Twenty-three from the youth group went on a work-filled and fun-filled Mission Trip to San Antonio.
The weather was a bit hot, but the teens persisted and completed every single project on the facilities manager's list! We served at Magdalena House, a home for women and children escaping domestic violence or sex trafficking. We helped with gardening, raking, moving rocks, organizing clothes, picking up trash, and a LOT of painting of benches and picnic tables. That place is a haven, and we got to help make it a little more beautiful.
For our Sunday project we spent time at breakfast with Corazon Ministries, an organization in downtown San Antonio that helps the homeless population. We hung out and ate alongside 150 people, hearing some of their stories and sharing smiles and humanity. We worshipped at Travis Park Church, a historic church community with a passion for justice. And afterwards we organized their supplies closet, cleaned out their serving kitchen, assembled plasticware cutlery kits, and set up cots for their ministry to migrants.
We spent the night at the lodging facility of Project Transformation, an organization that hires college summer interns to do summer reading programs for low-income children.
Oh yeah ... we also squeezed in some fun, too! There was a dinner at La Fogata where we were serenaded by a Mariachi band, an evening at Chicken N Pickle where the teens learned how (kinda!) to play pickleball, and a cruise on the Riverwalk where a tour guide shared history and sights of San Antonio.