August 20, 2001
Over the river and to the good
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___PIEDRAS NEGRAS--It's a long way from the comfortable neighborhoods of North Dallas to the dusty, hot colonias of northern Mexico. And it was one summer vacation tripthat a Texas Baptist youth group likely never will forget.
WAYNE GRANT (left), a San Antonio pediatrician and health care coordinator for River Ministry, and Jack Calk, director of missions for Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association, visit with a child at a Casa Hogar Orphanage in Piedras Negras--the only facility serving handicapped and special needs children in northern Mexico.
___Students chopped brush in triple-digit heat, painted old houses that never had been painted before and turned skinny balloons into funny animal shapes for children whose parents were receiving medical care at a free clinic.
___"Our leaders told us it would be a good experience--that we'd learn a lot from it and it would change our lives. And it has," said Erin Waters, an eighth grader from Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas.
___Thirty-five volunteers from Royal Lane joined four members of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco and its Hispanic mission in a weeklong mission trip to Nava and Piedras Negras in the Mexican state of Coahuila.
___Debbie Chisolm, minister to students at Royal Lane, coordinated the trip. She learned about the missions opportunities in the area through Nathan Porter, hunger consultant with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and member of Calvary Baptist in Waco.
___Gifts to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger help provide meals at four orphanages in northeastern Coahuila and at a children's nutrition center in Piedras Negras.
___Churches in Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association and its sister association across the Rio Grande support the Casa Hogar orphanages, working in cooperation with the Baptist General Convention of Texas River Ministry.
___The group began the week worshipping at the Baptist church in Nava, a town southwest of Piedras Negras. Then on Monday morning, the Texas Baptists divided into three groups.
___One crew focused on health care in clinics at three sites. In each of the three villages,local residents opened their homes to be used as clinics.
ELSEN ESPINA of First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi sees patients at an outdoor clinic in Piedras Negras.
___"Often, we were looking at a three- to four-hour wait just to see the doctor. So we had people out making balloon animals and reading books and throwing balls with the children," Chisolm said.
___In three days, the medical team saw 265 patients, and volunteers distributed 245 health kits that women at Royal Lane had assembled. Each kit included a washcloth, soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste.
___The health-care professionals examined early elementary school-aged children who never before had seen a physician, and they filled prescriptions for adults and children with medicines donated by doctors in Dallas and Waco.
___The medical needs in northern Coahuila are typical of those all along the Texas/Mexico border, according to Wayne Grant, a San Antonio pediatrician who directs the health-care programs of River Ministry.
___ "With NAFTA, all of the border communities are expanding incredibly, creating incredible social needs that can go unmet," Grant said.
___He noted that a River Ministry-related clinic in Piedras Negras offering care for the physically handicapped is one of only a few facilities for the chronically disabled anywhere in northern Mexico. River Ministry works with 60 ongoing clinics along the border, many of them church-based.
___ "Medical groups are often the catalyst for bringing people together. It is often the first contact with the people in a community where we are trying to start a new work or a church," Grant said.
___"We know that just coming once in a while to a community like this, we're not going to make a whole lot of difference in the big picture as far as their medical care is concerned. But if we can introduce them to a fellowship--a Christian community--that can carry on not only some social ministries to the people, but also minister to their spiritual needs, then we feel like we're making a bigger contribution to their lives."
___Texas Baptists help support River Ministry through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___While the health-care team worked in the clinics, another group from Royal Lane and Calvary Baptist churches cleared brush. The Texans worked in a lot that one of the members of the church in Nava had purchased as a site for backyard Bible clubs.
___"They had been doing backyard Bible clubs there every Saturday, but the lot only had one small space that was cleared out. So for three days that team was out in the sun chopping mesquite trees, digging up roots, pulling up cacti, catching horny toads, digging, hoeing, chopping with machetes," Chisolm said.
___"The women of the church almost cried with they saw it. Now, instead of having 20 kids on this lot, they will be able to have 50, 60 or 70 kids. And they will have. It's just a matter of time."
___The third team painted houses for families in an area where a coat of paint is a luxury few can afford.
___Rodrigo and Maria are members of the Baptist church in Nava, where she is director of Vacation Bible School. Rodrigo works 50 hours a week in a coal mine to earn the equivalent of $45.
___When an exploratory team from Royal Lane visited Nava in April, the couple's home had no interior walls. They worked from April to July putting up walls and preparing the house so it could be painted. The Texas Baptist volunteers painted the house according to the couple's instructions--pink on the outside, blue on the inside.
___Each evening, the three teams joined forces to help the local Baptist church in Nava conduct a Vacation Bible School.
___Near the end of their week in Mexico, the Texas Baptist volunteers spent a day working at one of the Casa Hogar orphanages in Piedras Negras
___"We came here expecting to help people, and we found that they blessed us so much more than we could ever bless them, because of the joy that they have," she said. "There is a light and glow in their eyes because of God. They have so much hope, and it gives me so much hope."
___Elsen Espina of First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi sees patients at an outdoor clinic in Piedras Negras.Wayne Grant (left), a San Antonio pediatrician and health care coordinator for River Ministry, and Jack Calk, director of missions for Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association, visit with a child at a Casa Hogar Orphanage in Piedras Negras--the only facility serving handicapped and special needs children in northern Mexico.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
