First day was spent scraping up the worn down tile in the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom

St. Paul Lutheran Church from Mt. Prospect, IL came to Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care to serve a person in need on the last week of March. The twelve-member team dedicated their days, skills, and efforts to helping an 83-year-old widow named Socorro –her name means ‘help’ in Spanish –living in the suburbs of Socorro, TX. Her circumstances were dire; living alone, in poor health and limited mobility with the help of a walker, she was having difficulty with several needs of her home, which had been built for her by her husband over thirty years ago.

Front and back doors were refinished and rehung

The St. Paul mission team, being the hands and feet of Jesus, worked to do the needed repairs to the outside concrete walls, filling in cracks caused by the shifting foundation, and replacing the three loose boards making up her front stoop with a concrete one.

Due to the amount of demolition taking place inside the house, Socorro stayed with her son, who lived nearby. The old, stained ceiling drywall of the bathroom and hallways were torn out, replaced with new insulation, drywall, and repainted.

The bathroom walls and ceiling drywall was removed, replaced, mudded and painted

The bathroom sink, which had a faucet that did not work, and a small sink Socorro used to do her laundry, was not fixed, but replaced with an all-new bathroom vanity. They installed two new assist handles and a hand-held shower head for her shower, as well as new LED light fixtures and a new bathroom door.

Pastor Valencia shows Socorro the working kitchen sink

A plumber was called in to help with a clogged-up kitchen sink no one could fix. Within two hours, it was fixed, making it possible for Socorro to do her dishes without having to haul dirty dishwater in a basin from the kitchen to the bathroom, where she poured it down the sink. This wasn’t all the team provided, though.

The aging cracked drywall of the kitchen was replaced, repainted, the entryways to the kitchen and living room finished, the hallway walls and ceiling redone with new insulation and drywall, then painted.

Deep cleaning the kitchen appliances was an added labor of love

Then there were the floors to the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom. The old orange vinyl floor tiles were so worn down they were white.  St. Paul took turns chipping away most of the first day, getting every one of those stubborn, old tiles up, cheering in victory at the final tile being chipped off.  Using self-leveling concrete to fix problems in the old floor, they were then able to install a beautiful, new, inter-locking plank tile floor throughout the kitchen, hall, and bath.

Socorro returned to her “new” home Friday afternoon.  The St. Paul mission team changed her home, and her life. While Socorro simply requested help with the simple things, like the cracks on her concrete walls, the sink in the kitchen, and the faucet in the bathroom sink, her humble expectations were far exceeded by the St. Paul team, becoming a wonderful expression of God’s grace at work.

If you would like more information on Servant Event opportunities for your church, company, or family and friends, call us at (915) 858-2588 or send an email to luz.soto@ylm.org