Power Ministry

“On the Road Again … We just can’t wait to get on the road again!” (Apologies to Willie Nelson)
In spite of a long travel day for Power Teams arriving from Georgia, Ohio, Idaho, Iowa, and California, the Week Two Power Team is eager to embark on its five hour van ride from San Antonio to Brownsville, Texas! We will set out early Saturday morning for our first work assignments in Matamoros, Mexico and lunch with the bible college students at Magdiel Bible Institute.
For many of the men the draining impact of a 3:00 am wake-up to catch 5:00am to 6:00am flights to San Antonio, gave way to a second wind, a fresh spirit, as we gathered at the staging location … And friendships from prior Power Trips were rekindled, and new friendships were initiated.
After a dinner of Subway sandwiches, cookies and chips and an organizational meeting our seventy man team set off for Brownsville. Our 1:00am arrival at the Comfort Suites leaves little time for sleep before our 6:30am departure for Matamoros!
The organizational meeting was a great reminder of what goes on behind the scenes over a year of planning to arrive at a point at which we were ready to set out on this amazing ministry adventure. The 2016 Trip is the sixteenth annual Power Trip; and our group is the second of three groups for this year. There have been a total of 823 men who have participated in Power over the years. The 2016 Teams hail from seventeen states, three countries, and represent seventy churches.
It is exhilarating to be part of an organization that has demonstrated the love of Jesus through the construction of over 107 building projects, including houses, apartments, an egg production facility, and a warehouse … And have distributed 7,000,000 pounds of rice and beans over the past sixteen years … And most importantly have met all of these physical needs in the context of sharing the Gospel!
Terry Hickey, Week Two Team

Breakfast was at 6 am in the iStay Hotel in McAllen today. After a couple of songs led by
Dave, Cameron & Clay with their guitars, we heard an message from Clay using Ephesians 3:20-21 to
encourage us to ‘take the cap off our life’. “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus to all generations,forever and ever. Amen”. He can increase our capacity exponentially
by trusting in Him.
After breakfast we got our van assignments, and traveled about 1 ½ hours down to the Magdiel Bible
School, where we spent the morning building 3 portable kitchens and 12- 8 ft. long wooden pews. The
kitchens will be loaded onto a trailer and hauled to schools throughout the City of Matamoros . At
lunch we were joined by the students and administration of the Bible School. We also got a surprize
visit by the sister of the city’s mayor, who is actively involved in the mobile kitchen project. They have
a vision, along with Mike McGee from the Bible School, to build about 40 kitchens, to provide one
meal per day for the public school students. At lunch we got a chance to interact with the students, who
come from all parts of Mexico to attend Magdiel Bible School. Afterwards, we even had time for a
game of soccer, with no broken bones, and only one little dent in one of the vans, which was easily
fixed.
Leaving the Bible School, we drove back to McAllen, where we had dinner at Rudy’s Barbecue. We
were joined by several other missionaries who are helped by POWER. Bruce Hepburn and his wife
minister to a colonia in Reynosa, providing running water, shelter and food. Jamie Campbell runs the
Baptist Misions Education Center, in Harlingen, Texas, which is a retreat center for pastors and
missionaries.
We (most of us anyway) actually were able to get to sleep at a decent hour tonight.

