Kids and teens praise God under the park tree along with Gabby, one of the adult leaders

Hope Lutheran Church from Lubbock, TX reached out two years ago to ask how they can partner with San Pablo Lutheran Church (San Pablo) and Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) to bring the Gospel to children of the surrounding community.

Obstacle course was challenging for the smaller children, but the team helped them get through as they were cheered on

The team arrived on Sunday at about 5:30pm, and as soon as they unloaded everything from their hitched trailer, they got to work on scoping out the city park where they would be doing fun activities inspired by the theme “Running the Race”, then headed into the Kennedy Apartments to distribute flyers with information of the coming event. San Pablo had already spread the word to the other areas of their surrounding community the weeks prior to their arrival.

This team has been planning and leading Vacation Bible School (VBS) for many years at the Navajo Reservation through the Orphan Grain Train. For the last three years, they’ve been establishing and growing relationships with the San Pablo community. Several of the children who came to SBC this year recognized the teenagers from last year’s VBS, which was held in San Pablo.

It was a joy to watch the team’s teenagers leading this event, working together to set up the different stations, putting up canopies for shade, and setting out what was needed for games, crafts, and skits. As soon as children began to arrive, they were welcomed with joy and exuberance as the younger members of the team spent time playing with them in the playground before starting the day’s events with music. Lunch was served on Monday and Tuesday, with Wednesday ending in a family style cook-out. Members of San Pablo contributed with cake, potato salad, and other food stuff.

Afternoon projects around the mission were take care of by these hardworking teenagers

Cold ice pops were enjoyed during these hot mornings by all who came

Pastor Eric and Pastor Dan have been working together for many years and are hoping to expand their mission trips in the coming year, realizing there were many children hungry for care, love, and attention, which coupled with God’s Word, can really impact many.

“We’re looking into growing the team for next year,” Pastor Eric shared at the end of their first day, “We want to have two teams, one here with San Pablo and the other doing a VBS with one of the Mexico mission-churches.”

Once they were done with SBC in the morning, the team worked together in the hot afternoons to do projects around the campus. One of those projects involved painting the newly restored shed, which is one of the oldest buildings on the historical YLM campus. Working together, they prepped the overhang by scraping off paint before applying the fresh brown paint, the cream and brown combination perfectly matching the other recently painted buildings on the campus.

“They also helped pick up furniture donations, put together thirteen pallets of clothes donated to the Rescue Mission through the San Pablo thrift shop,” Maritza Hernandez-Muñoz, Donation and Distribution Facilitator at YLM, shared, “These teenagers worked hard, and they worked fast. They were a blessing to us in many different ways.”

Much gratitude is felt for this team, and others like it, who help the mission-churches partnering with YLM reach out to their community with God’s Word and love.