Year: 2021

By Giles Lambertson, Eagle Pass District Communications Director

Today’s southern border issues are primarily about people. Across the region, organizations are stepping up to cooperatively help hungry, unsheltered and scared border-crossers while policymakers sort out the rest of it. Two recent tractor-truck deliveries illustrate how church and humanitarian organizations are partnering to help the transient immigrant population and local residents in need of assistance.

Last week, food, blankets, water, hygiene kits and other goods were transported some 1,200 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah, to four partners in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Crystal City. The goods were contributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in response to local appeals for assistance.

One of the receiving organizations, Mission Border Hope, is an Eagle Pass non-profit service organization closely affiliated with the Methodist Church. At its Bibb Street facility, the organization offers food, overnight shelter, hygiene kits and orientation to people crossing into Maverick County. In September, some 7,300 immigrants processed through the facility after being screened by the Border Patrol and ICE. The month before, 8,100 were assisted. Eleven pallets of diapers, wipes, bottled water, hygiene kits and cleaning supplies were unloaded at the organization’s warehouse.

Forty-five miles east in the Zavala County seat town of Crystal City, the Home of Living Faith Church oversees another distribution effort. Under the leadership of Pastors Eloy and Laura Vera, the church helps as many as 600 people each month in Crystal City, Batesville and LaPryor, Twice-monthly distributions of food, clothing and other supplies primarily target local residents needing help. 

Thirteen pallets of canned fruits and vegetables, blankets, sanitary supplies and other items were unloaded at the Crystal City church and trundled into a storage area for timely distribution. “We exist to help the heart of our town and that is the people,” said Pastor Eloy Vera, who extended his “heartfelt thanks for this and future contributions to our church and pantry.”

In Del Rio, two pallets of bottled water were unloaded at the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition facility on Las Vacas Street. This non-profit organization, like others, serves immigrating individuals and families after they have been screened by Border Patrol and ICE and before being sent on to sponsoring families or organizations to await judicial consideration of their asylum requests. 

In July, some 1,700 people were helped at the Coalition’s facility. In August, the number more than doubled to 3,600. Among many organizations that support the coalition is a Del Rio congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It regularly assembles peanut butter and jam sandwiches for immigrants to eat during their typically long trips to their sponsors.

The fourth recipient of the donated goods was Del Rio’s Loaves & Fishes organization, which distributes bags of food three days a week to local residents in need of assistance. The same day the truckload of food from Salt Lake City arrived, the center received boxes of sandwiches left over from Del Rio City Church’s emergency feeding of Haitian immigrants under the city’s international bridge. Associate Pastor Shon Young and his wife Janeene repacked the sandwiches for placement in a cooler at Loaves & Fishes. 

Operations Director Margie Carroll supervised the truck unloading at Loaves & Fishes, which received 19 pallets of such staples as bottled water, canned fruits and vegetables, rice and sanitary supplies. She was assisted by Mario Cervantes, a Val Verde County employee who moved the pallets to the building with a forklift. 

A Loaves & Fishes volunteer with a pallet jack pulled the plastic-wrapped loaded pallets deeper into the warehouse. Elsewhere at the facility, four young people serving missions in a Del Rio congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints muscled pallets in the truck trailer or stacked and sorted boxed food items.

“This has been a trying year for us all, with the Covid pandemic and the people crossing our Del Rio-Acuna border,” Carroll said. “With this donation, we’re able to help many, many more needy families in our community.”

In all, 48 pallets of goods were distributed from the two trailer-trucks. Such deliveries are ongoing. Besides the four partners assisted this time, local officials in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also have working relationships with seven other county agencies, nursing homes and child welfare centers in Del Rio, Uvalde, Carrizo Springs and Cotulla.

The partnerships were initiated by Ross Davidson, president of the church’s Eagle Pass District, which covers 10 counties in southwestern Texas. “None of these organizations were aware that our church was able to help support their missions until we reached out and offered the help,” he said.

