Today and tomorrow, we’re back in Reynosa at the Dome Church: Alianza Cristiana. While there were work projects in the morning, this afternoon’s work sites were cleaned up, and the POWER teams prepped for the festival, which drew hundreds of local children and their parents to the church.
You might notice I said POWER teams in that last paragraph. While most days you only see the men wearing ONE color shirt, today there were two — with the brilliant blue color worn by the POWER team of Compass Christian Church in Colleyville, TX.
This independent POWER group is a brethren organization to POWER Ministries, running their own mission trips to the Texas / Mexico border. While their trip this week focused on a project at the Rio Bravo Children’s Home in Reynosa, they joined their POWER brothers at Alianza for the festival today, and morning services tomorrow.
Today started with our POWER team departing the hotel at 7 AM for Border Mission and the continued Men of POWER devotion led by Craig Gilbert. Today’s devotion focused on Men of Reliance.
“When you look at all the great men in Hebrews 11,” said Craig, “one thing you’ll find is that they all relied on God.” Craig explained that to be a man of reliance, you had to start by understanding that God has a plan; you had to rely on God — and then you had to be a man on whom others can rely.
“Life is like a game of tennis,” said Craig. “The one who serves best, seldom loses.”
Today’s assignments included continued work on the high school at Alianza and the clinic at Senda de Vida. There was also a cooler project at Border Missions. In the relationship-building department, there was bowling with the orphan kids from Big Heart — and of course a LOT of festival prep.
Scheduled to start at 2 PM, this year’s festival kicked off with the POWER puppet team stirring up a ton of excitement with the local children (not to mention silly string everywhere, and cannons shooting miniature soccer balls out to the crowd). The food crew prepared and distributed 1,500 hot dogs. There were games for the kids, cotton candy and popcorn. A photo booth provided near-instant souvenirs. Before we knew it, it was 6 PM and the festival winded down.
Sunday is another Getaway Day! The POWER team will be packed when they climb on the vans, and head for church services in Reynosa, and then they’ll be on their way back to San Antonio. But more on that tomorrow!