Most of the men arrived without problems, getting to the Faith Mission in Del Rio, Texas around 9 pm after enjoying a tasty meal at a Chinese buffet.
Unfortunately, the last eight men didn’t make it to the Mission until 1 in the morning due to canceled flights caused by the grounding of the Boeing Max 9 airplanes. It was a short night for them, about 4 or 5 hours of sleep.
Day 2 started officially with a freshly cooked breakfast prepared by the men themselves at 6:30 am.
We then split up into 6 work groups and headed across the border without incident. We arrived in Acuna, Mexico around 8:30 energized and excited.
We spent the morning on three building projects, a church, an elementary school cafeteria building and a four bedroom house. Another team went to work buying and preparing food for lunch. There was also a team that went on a local neighborhood Joy Tour. The Joy Tour included worshiping and handing out necessities and candy in large quantities!
Lunch was served at a local church and included sausages, hot dogs and locally made chile rellenos (hot indeed!).
The afternoon included additional work on the 3 building projects, another Joy Tour, and a food team to get and prepare for our steak dinners.
Some of the local residents/missionaries were invited to join us for the steak dinner followed by ice cream sundaes for dessert. It was mouth watering!
The founder of the Faith Mission, Allen Ehlers, gave both a historical perspective of the mission, which was founded in 1962 by the founder who had $25 in his pocket and was living in a small travel trailer. A truly remarkable story! He also gave a passionate sermon on how these missions change people’s lives, including the men who make the trip and their families back home.
Lots of tired but fulfilled men at the end of Day 2!
Tim Holt