Davidson works closely with Steve Stotts, who manages the Houston/San Antonio/South Texas region of the church’s welfare and self-reliance service organization. Stotts was on hand in Del Rio to help oversee unloading of the truck.

The Utah-headquartered church’s distribution of food through community partnerships—religious and otherwise—was summed up by Davidson this way: “The church has for many years assisted individuals, families and communities, teaching them how to build self-reliance and to recover from unforeseen emergencies. To leverage our resources, we partner with local churches, charities and agencies—coming together with like-minded people to show the Savior’s love and care through selfless service.”

By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist

On August 29th Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana as a deadly and destructive Category 4 Atlantic storm. It was the second most damaging and intense hurricane on record to make landfall in Louisiana behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Ida’s maximum sustained winds at landfall were 150 mph.  She tied last year’s Hurricane Laura and the 1856 Last Island Hurricane as the strongest on record in the state. Ida is also the sixth-costliest tropical cyclone on record, having caused at least $50.684 billion in damages, of which $18 billion was in insured losses in Louisiana.

Five hundred miles away in San Antonio we were well aware of this storm but unaffected by it.  However, five weeks later, carloads of  local Latter-day Saint volunteers were on their way with every intention of getting deeply involved countering the destruction of this terrible storm. They were joined by members from other parts of Texas, as well as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida.  

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, emphasized that same weekend in the Church’s General Conference, “ Most humanitarian and charitable efforts need to be accomplished by pooling and managing individual resources on a large scale.”  Although we don’t know the total number of volunteers who worked there, the people at the designated camp site numbered approximately 1,550.  Members from all of the eight stakes in the San Antonio area were represented.

The Latter-day Saint representative to the Texas Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (TXVOAD), Gene Jensen, (read more about VOAD) said this was the fifth weekend in a row that large teams had been sent into the disaster area to work.  “We were assigned remote areas deep in very swampy regions,” Brother Jensen said. “We saw a tremendous amount of storm damage.”  Because the work was performed outside Texas, Brother Jensen was not there in his official position but as a member of the Pecan Valley Stake.

An example of the size of the projects assigned to the volunteers was the large project of helping the St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Paradis, Louisiana.  This site had been worked on for several weeks by multiple teams but with little progress on clearing the large trees blown down on their 12 acre lot.  

President Frank Freeman, Texas Hill Country Stake 2^nd Counselor said, “We did another project early that Sunday morning and then headed down to Paradis, arriving right about 9 a.m., just as their first Mass was getting over. A second Mass was scheduled for 10 a.m. and we were concerned the noise of our sawing trees and operating equipment would disturb them.”  Apparently they were unfazed. President Freeman went on to say that their Parrish Priest, Father Joseph Duc Dzien, who evacuated from Vietnam in 1975, was there to meet them. “He was a very humble man serving in a very humble parish.”

The Parrish owns 12 acres with large trees interspersed throughout. The Parrish property was home to local fairs and other community activities. Well over half of the large trees were down due to the 150 mph winds experienced during Hurricane Ida. A good number of these trees had been cut up by prior teams but were still in their original locations due to the size of the logs.  

President Freeman said, “A member of our Stake not only donated his time, he donated the use of his skid steer (pictured above). With that we were able to not only cut up all the rest of the largest trees, we got all the downed trees from the acreage piled up in a single location to be removed.”  

They were assisted throughout the project by the Catholic church property manager and were presented at the end of project with lunch provided by the property manager’s wife.  “We learned that this was the first week since the hurricane that the congregation had been able to use their building and it was a great service to them to get the debris cut up and moved.”

The work was not without its share of interesting experiences. President Freeman said that while working on the Parrish property a passerby volunteered to help. “We were pretty much finished at that point, but we found out he was actually looking for employment and did not have money for gas or food. He was catholic so I committed him to attend the Parrish we were working on the next week. We then helped him with his stated needs so that he could get an unexpected blessing.” President Freeman confirmed that this was, indeed, the first time he’d ever committed someone to attend Catholic services.  

