Progreso Recap, Part 1

In a word? Phenomenal.

I am s-l-o-w-l-y recovering from last week's mission trip to Progreso. It was such a blessing but I am exhausted.

I knew it was bad when I couldn't even remember how to pull up my blog yesterday! But back to the trip. . . .

A total of 24 youth and 5 adults went down to the tip of Texas and participated in a variety of ministries for the week. The Texas-Mexico border contains 6 of the poorest counties in the United States. The small town of Progreso, right on the border where one of the International Bridges is located, is in one of these counties. Buckner International and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship joined forces 5 years ago in forming the ministry KidsHeart. This last week was the South Texas Blitz. Several churches had teams doing construction on houses in the communities in and around Progreso.

We arrived late Saturday afternoon and settled in at our host church, FBC Harlingen, about 20 minutes away. They were wonderful, providing delicious hot breakfasts each morning and dinners all but one night. On Sunday morning we worshiped at the tiny church in Progreso that our church has partnered with over the past few years (and doubled their attendance!). Two years ago, the church was just a concrete slab. Last year, walls were up, and our team built a building for their food pantry. (Of their budget, 40% goes to their church food pantry to be distributed to the community weekly!) This year the church had a roof, 2 restrooms, electric lights, and fans, as you can see.

We all fell in love with Ernie, who played for the song service. The notes weren't all on key, but it totally didn't matter! He was making a joyful noise and serving the Lord!

That afternoon the kids canvassed the neighborhoods passing out flyers and leaving them in fences or doors. Most of the houses, while small and dilapidated, were surrounded by chainlink fences with guard dogs. While they did that I stayed in the van with the driver with a horrible migraine. It was the only really bad one I got all week. I got a couple of mild ones that I was able to stave off with my meds.

Monday afternoon we rented a couple of additional vans and took almost 25 of the Progreso church members to South Padre Island. I drove one of the rental vans, since our middle school minister had to drive mine. (The guy hasn't yet turned 25 and so he isn't covered by church insurance yet!)

That was my first introduction into what a different culture I was in, even though I was still in Texas. I was driving a typical 7-seat minivan. On the way to the beach, there were 11 of us; on the way back, 13! They just piled in, toddlers in their laps. Or in the case of the mom in the front seat by me, her 2-year-old sat on the floor at her feet! I just prayed I wouldn't get stopped or have an accident!

Here's a sneak peak of VBS. I have a couple of cool stories to share from VBS, but I don't want to put it all in one post!