2008
TEAM – Summer 2008
Friday, April 9th, 2010
June 28 – July 3 – Sons of Salvation, Minnesota
Continued Park Clean-up
Casa 1 Trim and Doors
Replaced Wood and primed ice room
Painted interior pool wall and began exterior
July 6-11 – Christ Reformed Church, Pennsylvania
Completed Interior trim & doors of Casa 1
Repaired sheet rock in Auditorium
Continued sheet-rocking in the new Casa
Cleaned, Prepped, and Painted School
July 13-18 – Faith Community Church, Colorado
Painted Interior of Ext. Casa 1 & installed fans
Finished painting exterior pool wall and ice room
Touch-up painting in school
Cleaned floors
July 20-24 – Kingman Mennonite, Kansas
Continued touch-up painting and cleaning in the school
Finished repairing exterior trim on Casa 1, began Casa 6
Worked with Newsletter mailing
July 28-Aug 1 – Woodlands Lutheran, Texas
Prepped & Primed Casas 1, 2, 3, & 6
Painted Casa 1 Yellow!
Moved school sign and bell
Various woodwork & Bodega clean-up
Helped move donations at Pharr office
Aug 3-9 – Brethren Work Camp, Illinois
Cleanup & organization of warehouse at Pharr office
Completed replacing all woodwork on homes
Finished painting Casas 2 & 3, conít. on 6
Removal of debris/trash that T.E.A.M.S had been piling up all summer
TEAM – Winter 08-Spring 09
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Realizing the significance of the troubled economy, along with most of the Border Cities’ bad reputations, we are humbled and blessed that these 8 TEAMs still felt led to answer the call! They all worked really hard… but there’s still so much left to do! Our prayer is that their stories will encourage others to come out and lend us a hand!
If you hadn’t heard of Fargo, ND. before, I’m sure you’ve heard of it now! As I write this article, my prayers join those of our children who are lifting up their good friend Sr. Noel, the students at Oak Grove Lutheran School and the Bollman Family. It seems like they were just here with us, painting the exterior of Malena’s office, finishing off the artwork in the pool and assembling our giant Christmas tree! A second trip was scheduled for the spring, the very week of the terrible flooding, I guess it is good to obey when God says ‘no’ or ‘wait till later’, we sure hope to see them again!
Don & Lucy Lindohlm, retired missionaries with Wycliffe, brought a first time group from Tyler Street UM Church up in Dallas, TX. They took on the task of putting the roof on the second extension for the House Parents’ room on Casa #4. Other jobs included painting & sorting. At the end of their stay they presented all of the children & staff great little personal hygiene kits-what a thoughtful gift!
‘Doc’ and Ms. Claris, came down the day after Christmas with the good folks from Bude Baptist church in Mississippi. Although Randall and I were away, due to his father’s passing, the TEAM felt right at home with Cliff and JoAlice Rushing as their hosts. On Saturday they had the pleasure of accompanying 15 of our children to Diversia- a family fun park where they played games, ate pizza and saw ‘Madagassgar’ on the big screen! These 15 represent the most needy children in our care – those whose relatives didn’t want or were unable to take them out for even a few days of vacation.
After attending church with the children, going to the Colonias and celebrating the New Year- it was amazing that this TEAM got any work done at all …much less to say they put up the trusses for the school extension, finished the trim work on casa #4 and even built a couple sets of steps – which have been put to good use. That Cliff is really a slave driver!
Two Men’s Ministries, POWER and Hero Makers, visited us in the month of January. Hero Makers dedicated their efforts to ‘Casa Irene’, the new home on our campus that one of their members wanted to build in honor of his mother. POWER jump started the conversion of the old dinning room into a new set of dorms, installed 8 new windows in the auditorium, and helped us host another Festival – open to the neighboring community! Over 500 people were in attendance and I believe this is the start of Refugio’s role as a beacon Christian love in the community which now surrounds us.
February brought Mr. Terry Brunswick and one of our favorite teams – Hines Chapel, from NC. (Oops, did I say ‘favorite’- well, you’ll see what I mean when I tell you what they do!) These are the guys who can build custom kitchen cabinets in less than three days …using only our tools! As if that weren’t enough, they got the roof on casa#5, trimmed the windows in the auditorium and painted the inside of Malena’s office bright green, at her request of course!
Next up was another group of first-timers all the way from McCook , NE. This small group of 9, came well recommended by our good friends Don & Suzy Burton. They continued to work diligently on the extensions on Casas 4 & 5, and on Thursday held for the first time ever, a ‘High Tea’ – complete with scones – for all of the ladies and girls at RIN! Talk about special.
A special word of thanks must go out to Mr. Byron Giles and his lovely wife Vicki. (2nd & 3rd rt.) God has been so awesome about sending the perfect people at the perfect time. This wonderful couple from Kansas City, Missouri lived on site at our office in Pharr, TX from January through March. Not a day passed that they didn’t go the ‘extra mile’ for CHI.
They were willing, able and joyful to do anything asked of them. I know the TEAMs were as pleased to have Byron around as their coordinator, as were the Thursday Winter Texan Repair & Construction Crews. Probably the only person even happier was Randall Chacon, who did a fabulous job too, but was sure glad to have the additional help.
Jaralyn Seaman, (far rt.) our spring intern was also a blessing from above -to the groups & to our Children. – B.C.
