KidsHeart volunteers provide a safe place to grow

EAGLE PASS—Gloria Fuentes asked for a new set of windows and got a new house instead.

“Gl

Gloria and Alonzo Fuentes pause for a family picture next to the area where their new home is being built by KidsHeart volunteers. The family is upgrading from an old one-bedroom mobil home to a new three-bedroom house. PHOTOS/Analiz Gonzalez Schremmer/Buckner

oria came to me asking for windows for her family’s one-bedroom trailer,” said Hector Galindo, Buckner missions coordinator for Laredo and Eagle Pass. “But the trailer was falling apart. The floor was ripping off. The ceiling was falling in.

“So, I encouraged them to sell it and put the money towards foundation for a house. I said that Buckner and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches would finish the job.”

KidsHeart, which is a CBF/Buckner collaboration, led its first group of missionaries to Eagle Pass in July, involving 123 volunteers. Eagle Pass is located in one of the 20 poorest rural counties in the United States and still is struggling to recover from a tornado that struck in 2007.

“These citizens live in some difficult circumstances,” said Rick McClatchy, coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas.

“So, when these volunteers come in for a week and provide the manpower to rebuild these homes, it gives these citizens a boost of hope that their community, churches and personal lives will be stronger.”

Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays Email Address Eagle Pass children participate in Vacation Bible School which was led by KidsHeart volunteers in July. This was the first KidsHeart group to work in the Eagle Pass area.

Gloria and Alonzo Fuentes’s family was one of three families chosen to receive new homes in Eagle Pass through the KidsHeart project. In the winter, frigid air cuts through their walls, and when it rains, the house holds water in like a bath tub.

“If it hadn’t been for KidsHeart, we would have had to stay in that trailer that is falling apart,” Alonzo Fuentes said. “It would have taken me forever to find the money for doing repairs to it myself.”

Right now, the couple sleeps in their living room while their three children—ages 9, 10 and 3—share their only small bedroom.

“Once the construction is finished, our daughter will have her own room, we will have ours and the boys will share another,” Gloria Fuentes said. “It is still hard to believe that people would help us like this.

“When we were in the trailer, we prayed for 10 years for something stationary; a home that wasn’t mobile. This will let our kids say, ‘Wow, this is ours.’ They are going to grow up in a safe place without worrying about where they will spend the night. I knew that God would grant me a house one day, and I finally got my miracle.”

First Baptist Church in Hondo is working with St. Francis Catholic Church to complete the Fuentes’ home.

Ross Chandler, pastor of First Baptist Church in Hondo, said he and the 54 people serving from his church have learned a lot during their KidsHeart trip to Eagle Pass.

Children learn the words and hand movements to Christian songs during Vacation Bible School.

“I am learning about the hardships of these people and the practical tools of building homes. I’ve realized that it is important to stay focused on what the ministry is. The ministry is not building the house. The ministry is Gloria and Alonzo,” he said.

Another couple benefitting from KidsHeart was Ramon and Margarita Costilla.

It’s been a few months since the day 69-year-old Margarita Costilla’s foot fell through one of the holes in her home, but the pain still hasn’t gone away. And her husband hasn’t recovered from the two times he was electrocuted while repairing the house.

“We are just so thankful,” she said, sitting directly in front of a fan in her living room. She points above her head at a small board holding up the ceiling. “I’m afraid it won’t hold much longer.”

The Costillas live in a two-bedroom mobile home where pictures of their 26-year-old daughter hang on every wall.

“She helps us with whatever she can,” she said. “But she is just starting out and doesn’t make very much. But she is a good daughter, and she is so grateful for the work that the missionaries are doing.

A group of neighborhood girls in Eagle Pass practice their basketball skills during a sports camp held on KidsHeart week.

“God has given us a lot of life and a lot of blessings. You tell me, who else would give us something like this? Who else would help us this way, giving us a house in exchange for nothing? Nobody but you guys. When everyone else is trying to take advantage of the poor you come and do the opposite.”

First Baptist Church in Castroville and Baptist Temple in Uvalde worked on the Costilla home in cooperation with a local Catholic church and a Presbyterian church from Nebraska.

Espinoza was out of town when her house was sucked in by the 2007 tornado that created a horror version of the Wizard of Oz.

She is a migrant worker who travels around the country to pick crops. So, when the tornado struck Eagle Pass in 2007, she was working in Michigan. But some friends were staying at her house.

“The sky suddenly got dark and the wind was blowing hard,” said Patty Hernandez, who stayed in Espinoza’s house the day of the incident. “I was with my mom and brother and when it got scary we ran to the door and tried to open it, but the pressure kept it shut.

“The house started shaking, so we hid in a back room and held the door shut. Everything in the house flew off except for the room we were in. I could see everything flying over us and I started to fly off, too. But my brother held me down. It lasted for seven minutes, but it felt a lot longer than that. When the wind quieted, we opened the door of the room and we realized that were outside. The house was gone.”

That same day, Espinoza’s brother called to let her know that her house was gone.

“She got sick from the stress and got depressed with the news,” said Alicia Velez, Espinoza’s sister-in-law. “But now she’s so glad that KidsHeart volunteers are rebuilding her home. She doesn’t even know how to start thanking them.”

Buckner coordinator Galindo said that by the time Espinoza returned to Eagle Pass, FEMA had run out of money to help people with tornado repairs, so he knew that KidsHeart had to step in.

Now Velez sends phone pictures to Espinoza to show her the progress on her home.

 “She can’t wait to come home,” Velez said.

The churches that worked in the Espinoza house were South Main Baptist Church in Houston, which provided a $10,000 grant for materials; Trinity Baptist Church from San Antonio; First Baptist Church Hondo and Baptist Temple from Uvalde, Texas.

Other 2009 KidsHeart teams helped build homes and churches in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso colonias. To learn more about KidsHeart, call (210) 488-8169.