Mission team members read for the worship service

The holiday season comes with many traditions, and for Our Father Lutheran Church in Centennial, Colorado, spending the Thanksgiving weekend serving meals to people in El Paso and Juarez has been a tradition for twenty-four years.

The members of Our Father work together in fundraising and donating, year-round, towards a Thanksgiving meal made to feed over a thousand people in three days.  For many of the members who make the long trip from Colorado to West Texas, this mission trip has become a tradition they cannot imagine not being involved in.

Working together to prepare a delicious meal for 150 people

On Thursday, the team joined the San Pablo Lutheran Church congregation in a beautiful Thanksgiving Service, where their leader, Carol Hill, shared how much being a part of the Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) family means to her, and how blessed and thankful she is to her church family for giving of themselves to people they don’t know during a time known for being dedicated to family and friends.

Children from Our Father donated their Halloween candy to be made into goody bags for children in Juarez

With sixteen people of all ages on this year’s Mission Team, they were more than ready to get to work soon after arriving Wednesday evening.  From picking up groceries to feed over 150 on Thursday, and even more families on Friday at Anapra and Saturday at Kilometro 30, every single person worked diligently as soon as they got started early Thursday morning.  The young kids put together treat bags for kids, filling them with little wooden cars, and candy donated by the children of their congregation from their Halloween stash.  The teenagers worked non-stop wrapping up silverware, as well as helping in the kitchen as needed, while the adults did the cooking and baking.

Getting to see old friends is a joy for several of the returning members in the mission team

Mireya Loomis, 19, shared how she’d been coming to YLM to help with the Thanksgiving meals since she was eight years old.  “We involve the children and teenagers in tasks that they can do,” Carol Hill shared in regards to all that was being done, “They feel like they’re contributing, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.  Several of these kids look forward to coming –the trip into Anapra and Kilometro 30 is especially exciting for them.”

As people came in and were served with smiles and kindness, it was truly a thankful experience as people sat together and ate while sharing and catching up with each other.  The food was enjoyed, along with the music by the Mariachi San Pablo, which was another tradition the Mission Team from Our Father was looking forward to.

It was an exciting weekend for this mission team as they reconnected with people they’ve built friendships with, building new ones along the way.  Despite their once a year visit to the border cities of El Paso and Juarez, connections made every year are easily built over the gift of food, and each visit makes those friendships just as sweet as the cake they served.