UNT BSM spring break mission trip

i just got home from taking our UNT BSM students on a spring break mission trip to the rio grande valley, specifically to san benito, tx and reynosa mexico. we left on saturday (3/17) and returned back to denton on friday (3/23). the trip went amazingly well. we were blessed by perfect accommodations at borderland calvary chapel in san benito, tx. the church converted 1/3 of their facilities into a mission facility with 2 bunk rooms (each sleeping over 40 and had their own bathroom facilities), a huge common room and a large kitchen. their pastor, dwayne spearman gave us his entire week to be our "leader" and help us as we ministered to the different communities.

here is an overview of our schedule for the week:
on sunday, our students distributed information for the church in the neighborhoods surrounding the church, and then spent the rest of the evening getting things ready for the next day. on

monday we went into reynosa mexico. we spent the morning distributing rice and beans to an impoverished area. the poverty there was astounding. this picture was taken of some of the children in this area. along with passing out the rice and beans, we also walked around saying "dulce" which is spanish for candy which made the children run to us. then in the afternoon, we went to an orphanage outside of reynosa and did a vacation bible school (VBS) for around 70 children.

tuesday, we went to the first baptist church of reynosa and did light construction for them (sanding chairs/gates/metal doors, painting, etc). the church was so excited and appreciative that we were there that they went an bought enough bottled coca cola for each of us to have 4. then they went and bought chicken and sausage and grilled lunch for us. it was amazing to see how even though we were there to serve them, they wanted nothing more than to serve us. such a blessing to see the body of christ work as it should. lunch was fabulous. we actually set up tables and chairs in their chicken coup and ate the chicken and sausage (which was made from goat) with live chickens running around our feet.

wednesday, was a crazy day. i had to take a student to the emergency room to have her wrist looked at (she fell in mexico, but thankfully it was just a bad sprain). while we were there a maintenance man was mowing the lawn... and the lawn mower threw a rock THROUGH the drivers door window on one of our 15 passenger vans. so i spent the rest of the day getting a glass company to come and replace the window so that we could head back into mexico the next day. our students spent the day distributing information for the church to communities in san benito and brownsville, tx while also doing door-to-door evangelism and outreach surveys.

thursday was our longest day... but easily my favorite day off all. we went back into reynosa and did some light construction at a church start that the church we stayed at was working with. while some of our students were working at the church the rest of the students went out to distribute beans and rice to another community. then we held a VBS at the church that evening and had around 35-45 children come. the VBS went amazingly well, and by thursday night most of us were starting to get more familiar and comfortable with communicating through very broken spanish. god blessed us with 2 fluent spanish speaking students who were able to help us communicate with the people we came into contact with. the picture to the left shows you some of the children we had at this VBS. also, while we were at the vbs, i met a 9 year old girl who's name is stephanie michelle... which as most of you know is my name. here she is...

friday, we went to progresso mexico so that our students could shop for souvenirs and then ate an authentic mexican meal at a restaurant and then headed back to denton.

the trip was amazing. our students stepped up to the plate and were always willing to serve no matter the situation or circumstance. we pray that god blessed those who we met just as much as they blessed us.