Not everyone was thrilled to have the volunteer workers in their neighborhoods, however.  One was a neighbor of a project that the Hill Country Stake volunteers were working on.  His cable went out during the work on the adjacent lot and he felt the workers were somehow the cause. He was not happy that he could not sit at home and watch the upcoming LSU football game. “He confronted us wanting to know which company we worked for as he wanted compensation for not being able to watch the game. We told him we were just volunteers to which he responded quite heatedly that no one volunteers today. He insisted that we were being paid by someone and he wanted to talk with them before we left.” President Freeman assured him that “No one was paying us except the Lord and in fact everyone he saw was donating considerable time and expense of their own to be spending the weekend there.” President Freeman said the man resumed hiding in his house.

The weather was very humid and the ground was wet and muddy.  “Truthfully,” said President Freeman, “Most places where we worked had high grass, a lot of brush, and many marshy areas. Snakes and alligators were a constant concern but we just moved in to do what was needed.” Fortunately most teams did not actually encounter any of the above mentioned critters. 

Josh Ragsdale is a member of the Bulverde Ward, Texas Hill Country Stake.  For him the biggest obstacle was overcoming the trepidation of actually going. “First of all it’s a major hassle for the common American guy to make this work; getting off work early, buying supplies, getting the kid (son, Dillon) out of school early, making arrangements, and paying for the gas to go.”  He continued, “Then you have the physical toll that it takes on your ‘Dad bod.’  Now back in the day chopping and hauling wood all day like a lumberjack is great. But now… not so much.”  

All joking aside Brother Ragsdale shared a personal miracle.  “A few days before going I twisted my knee and had a noticeable limp, but I had already committed to going. I was genuinely worried that I would be useless hobbling around the worksite after the first hour.  Even while driving the eight hours over to Louisiana my knee was stiff and hurt.  I was really worried. Then when we arrived and I stepped out of the truck I had no more doubts. The next morning I got up and my knee was just fine and over the two days of hard work it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, physically I worked well above my normal ‘Dad bod’ abilities. Heavenly Father definitely blessed me.”

President Freeman was particularly impressed by the youth who volunteered to serve. He said that each team had at least one if not several youth. “I saw enormous growth in their perspectives as well as an appreciation for their own blessings.” 

Brother Ragsdale noted that his son really stepped up to the plate. “Without a peep of discomfort and with supreme selflessness he delivered in ways I have never in my life witnessed. I watched him make countless trips with wheelbarrows full of debris, never asking for a break, or even showing signs of discomfort.” As Brother Ragsdale watched his son interact with local residents he realized his son was ready for a mission.

President Freeman said that the hardest obstacle to overcome was having to ask people to serve without being able to tell them what they were to do and where they were to go.  “The Church coordinators did a great job briefing the priesthood leaders both late Tuesday evening and then again late Wednesday evening.”  He added, “It was miraculous the number who volunteered by Tuesday afternoon without anything other than ‘we need your help and we will let you know later what you are to do.’”

Mike Chatterton, a Cibolo Valley Stake Team Lead, said his teams worked a total of 14 hours over the 2 days (238 man hours) and closed out a total of 7 work orders. “We had some really great opportunities to help others not only with our service, but by reminding them that their Heavenly Father will help them when they need it.”

“…Even so will I fulfil—I will fight your battles.” D & C 105:14

By Leisa Parsons and Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialists

“Through your ministry, donations, time and love, you have been the answer to so many prayers. And yet there is so much more to do.” said Sister Sharon Eubank during her address at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ General Conference Saturday evening .

She went on to say “As baptized members of the Church, we are under covenant to care for those in need. Our individual efforts don’t necessarily require money or faraway locations; but they do require the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a willing heart to say to the Lord: ‘Here am I, send me.’”

This afternoon, members of the Valencia Branch answered the invitation to help those in need. They brought household goods to a new family of refugees from Afghanistan. The Valencia Branch, from the San Antonio East Stake, has been gathering the furniture and items for a few weeks awaiting the call that came last night — a family was ready to move in.