We started out our second day in Del Rio/Acuna with breakfast at Faith Mission, worship songs, then a
short message from Clay about not always having to rely on others for spiritual inspiration, but
developing our own spiritual maturity. The main verses were from I Samuel 16:14-23, where Saul used
David’s harp to soothe his distressing spirits. After breakfast, I travel with a group back to the
Victoria Elementary School, where we continued work on the dining hall. We installed horizontal
blocking between the trusses, tar paper and tongue and groove siding on all four walls. I also got to
help Terry, a finish carpenter, to nail vertical supports from the top plates at both end trusses. The
school kids again gathered around at a safe distance to watch our progress. I practiced my rudimentary
Spanish with several of them, and we of course had more candy to give out, which they loved. The
morning went by quickly, and before I knew it we were packing up our tools, and heading back across
the border to Faith Mission for lunch and packing our bags.
While there we had the pleasure of hearing a short talk by Allen Ehlers, the original founder of Faith
Mission. Then we got our van assignments, and were on the road to McAllen. It was a long drive, which was
broken up with dinner at Peter Piper Pizza in Laredo. We heard the sad news that Randy Leyendecker
decided to shut down his lumber yard business last week. He was instrumental in helping Laredo Stepping Stones,
a ministerial retreat which POWER has helped over many years. Unfortunately he has fallen on hard times recently.
After lifting him up in prayer, we piled back in the vans, and made the last 2 ¾ hour leg of the trip to McAllen,
arriving here at 11:45 pm. Our prayer team met to review prayer requests for the day. I still felt pretty good, so I
stayed up in the hotel lobby to type up the blog for today. Stay tuned for our projects in Matamoros
tomorrow.

Good morning. Buenos dias! It is Wednesday morning. We survived the first day of our projects in
Acuna. I was so wiped out that I could not do my reporting until the morning after. Getting old is
tough. It was a good day though. We started out with breakfast at Faith Mission. Clay Ramirez gave
us an inspiring message about worship from Mark 12:28-31. Worship is not a mechanical function. It is
the position of our hearts. We need to totally surrender to God.
After a few brief comments by Marty, Dave & Bob, we were off to Mexico. Our group went to Victoria School,
where we are building a 24’x 48′ dining hall. We built 19 wood trusses from a stockpile of pre-cut lumber set
out for us. We must have been on the critical path, as the work was non stop. The school was going on around us,
with kids stopping by to watch our work. School staff put up a red ribbon around our work zone, and had coffee
and donuts for us. There were about 6 more trusses to be built, but it was time to head off for lunch at
Pat’s church.
After lunch I was in a group that went with Pat on a joy tour. I was happy to not be pounding nails, but soon
I was impressed by the large number of people that started congregating around our group. We did not have any
trouble knocking on doors and getting more families to come and see what was going on. There ended up being a
crowd of about 200. Pat fired up his boom box, and we sang (or hummed) and clapped to the Spanish lyrics. Several
of us gave testimonies, and Pat followed that up with a sermon. I couldn’t understand many of the words, but the
crowd stuck around, then we prayed over several of them who accepted Jesus. We passed out the rice and beans that
we had picked up at a market on the way over there, along with toys, gloves, blankets, pillows, and clothes. I got
the privilege to go into one of the nearby houses to pray with a family for a 34 years old man who had been
unconsciousness for a week. We struggled with the language, but worked through it. It started getting cold,
but the warmth of the people was real, and we hung around in the street, praying with another family of
3 teenagers with a single mom. Then a young girl helped Bob & Rob lead another women to accept
Christ. She spoke very good English. She has been attending a private school across the border in Del
Rio, and got up at 5 am every morning to board a van that took her and others to the school.
We ended the day in Mexico at a restaurant, which was the first time in my 3 years that we had done that. The
school principal joined us, along with her boss, the school superintendent. They expressed their
profound appreciation for our efforts. She said that she had already noticed an improvement in the
school children’s attitude, as they watched us do our work for them. Building the dining room is the
first step that will allow the city government to provide daily meals at the school for the children,
which is a big deal. They have 370 elementary age kids at the school. We had no problem getting back
across the border after dinner, as we had missed the rush of early in the afternoon.
That is all for now.

