ATLANTA (ABP) — When many kids were spending their spring break on the beach, more than 300 served others in one of the nation's poorest areas through a joint Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-Texas Baptist program.
This year, hundreds of students worked in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border as part of a spring break missions blitz called KidsHeart.
A partnership between the CBF's rural poverty initiative and Buckner International, the benevolent arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, KidsHeart takes place twice each year — during spring and summer vacations.
Every year, hundreds of volunteers make the trek to the Rio Grande Valley to work in some of the poorest counties in the United States. The students build houses and churches and work with children and youth.
“They put in a lot of hours of work,” said mission group coordinator Cheyenne Solis. “It does have a life impact.”
Solis coordinated work in the San Carlos area of Texas. Volunteers from 12 outside churches and four local churches did construction and block parties that attracted up to 300 people to hear the gospel. They helped with construction on a parsonage for a pastor whose wife recently had to undergo amputation of her legs and arms. They helped another church with construction of a building that will house its heavily used food bank. They also helped families with housing repairs.
“These families couldn't believe it,” Solis said. “They were able to advance. Just what [volunteers] did in a week the family wouldn't have done in years.”
In the Progreso area, KidsHeart groups renovated houses, constructed a church building, built a playground at a church, held vacation Bible school and hosted block parties for the community. Also, a mobile dental unit treated nearly 50 people.
“We have teams that come down and do work all the time,” said CBF of Texas coordinator Rick McClatchy, who helped coordinate the Progresso work. “At spring break, we try to get churches … working together.”
McClatchy said this year's spring-break volunteer force was one of the largest and included a new site in El Paso.
About 30 people volunteered for KidsHeart's inaugural work in El Paso. Volunteers helped raise the walls for one church and helped finish another church, which had been meeting under a tree. The volunteers finished a house that had been donated to the church for meeting space, but had no drywall, insulation or running water.
“We built relationships with the pastors and will be working in those communities,” said Jorge Zapata, Buckner's program director for Texas' colonias, or poor border areas along the border.
Work is still developing in the area, but KidsHeart summer activities are set to include vacation Bible schools and other activities at local community centers, construction, adult classes and medical and dental work. Mario Garcia, a Baptist University of the Americas student, has been hired by Buckner as missions coordinator for the El Paso area.
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— Carla Wynn is a writer for CBF Communications