Elisa Rangel, the Branch Relief Society President said when she first heard about the opportunity to gather items for refugees she was thrilled to put her religion into practice. She said: “The mission of our Church is to help  our fellowmen. And I wanted to put charity, the pure love of Christ, into action.”

In Sunday afternoon’s session of General Conference, Bishop Todd L. Budge of the Church’s Presiding Bishopric was asked to speak of the Church’s many humanitarian efforts around the globe. He said: when “viewed from the perspective of ‘giving to’ the Lord, our sacrifices on behalf of others become gifts, and the joy of generously giving becomes its own reward.” 

The branch brought so many items for this family of five, that Joann Franck, from the Center for Refugee Services, said that she could bring some of the items to other families. She said that the Afghan families are so good to share any excess items with newly arrived families. She said there were approximately 1,000 Afghans in the area, with more arriving. Many refugees that will arrive here are currently being held up with paperwork and in trying to insure everyone is healthy and vaccinated. 

Bishop Budge said: “Yes, each of us is small, but together as we hasten to give to God and our fellowmen, wherever we go, lives are enriched and blessed.”

To see how you can help please go to JustServe

by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist

Two events that would seem dichotomous are under way this weekend for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Antonio. It is the Church’s worldwide semi-annual General Conference where members get to sit and listen to Church leaders. However, for many San Antonio members they are doing anything but sitting! They are participating in clean up efforts in the wake of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. 

They are literally putting into action the teachings that were given today. In this morning’s session, Elder Ulisses S. Soares, a member of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve apostles said: “The compassionate attitude of Jesus is rooted in charity, namely in His pure and perfect love, which is the essence of His atoning sacrifice. Compassion is a fundamental characteristic of those who strive for sanctification, and this divine quality intertwines with other Christian traits, such as mourning with those who mourn and having empathy, mercy and kindness.”

Members from the area left yesterday to head to the clean up sites in Louisiana. They will work all day today, camp and then continue their cleanup efforts again tomorrow. The accommodations are pretty primitive for the workers, who had to bring all of their own food, clothing and shelter. It is truly a compassionate and wholly Christian effort they are undertaking.

President Dallin H. Oaks, of the Church’s First Presidency cited the need for churches and gathering during his address this morning. As members in San Antonio are clearing debris, he said: “Most humanitarian and charitable efforts need to be accomplished by pooling and managing individual resources on a large scale”. He then cited the Church’s “Helping Hands” efforts in connection with disaster relief.

By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist

The day started out hot and muggy, a typical San Antonio late summer day. But what was about to happen in the San Antonio East Stake Center parking lot was not typical. Members of the Converse Ward , San Antonio East Stake, were preparing to take collected clothing, furniture and love to an Afghan family that just arrived in San Antonio. The vehicles were loaded down with clothes and furniture.  In addition to that, on the bumper of a trailer was a small white board with a welcoming message for the new family and wishing them well in their new home.  

Sister Cheri Robison, who was the Converse Ward Relief Society President at the time, said that as soon as she read the email telling her what was wanted she knew this was what they needed. “This is how we put our ministering into action. We’re going to walk the walk instead of just talk the talk.  And I just couldn’t say no.”  

Sister Stephanie Merrell, Converse Ward Relief Society Service Coordinator, got the assignment to gather the items. She had a spreadsheet with all the items on it that the family would need. “Three days ago we found out the family would be ready to receive it today, so we put the plan into action and got everything together.” She added that they gathered almost everything they needed. “What we don’t deliver today we can deliver later.”

Converse Ward Bishop, Gregg Hulon, was grateful for the assignment. “It helps bring our ward back together.” He said that this ward, like so many others, struggled with the social impact of COVID and being ask to stay home. “To have an activity like this, as a ward, joined us together for a unified cause to help a family.” He added, “We were able to help a family that we knew absolutely nothing about. I think it’s a great experience for everybody.”

