On February 19^th twenty five men and women headed south to the Texas/Mexico border for a week of mission work. Volunteers from Wausa were Roger Donner, Leona Gustafson, Joy and Rowan Nelson, Carle Johnson, Dennis and Kay Kronberg, and Cheryl Wamberg. Concrete for Christ is an annual mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico where we work with pastors on building and remodeling projects to help the local churches carry out ministry. We also work at a rural Reynosa orphanage. 

Normally the team stays at the Grace & Peace church in the city of Reynosa, but due to drug-cartel-related violence in the city, we were advised to have the team stay in McAllen and make day trips into Mexico for our work projects. As last year, we stayed at Maranatha Church in McAllen. 

The Puerta de la Fe Church (Door of Faith) in San Valentin is a new church plant in the outskirts of Reynosa. San Valentin is a colony constructed by factory companies in the Reynosa area for their employees and this is the first church in the area. It is estimated that San Valentin has a population of roughly 15,000 people, and new little houses are still being added. Two years ago, our team poured the concrete floor for the building which will become the fellowship hall, but is now used as the sanctuary. We were able to leave a cash gift and local volunteers put up the cement block walls and a temporary roof. This year’s project included the removal of the temporary roof with wooden support beams and replaced them with an iron supported roof which does not require center support beams and then finished the roof with trusses and tin. A second project at San Valentin was roughing in the plumbing for the church restrooms. The church does not have restroom facilities, and they are definitely looking forward to this. The work is not done. The congregation is outgrowing the fellowship hall as a place for worship and is hoping to begin the construction of the sanctuary soon. Please pray for funds and workers to meet this need.   

Another work site Valley Community Church in McAllen. We helped transform a dark-paneled, poorly lit storeroom into a bright, welcoming youth room. The work included many coats of paint over the paneling, replaced an entry door and door jamb, installed new fluorescent lights, put finish trim around windows, and purchased an air conditioner for the room. We put a new fluorescent light in the church kitchen and constructed a storage closet for kitchen supplies. We also helped clean up the grounds and sewed curtains for classrooms.   

Thursday we spent the day at the Pilar de Esparanza (Pillar of Hope) orphanage. Work projects included helping fence a chicken yard, painting in the new dining hall, and trench digging, water pipe laying, and roughing in the plumbing for the dining hall. Spending time with the children is always a highlight. 

We packed up to leave for home on Friday morning, but first stopped to shop for a couple of hours at Progresso, Mexico.