The alarm went off at 6 am this morning. I hadn’t slept real good. I also realized that I had not packed a couple of things. Fortunately Justin let me use his toothpaste. And I didn’t need my nail bag, at least not today. The Lord provides what we need.
After a skimpy breakfast at the hotel, all 8 vans (including 2 pickups and 1 mini van) left at around 7:45 am for Border Missions/Kaleo Church, on the Texas side of the border, for morning worship.
Dave, Cody & Bruce combined their talents on guitars as we sang several songs, including ‘How Great is our God’. Doug Huston gave a powerful talk on John 15, verses 1-9. The focus was on using our gifts, and abiding in Him. After prayers for the day from John, Carl, Ben & Bruce, Josh from Kaleo Ministries shared what is going on at the border in Reynosa. Hector (Senda de Vida) has a capacity for 600 homeless immigrants but now is overflowing with 1200 people. There are still about 3000 more people in the border plaza on the Mexican side. Josh offered to house 500 of them. The mayor of Reynosa, after seeing the desperate need, is allowing Kaleo to put up a big tent on some property that they own close to the river. The Lord has opened up the door, and Josh & his wife Olivia have stepped up in faith. Kaleo is also doing amazing things with their Bible colleges, both in Reynosa and in Kenya.
On to the border crossing and our projects for the day. One group of 2 vans headed to a site where we are building a house for Kaleo Ministries. POWER’s goal is to at least get the house framed and closed up (at least protected from the rain) in our short stay. The advance team had already poured the slab a few days ago.
We also, for the first time ever, sent a small team of 5 men to the actual border, to reach out to Border Patrol agents on their jobs, to show support for what they do and share God’s love for them. More about that later- we invited the Border Patrol to a dinner in their honor later in the day.
The largest group (19 of us) went to Rufugio Orphanage to re paint the exterior of two of the ‘casas’. Randal & Betsy Chacon met us, and gave us a complete tour, including seeing the inside of one of the 7 ‘casas’, where house parents care for 8-12 kids. I can remember when I first came with POWER 10 years ago, Rufugio was out in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a long bumpy dirt road. They have since done a ton of improvements at their 14 acre site. They started a church 3 years ago, and now have several hundred people attending. They also have started a school, which attracts the children from the surrounding community. Speaking of that, there are now apartments on 3 sides of them, and the road is paved. They are in the process of building a very large steel framed building, which will house the new church and a community clinic, among other things. We spent the whole day there, enjoying a fun time at lunch with all the kids and staff.
After making it back across the border check point (only ½ an hour this time), we went to the Valley Baptist Retreat Center, where they served us a steak dinner with all the fixings, which we shared with several Border Patrol Chaplains, Border Patrol agents and several missionaries and all their wives. The purpose was to show our appreciation and honor for them. They spoke to us of the dangers of their job, and how during the recent spike of illegal border crossings, there has been an alarming rise in Border Patrol suicides. They don’t feel like there is any purpose in what they do, because as soon as they apprehend people, the US government just releases them. It is a very sad situation! Our team who traveled along the border shared that the agents were overwhelmed that there were Americans that cared enough to visit with them out in the scrub brush and share God’s love with them.
It was a long, but good day. We got back to the hotel at 9 pm, and after doing my van duties and writing this, I am calling a day and jumping in the shower at 11 pm.