Pat Tapmeyer is the Donations Coordinator for the Center for Refugee Services and a volunteer herself. She said of the groups like the Latter-day Saints who are helping with donations, “The opportunities to get involved are endless. But even better, the blessings received are often greater than the blessings given.”

San Antonio will receive many more Afghan families over the next month or so. So see how you can help go to JustServe.org

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By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist

From time to time most of us have received an invitation to travel to a near-by town to help clean up after a flood, tornado or hurricane.  Many have responded to those invitations.  But how many of us know how the decision is made to send a particular stake to a certain area, for how long and to do what?  

The answer is fairly straightforward. The decision comes through Priesthood channels; that is to say, the local Area Authority counsels with his Stake Presidents and the decisions are made.  But who helps them coordinate with local government leaders and other volunteer organizations so that we show up at the right place, at the right time with the right tools and skills?  

In the United States each state has an organization called Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD).  VOAD is made up of representatives from different churches and service organizations.  It was formed over 50 years ago in response to the challenges many individual organizations experienced following Hurricane Camille, a category five storm that hit the Gulf Coast in August 1969. 

Up until that time, the numerous government, private sector and nonprofit organizations assisted disaster survivors without any coordination. As a result, help came to the survivors haphazardly. In some areas there were too many volunteers while in other places not enough. Very often they showed up without proper equipment or information. It was obvious that we needed to be better organized.  

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been a national member of VOAD for many years,” said Gene Jensen, the Latter-day Saint representative on the Texas state VOAD Council.  “My job is to be an ambassador for the Church in the world of disaster response. It’s to build relationships with our VOAD partners and to help them understand what our Church is able to do as well as find out who they are and what their particular interests and capabilities are.”  

Brother Jensen has been in this calling for over a decade.  “Originally there were no other LDS VOAD leaders in the state of Texas to work with me.  But over time I have helped set up local and county VOADs.”  He is also the Church representative on the San Antonio VOAD where he was just released as Chairman.  

When asked how he stays informed of disasters he replied, “I have to keep my ear to the ground and be listening and watching.  I’m a newshound.  I track hurricanes, thunderstorms that look like they might develop tornadoes.  I’m interested in the fires and major disasters like the explosion in West.”  Brother Jensen added, “Sometimes it starts with me finding out or sometimes I get a call.  For example, in 2015, I was enjoying Christmas in Europe when I got a call that there were multiple tornadoes in the Dallas area.  So I got on the phone and started checking with Stake Presidents and the Area Seventy.  I asked, ‘What are  you doing, what have you got, what do you need, how can I help?’”  As soon as he hit the ground in Texas he was able to work with them in person.

Brother Jensen made it clear that, “I don’t manage or direct anything. I’m there as a subject matter expert on how to respond.  I look at what the need is and I look at what the resources are and I say, ‘You may want to think about doing this’ or ‘I’d be careful not to do that.’  For example with the West explosion a few years ago my only job was to tell people to stay away. Sometimes the best response is no response.”  

He pointed out that when the leaders come up with a plan one of the key things that needs to be done is to set an end date.  “Because if you don’t you’ll get a lot of activity on the first weekend and then people think they are done. You need to spread the load out.” He also addressed the need to measure the size of the disaster.  “Typically on a major storm I’ll recommend maybe eight weekends.”  He also takes into consideration location and tries to match the area in need with units that are able to respond.  “If the disaster is in the Rio Grande Valley you may want to consider inviting the people from the San Antonio Coordinating Council to send volunteers.”

In response to the question how to best prepare for disasters Brother Jensen replied, “Don’t prepare for a tornado or a hurricane or a fire.  You may never have one.  The way to prepare is to pick different needs; the need for communication, the need for transportation, for food, for water, medication and many other things.”

As an example he said he has copies of all his critical documents on his cell phone with copies sent to his family members.  “Many times I’ve seen people who have evacuated who can’t show where they live.  Be prepared yourself!  Then know what you can offer to somebody else.”

