who stay with us. Each of the residential building's four wings has an apartment for adult staff, with children's bedrooms surrounding so that a parental figure is always close by to talk with, pray with and offer a sense of family.
There's a boys floor and a girls floor. Only two to three children share a room, and each bedroom has its own half bathroom. Here, the children have dignity and access to privacy. They can go to "their" room each night. The residential building also has a living room with TV and video games were the kids can hang out.
The children participate in upkeep for their housing, such as making their own beds, doing basic chores, teaching them life skills and encouraging them to take a sense of pride in where they live.
The barn is home to our goats, chickens, sheep, rabbits, ducks, geese, and a pigs. Feeding and caring for the animals is fun and often therapeutic for the kids. The barn, greenhouse, orchards and outside vegetable gardens add to the atmosphere, teach the children both the residents and surrounding community how to grow and raise food. Also some of the children really love the animals specially the rabbits, ducks and baby goats.
The orchard is where we grow fruit trees, like figs, pomegranates, peaches and pecans. The kids learn how to cultivate and harvest the land in the orchard, which has about 70 trees.
The water tower features a reverse-osmosis filtration system to provide pure, clean drinking water for the children – a luxury in this part of the city.
Security - There is a drive-up checkpoint at the property gate. Armed guards, provided by the Pedro Zaragosa family, patrol the land around our campus, which itself is secured by a 10-foot barbed wire fence around the perimeter, as well as security cameras and extra lighting to discourage looters and thieves. We strive to keep all children and staff as safe as possible.