Good evening. I will be attempting to give you all a word’s eye view of what POWER is doing on Group
One. Someone asked me at work yesterday if I was excited about my upcoming vacation. I told him that
I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation. But on the other hand, I look forward to the trip all year. Our van
facilitator asked us all what our expectations were for the trip as we were traveling to Del Rio. We all
gave different answers. For me, I am looking forward to renewing my spiritual batteries. It is a chance
to forget about things back in the states and spend the week pounding nails, stapling insulation,
screwing down metal roofing, working as a TEAM to not only provide shelter, but school buildings &
kitchens. So we get blessed through those things, and also by giving out Bibles and sharing our love
with kids by putting on a huge festival at a church and see how good we have it back in the states. But
in addition to that, we experience a fellowship with other Christian men, sharing our prayers, hopes &
experiences through the countless hours driving down the roads from town to town in the vans, or
winding down at the end of a long day.
Our Bible memory verse- I Corinthians 13:11- “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as
a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” We are working on
spiritual maturity this trip.
We all made it to San Antonio with no hitches. No problems with passports, or side trips to Phoenix
this year. We had a great meal at Chopsticks, a Chinese smorgasborg in San Antonio then hopped in
the vans and headed to Del Rio. There are 71 of us, with a lot of veterans, along with some first timers.
After unloading the vans and finding our bunk bed in the dorms, we gathered in the dining roon, where
Dave Barnes, Bob Krull, Marty Read & Pat Schmelling gave us some introductory advice and
instructions. What’s new this year? Watch out for Border Patrol agents if you get too close to the tall
iron fence just across the road from Faith Mission (where we are staying in Del Rio). They are much
more vigilant. Smile at the Mexican guards when crossing the border every morning (nothing new
there) and the standard answer if asked why you are going to Mexico- tell them you are visiting a
church. The prep team (Ray, Cody, Brian, Barry & Bob) have been here one week already and will be
staying throughout all three groups efforts. They need a big THANK YOU!
The leadership team is trying something new this year. The first two groups will overlap their stays, so
that means there will be opportunity for new leaders to step up, and the coordination will be more
difficult. This is something you can be praying about.
Our group has broken up for the night. But I know there is work going on outside of my little space.
There are men helping to unload Louie’s 18 wheeler of his load of beans. There are others organizing
the vans. And I am being serenaded by the worship team as I type.
That is all for now.
-Doug

It’s 2:00 am and the night is young for the van crew as they head off to a local IHOP were they will have their weekly late night bible study.  The drivers and their shotguns are fast asleep in bed after a long 4 hour drive from Reynosa, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas.  With little rain, the night was an uneventful drive, as it should be, and we are back to the place we started this journey.
The mood of this morning was very calm and easy going with a cold front coming in.  Everyone had a hoodie or jacket on in the wee hours but as the day progressed and work assignments were given out everyone seemed to warm up in temperature and camaraderie. With 4 large projects mostly finished the guys can look forward to coming back to seeing what they have had a hand in.  At Refugio there is now a new awning for the students as they wait outside to protect them from the elements, and a new shed that will eventually house tools & items for future festivals and events.  Also in the outskirts of Reynosa we helped begin and finish the majority of a two story building at an orphanage that is in need of some great support.  Though it may not be complete, there is another church in San Antonio, Texas that plans to come out and finish up the rest of the project. And last in Reynosa is the large school that Ray Hansen has been a part of.  With the majority of the team today hitting this hard we knocked it out of the park.
We are so blessed as a team to be a part of this adventure and we  can all look forward to making the trek again next year.
 