Brother Jensen retired as a Colonel from the United States Air Force having flown a number of large aircraft.  He claims that his first disaster response was during Christmas of 1964 when he flew emergency relief supplies to flooded areas of California.  “We were flying old C-119s nicknamed ‘Boxcars’ and hauling mail, cattle feed, blankets, anything you can think of.  I guess that introduced me to what was needed in disaster relief.”  

He concluded by emphasizing, “The greatest thing we can do as members of the Church is to be well prepared ourselves.  And that’s not just physical preparation.  It’s spiritual, it’s emotional, it’s economic, it’s all kinds of things. I couldn’t do this if my family was hungry at home. The self-reliance arm of the Church is a powerful tool.”  Resources on the Church of Jesus Christ’s website to help include: Temporal Preparedness and Self Reliance .

September is National Preparedness Month. Along with the Church’s preparedness sites, you can also access the government’s site: National Preparedness. This site has a week by week plan to help you and your family become better prepared.

By Elder and Sister Brooks

On a hot August morning a large semi-truck rolled into Eagle Pass, Texas, loaded with pallet after pallet of vitally needed food and hygiene supplies for asylum seekers and refugees in Eagle Pass, Texas. The truckload of supplies was a welcome blessing for Mission: Border Hope, a non-profit organization serving the growing needs of God’s children passing through this Texas border town.

This donation, from the Bishop’s Storehouse in Salt Lake City, is part of the global humanitarian and welfare services of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was organized by President Ross Davidson, Eagle Pass District President. Missionaries, assigned to the area, have been offering service at Mission: Border Hope on an ongoing basis for several years.

Valeria Wheeler, Director of Mission: Border Hope, gratefully acknowledged the generous donation of 28 pallets with 1,500 cases of food, hygiene kits, and other supplies. On the day the truck arrived, some 400-500 people were fed a hot meal, offered showers and clean clothing. Assistance was also give to arrange safe travel to their final destination. Six of the agency’s clients helped unload the giant truck into an empty warehouse nearby.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, throughout the world, endeavor to follow the Savior’s admonition to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked and visit the sick and those in prison (see Matthew 25:35-36). Millions of people have benefited from temporal and spiritual assistance through humanitarian and welfare donations.

by Leisa Parsons and Kristen Pack, Area Media Specialists

“We have so much more in common” said Pastor Beth Wyndham speaking of the two faiths that came together last Saturday to help prepare a new space for her Episcopalian congregation. She continued, “When you think about the pain in the world and how so many are so angry, it’s an affirmation of why churches need to be here. A need is a need.”

Helping to answer the need was a small army of missionaries and members from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The “need” on Saturday was to gut and clean out what was once The Front Porch Bar and Grill on Main street in Bulverde and help start its transition into a place where the members of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church can worship.

Pastor Wyndham was explaining her vision for the new space to one of her congregants, Scott Perrin, and told him she “didn’t want to bring in a contractor because it’s expensive.” Shortly after, Wyndham says that Perrin called her and said, “I’ve got some guys coming tomorrow. If you’ll be there with a list and point us in the right direction we’ll get to work.”

“This is a pretty big deal” said Pastor Wyndham, “because of their [Perrin’s] relationship with his neighbor, we’ve been blessed with this help.” Scott and Nancy Perrin have a close relationship with their neighbors Cami and Brett Rush. They both describe their relationship as “family”.

Cami Rush, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, said, “When this task came about and Scott saw how daunting it would be, he actually knew who to call. He knows we have an army of resources in our Church. He didn’t hesitate, he knew the missionaries would be willing to help.”  

“I think that is so fantastic that he [Perrin} knew they’d serve, and that Heavenly Father would want our missionaries to be known for serving others as Jesus Christ did.” said Rush.

