Maritza, Facilitator of Donations and Distributions, has worked closely with OGT branches this past year

For thirty years, Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) and Orphan Grain Train (OGT) have been partnering to bring aid to people in need in the Border cities of El Paso and Juarez. OGT, founded in 1992, delivers donations of all kinds to multiple organizations and churches, both domestic and international.

Wisconsin OGT brought over fifty bicycles for children in the Chihuahua mountains

Throughout the years, YLM has received medical equipment, thousands of pounds of potatoes, beans, and non-perishable food items, clothing and blankets, as well as furniture of all kinds. June of this year, the Wisconsin branch of OGT delivered over 50 bicycles donated by the Summer Outdoor Adventure Club (SOAC) to be taken across the border and up into the Chihuahua mountains, where indigenous children will be blessed with a safer mode of transportation to and from school.

Last month, 15 school cafeteria tables were brought by the Indiana branch of OGT and ten of those tables were taken into Juarez to be distributed among four of the mission-churches partnering with YLM. Earlier in the year, over 600 pairs of brand-new sandals were collected and delivered through the Houston OGT branch. The Norfolk OGT branch, however, is the designated branch YLM has been partnered with for the past three decades.

Rescue Mission of El Paso has taken thousands of boxes of clothing to Mexico for people in need

Through them, this year along, over $40,000 worth of clothing has been given to the Rescue Mission of El Paso, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the homeless and displaced. The clothing was taken into Juarez and given out to over a thousand people, from the impoverished to refugees and migrants living out in the streets in hopes to come into the United States for a better future.

Medical equipment brought by OGT is taken to Mexico for rural clinics

Working alongside Juarez Mio and Mexico’s National System for Integral Family Development (DIF), over $10,000 worth of medical supplies have been taken into Mexico and distributed among clinics with limited government resources, to include the rural clinics situated to offer medical services to indigenous communities.

“We’ve been greatly blessed through OGT,” Maritza, YLM’s Facilitator of Donations and Distributions, shared, “Thanks to their ministry, we have been able to distribute much needed resources through multiple partnerships.”

In September, Rev Dr. Karl Heimer, CEO of YLM, along with Maritza and her husband Miguel, attended the OGT Conference in Norfolk, Nebraska. It was a wonderful opportunity to strengthen long-time relationships and create new ones. YLM was given a table where Maritza and Miguel were able to display and distribute information on YLM and the ministry taking place in El Paso and Juarez.

“We’re very grateful to be able to continue this partnership in ministry,” Pastor Heimer shared after returning from the conference, “Organizations like OGT and YLM allows for churches throughout the world to connect, support, and encourage one another to bring the love of God to the nations.”