For the past decade a team from The First U.P. Church of Crafton Heights has visited Texas’ Rio Grande Valley for a week of service, reflection, group-building, and growth. While in Texas, we stay with our friends and partners at The First Presbyterian Church of Mission and join with colleagues from the United Methodist Church and Catholic Charities in their efforts to provide a ministry of presence and service to those in this part of the country who have been affected by issues related to immigration or natural disaster. It is a good and holy week!
Usually, the “work” portion of our week in Texas ends on Thursday afternoon. That’s when we tidy up loose ends and begin the process of packing up, as Friday is reserved for a drive to San Antonio to prepare for a flight early on Saturday. This year, however, we found our opportunity cut short in an unexpected fashion: for what I think is the first time in the history of these trips, we were unable to finish a day’s work due to rain. It was chilly here in the morning – maybe 50° or so – and the mist hung in the air throughout the first half of the day. By the time we broke for lunch, however, it had turned into a more determined rain. This is good news for the farmers in the Rio Grande Valley who depend on this rain for their livelihoods, and who have not received much this year. But it is, of course, disappointing to us and the folks who are counting on getting their homes built.
This trailer was totally enclosed in the structure we demolished on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today we tore it apart for recycling and scrap.
The first step in building Dulce and Pablo’s new home is setting the foundation blocks – there were 28 of them in all. They had to be measured, laid out, and then brought to level.
Lynn, Josie, and I did a little happy dance each time the level told us that we’d finally gotten things squared away!
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about the power of friendship and shared experiences to shape lives and mission. On Thursday, we had the opportunity to dive more deeply into the realm of friendship with those we have become privileged to know and serve in our time here in the RGV. Our hosts for this week, a couple named Pablo and Dulce, had asked us if we’d be willing to share a noontime meal with them. When we got to the place in the morning, the charcoal was already hot and the chicken was marinating. As we worked through the morning, we were enticed by the smells emanating from the home and the grill, and the noontime feast of chicken, sausage, guacamole, rice, onions, and… CHEESECAKE was indeed a festival. As it became clear that we would be unable to continue to work safely and effectively in the rain, the lunch break went on longer than usual as we shared stories and dreams. Before we left, we spent some time in prayer with these folks, and in doing so we talked about the ways that Moses prayed for the Promised Land without ever getting to enter it. In the same way, we stood with Pablo and Dulce in the very first stages of their new home, trusting that it will be built in the days to come. They’ve insisted that we come back and visit them next year to see them settled in.
The grill is fired up and ready…
… and Pablo is at his post!
What a feast!
Pablo and Dulce
The Texas clay tells the story of why digging wasn’t such a good idea this afternoon…
While most of the crew was on the construction site, Susana returned to the Catholic Charities Hospitality Center in McAllen, where her life experience and linguistic skill make her a valuable volunteer indeed. While on site, she was able to spend time with a young women who, now 8 1/2 months pregnant, is about to be reunited with her husband in the USA. In addition, Susana was able to escort a Haitian family (whose journey to the USA has taken them through Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, and Mexico at least) to the bus station, where they departed in order to join friends and family in Florida. If you know geography, you understand that this is about the longest way imaginable to travel the 900 miles from Port Au Prince to Florida…
Next stop: Florida!
A long journey is nearing its end!
When evening rolled around we were privileged to visit a family that we first met in 2015. Our team was privileged to meet Juani and her family as we were assigned to their home five years ago, and we have sought to reconnect with them on our annual visits as well as through social media. How encouraging it is, and what a blessing, to enter this home that we had a hand in constructing! What joy it brings to feel the love that reverberates from every wall in that place. It’s been deeply rewarding to watch the children grow into new places of maturity and development, and to hear about their hopes and dreams. Juani and her family fed us like royalty, and we ate some of the most amazing beans, chicken, rice, sausage, and “Five Cup Cake” that you can imagine. The food was dynamite. The conversations were even better. Heck, they even had a FaceTime call with our old friend Nemorio, who was present on the 2015 team and was able to greet us in that place.
We didn’t finish all of the labor that we’d hoped to accomplish on Thursday. A wise mentor of mine once told me (and thereafter reminded me again and again) that in ministry and in life, one very rarely gets to finish – but every day, one must choose to stop. And so we stopped building, because we had to. But we engaged in a relational pattern that reminds me of the Gospels. Time after time we hear of Jesus dropping a truth bomb or sharing great grace with folks in the context of a meal. He frequently compared the Kingdom of God to a party, or a feast, or a celebration. When we get to travel to Texas, some of you might think that all we do is eat. Some days, you’re not wrong. But as we do so, we know that we have been given the great gifts of fellowship and shared time, characterized by the abundance that the Divine intends for each child of God. We know more about all of that stuff than we did a week ago, and so we prepare to leave this part of Texas a little heavier and a lot more grateful. Thanks be to God!
Throwback Thursday: here’s the team in 2015 outside the newly-completed home…
…and here’s the 2020 team celebrating INSIDE the same home!
Tim and Vicky (and, I think, Ricky) in 2015…
Tim and Vicky sharing time together this evening…
I am deeply impressed by the ways that Julio continues to reflect maturity and love in the world. I am privileged to be his friend.
Kimberly was in middle school when we showed up five years ago – and now she’s a senior, contemplating her future. She has so many positive things going on in her life!
Sharing stories around the feast…
When we were preparing to leave, we prayed, and then Vicky asked to read us this note she’d written. It says, “I love you guys with all my heart and I will always love you. I loved how you are funny and I like when you come in my house. And you play with me. And that you [buy] my mom a present. And me dancing when I was little. And that you liked my mom’s food and her cake. And that you liked Ricky’s pictures of the characters that he likes and that I like. And thank you for coming to my house.”
