Today I share with you an update from Pastor Chad Mason regarding Calvary's response to the Central American refugee influx in our city:
“And then the
King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father;
take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world. For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me I was
in prison and you came to visit me… The King will reply, “I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Matthew 25: 34-36,
40
As you all know since about June 9th, the City of
McAllen has been responding to the overwhelming needs of Central American
Refugees who were being released by the Immigration and Customs officials to
“sponsor” family members already living in the US. They were being
released at the McAllen bus station in anticipation of their immediate
departure for other locations in the US. Because of the conditions that
these refugees were in, the need arose to provide a relief center to help
provide for their immediate needs. This includes providing a shower,
clean clothes, a meal, some provisions for their immediate travel. For
the few that had to wait overnight a tent shelter with cots has been provided.
Calvary became involved during the first week of
the relief center’s operation. Catholic Charities responded to the City’s
need immediately and established the Relief Center at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
The Church’s Community Center proved to be the best location to host the
center. Since getting involved Calvary has responded in the following
ways:
- Recruited Volunteers to Serve at Sacred Heart
with the Refugees
- Recruited Volunteers to serve at the Food Bank of
the RGV.
- Collected Items
to be given to Sacred Heart & Flip Flops for the Unaccompanied Minors
- Volunteered to
host a Mobile Laundry Unit and staff volunteers to meet the daily laundering
needs of the Relief Center.
- Provided
Leadership to the BGCT to engage teams from around the State that have a desire
to help.
- Acted in an
Advocacy Role in representing the need to government leaders, officials, and
media.
We have
responded in this manner with the heavy investment of volunteers over the last
60 days. These volunteers have sacrificed massive amounts of time,
invested of themselves with tremendous passion and skill. Jeanette
Ahlenius has been a God-sent as we first got involved and then transitioned to
providing the Laundry service. Her willingness to design systems, recruit
and train volunteers, and to serve as a representative of Calvary has truly
been a blessing. Ron Corbett has been another tremendous blessing!
Since day one he has made himself available in any capacity that is needed,
installation of the laundry units, pick-up and delivery of the clean and dirty
laundry, and much sweat and some tears in interacting with the refugee
families. Lastly Denise Love has been involved since we first became
involved. She and her husband David have spent a great deal of time at
Sacred Heart and recruited teams and leaders from other Churches to get
involved. She has been a huge support through out this time.
There have been
many other volunteers who have been heavily involved in the various ways
Calvary is engaged, and I cannot thank them, you, enough. I have never
seen a need like this, and I have never seen the overwhelming response poured
out by so many. Thank you!!!!!
Today I want to
update you on some of the changes that have emerged in the last few days.
1. Sacred
Heart: Since last Saturday Aug 2,
the border patrol (BP) has begun to detain the Family Units that are defined as
a Mother and her Children. They are transporting them now to a facility
just south of San Antonio. The Relief Center has been seeing between
50-200 people a day since they started the center in June. Now they
expect to see 20-25 people a day. The people we will now see at the
Center will be the Family Units that are defined as a Father with Children, or
Pregnant Mother’s. These are the only population groups that the BP is
continuing to release. This changes the needs drastically. The
biggest is an immediate halt to collecting donations of items such as clothes,
shoes, baby supplies… The biggest ongoing need will be volunteers and
funds.
2. Laundry
Service: Calvary
has committed to continuing the Laundry service, but the volume will be much
decreased. This means that we will only need one shift per day in the
morning. Unless there are new changes, the laundry should be finished by
12 noon daily. Jeannette has needed to step out of her leadership role
with the Fall season approaching. Tammie De Los Santos has stepped up to
organize the Laundry need for the immediate future. The initial mobile
laundry unit was lent to us by Texas Baptist Men. Our current mobile
laundry unit, which is bigger than the first one, is on loan to us from Baptist
Child and Family Services.
3. BGCT
Mission Teams: Calvary
has been asked by the BGCT to take a role in hosting teams who are coming to
serve from out of the area. We will begin providing breakfast and a
devotional for visiting teams (larger than 15) starting the week of Aug 15th.
This will be ongoing, and we are working to develop a team to take this
need on. Betty Flores will be organizing this ministry opportunity.
(These teams may not be staying at CBC but at the Valley Baptist Retreat Center
in Mission. However, we will play an important role in receiving them
and connecting them to volunteer opportunities).
4. Border
Patrol Care: Calvary has
found that there is high interest in finding ways to care for the many Border
Patrol Agents that have been overworked and highly stressed throughout the time
that this crisis has occurred. Several of our member have organized a
Cookie-Bake on Friday September 12 that will seek to provide many dozens of
cookies that can be given to Law Enforcement along with an encouraging thank
you note. This we hope will be the first event, that will help us to
recruit a team to help us organize a larger BBQ for a Saturday late in
September welcoming Law Enforcement Members and their families.
5. Calvary
Relief Director: Because
of the many roles that Calvary is involved in with this Crisis the BGCT offered
to provide us with some help in staffing. They have offered to fund a full time
person on a month-to-month basis to be a liaison for our church at Sacred Heart
and to direct the various ministry opportunities that we are involved in.
This person will provide onsite leadership to the Relief Center at Sacred
Heart. This person will provide Relief oversight in the various areas
discussed above, in partnerships with the Missions Ministry Staff at Calvary.
Denise Love has been selected as the person to lead our Relief
Response.
6.
Southtexasrefugees.org website: Calvary has continued to develop and administrate the Relief Response
Community Bulletin Board at www.southtexasrefugees.org. We daily receive
10-15 emails inquiring how people can help and respond to the many needs that
continue to emerge. Because of the massive amounts of information and
constant attention the site, and the information requests have required, we
hired a 20-hour a week intern to manage the communications. This has been
Arnold Garza, who is returning to Truett Seminary this weekend. We will
seek to replace his position with a bilingual intern who is technologically
proficient and able to respond to emails and phone calls, as well as daily
update the website. This position has been funded by designated funds for
this cause.
7.
Partners: We have
been blessed to work alongside local partners such as the City of McAllen,
Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army and the Food Bank of the RGV. In
addition, we have also received the support of our denominational partners such
as the Rio Grande Valley Baptist Association, the Baptist General Convention of
Texas, Texas Baptist Men, the Hispanic Convention of Texas, and the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship (Diann Whisnand has secured multiple gift cards from
churches around the country to provide supplies for our operation).
8.
Financial Cost: We have
received in excess of $8,553.42 in designated donations by individuals for this
cause. In addition, the BGCT has also provided other funds. All of
the financial cost for this operation, including utilities, supplies, staffing,
etc., has been/will be covered by these designated donations.
9.
Articles in State and National Media: Because of our involvement, our church has been featured in
multiple articles or news pieces by state and national media. Here are
some of them for your information:
Baptist Press:
CBN News:
Buckner:
Fox News:
Facebook video:
Facebook video:
At the beginning
of September we will reevaluate our staffing needs and shift according to the
emerging needs. Thank you for all your help, your service, and your love
for these, “least of these”. I believe that God has been honored
in our response.
“Keep on
loving each other as brothers and sisters.
Do not forget to entertain
strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without
knowing it.”
Hebrews 13:1-2
*Biblical basis for this ministry: Leviticus 19:10, 34; Job 31:32; Isaiah 58:7-10; Matthew 10:43-45; 25:34-46; Luke 14:12-14