The group worked to remove signs and old fixtures and to help transform the space from a restaurant and bar into a place of worship. Pastor Wyndham brought her sharpie marker with her and had everyone who showed up to serve, write a prayer or their favorite scripture on one of the walls that will eventually be painted, that way, their service would “be a part of them.” Kristen Pack, from the Smithson Valley congregation said: “It was really sweet actually, seeing that row of missionaries … writing down scriptures that were most meaningful to them.”

This is the first new “plant” or church in the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas in 15 years. The Diocese takes in an enormous 66,000 square miles of west and south Texas. Pastor Wyndham and the Diocese started looking for a place for their new congregation in January of 2019, finally settling on the Bulverde and Spring Branch area.

Perrin said, “We’re looking to be a part of the community [in Bulverde and Spring Branch] and serving the community, that is what drew us to this church.” He continued, “That’s also the role of the Mormon community — to serve others.”

Pastor Wyndham said, “St. Nicholas is all about joy, which is what I want to communicate to the community. Joy is beyond how we’re feeling at the present moment.” She quickly noted, “There’s nothing like having a church centered on joy and having a pandemic to test that…. God is teaching me faith through this process…. God is saying just trust Me.” Currently their congregation averages 35 on any given Sunday. Pastor Wyndham said,”It is a great start for an Episcopal church not even two years old and coming off of Covid.”

“It’s not efficient to leave the ‘ninety and nine’ and go and find the ‘one’, but that’s what we’ve been called to do. We’re not called to efficiency, we’re called to relationships.” said Pastor Wyndham. Relationships are what made this whole opportunity for service possible — relationships of love and service between the Perrin and Rush families.

by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist

August 1st will signal the reopening of Haven for Hope’s Intake Center. They closed down their intake facility over a year ago due to Covid. During the shutdown, their intake area was being used to quarantine those homeless individuals who actually had Covid and to avoid spreading it to other residents.

Chuck Atanasio, who oversees service opportunities for the San Pedro congregation, had been reaching out to Haven for Hope for several months. With Haven now resuming their normal operations, they contacted Atanasio with word that they needed volunteers. Over a dozen members from three congregations in the Church’s San Antonio North Stake showed up to help clean.

Their intake area needed disinfecting and paint clean up. Haven for Hope has a painter they have contracted to repaint the space, however they needed volunteers to clean up. “They had it all taped off, so we’ve pulled up all of the tape they had,” said volunteer, Mindy Clayton. She continued, “We’ve also been cleaning where they overpainted and the splatters.” By removing the splatters and tape, it helps Haven for Hope’s budget by avoiding more overtime costs.

Bishop Bruce Baillio, busy cleaning one of the bathrooms, mentioned that each of the rooms had about 6 metal cots and mattresses that needed disinfecting. He said, “We disinfected all of the mattresses and all of the frames and loaded them to a truck and took them to their courtyard.”

The volunteers worked for just over five hours, disinfecting and cleaning. They also removed furniture from offices still needing to be painted in anticipation for reopening. With Haven for Hope resuming normal operations, they are also opening back up to many volunteer opportunities.

By Ron Cooley & Ken Jarvis

From the end of March through most of May unaccompanied migrant boys who crossed into Texas from Mexico were sheltered at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio.  

Several San Antonio area JustServe volunteers worked with Catholic Charities to care for these young boys ages 13 to 17.  At one time, there were as many as 2,400 boys housed at the Coliseum. Most of them were from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Acting as mentors and counselors, the volunteers ensured their safety, provided proper treatment and even taught them some English.  

Area JustServe Coordinator, Ron Cooley, said that just being a listening ear to their hardships and aspirations for a new future was very beneficial.  “As I got to know these young men, I would ask what made them decide to come to the US? ‘Did you just say I’m going or did your parents tell you to go?’ Most said that their parents told them, ‘Just go…go.  Life will be better for you.’”  

Cooley said he could tell it was a sacrifice based on faith for a young boy to leave home.  “I could sense overall a deep respect for God. That was quite evident when I saw several boys wake up and kneel down next to their cots to say their morning prayers.”

He was impressed with their commitment. “The journey was hard, but their eyes were filled with hope for a better future.”