We hit the road early today, leaving the hotel in McAllen at 7 am, and arriving at Alliance Church in Reynosa before 8 am. We went to an upper meeting room, where we sang a few songs, then Brian shared from the Bible again. He continued teaching us about ‘redeeming the time’, then we all did communion together. We also surprised Bruce Hepburn, who came with us to the church. Bob shared that he had been bemoaning the fact that he could not deliver the 16’ long pieces of metal roofing for our building projects because he did not have a big enough truck, and that it would be really nice if he had Gator’s (another local missionary) 1 ton truck with a rack on it. Bob handed him the keys for Gator’s truck. Bruce had a hard time believing what was happening, but I told him later that he was being ‘blessed to be a blessing’. Then we attended the regular Sunday service with the Mexican people at Alliance. They always welcome us with open arms! Afterwards, we were treated to a full Mexican lunch, complete with young people from the church as translators at each table. Our fearless leaders (Mark, Bob, Dave & Marty) were given huge sombreros by Alliance as a token of appreciation for all Power does for their church, and the rest of us were given small packages of goodies. Then it was on to Refugio Orphanage, where we put on a festival for all the kids from there, as well as families from the surrounding neighborhood. It went from 1 pm to past 3 pm, and although the official numbers had not come in yet, they told us it was the biggest one in their history! It was a joy to see all the happy faces on the kids, and there were many more dads coming with their children than there were last year. There were at least 750 people who enjoyed hot dogs, cotton candy, family photographs and a whole bunch of games, where they won small prizes, plus over 100 soccer balls were given out. To top the day off, after everybody pitched in to clean up, there was a large screen TV set up in their dining hall, and we all got to watch the entire Super Bowl along with numerous kids and staff. It was a long but very rewarding day. That is all for now.

Today was a good day! We started out at Sende De Vita (Hector’s homeless shelter). Only it doesn’t look so much like a shelter anymore. The government paid to put down concrete paving throughout the entire place, with concrete curb and gutter out in front. So once you get off the rutted dirt road, you walk into a walled little piece of downtown America. Brian once again encouraged us from the Bible, using Luke 19 (the story about Zaccheus). Then we were off to our projects. Our van went to the Hepburns, who minister to the Mexicans along a narrow strip of land formed by the excavated spoils of a large canal. On one side is the canal, with periodic ‘pull ropes’ stretched across, which appeared to be how the people living on the other side got to and from their encampments. Bruce and Paula Hepburn sold their possessions in Illinois, and have been spending their lives building houses, putting in a water well and PVC water line for the Colonia, and passing out food and Jesus Christ to their neighbors along the bumpy dirt road.
We helped them pass out food to over 150 people. Then we jumped in the van, and went back across the border to Hildago to pick up some more tools and several boxes of Bibles. Then back to Mexico, where we had lunch at the Rufugio Orphanage for lunch. After van reassignmets, we drove out to tim buck two, where about 25 of us decended on the Lorena Vicaro School. In about 2 1/2 hours, we put a metal roof on a 75’ long by 25’ wide schoolroom, along with installing electrical and drywall inside. It was great working weather- blustery with a few raindrops. We were ‘serenaded’ as we worked by a group of neighborhood kids as we worked. Then back in the vans and back across the border once again. I know that we spent more time waiting in line at the border than anything else, but we ‘redeemed the time’, fellowshipping in the vans. After dinner at Fuddruckers, several of us spent the last hour of our day praying at the hotel. A long but rewarding day!

Friday, Power Group, Week 3
We started out the day as we always do, worshiping and praising God in song, then Brian talked to us about ‘teachable moments’ for ourselves as he shared the story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-22. We need to be continually reminded of not making idols, whether it be work, money or even ministry. Bob then gave a brief description of the projects, highlighting the De Los Angeles house, where sons Jimmy and Juan will be made honorary Power members for all their hard work. Today a group of us went to visit the local prison in Acuna, where numerous men stepped forward to accept Jesus. Our van went to finish up construction at a public school building, where we taped the drywall, hooked up lights, calked and painted the exterior. Back across the border at Faith Mission, we had lunch, then got together to honor Allen Ehlers for his 53 years of dedicated service to the Lord in Del Rio and Acuna. Then we were on the road again. Our plans were changed due to the forecasted rain for tomorrow. We stopped in Laredo for dinner, but then continued on down to McAllen, where we will spend the last 3 nights of our trip, in between going across the border to Reynosa and Hildago for projects and putting on a festival at Refugio Orphanage. It was a long day. We arrived at the hotel at 11:30 pm. Several of us stayed up for a prayer meeting after that, lifting up needs of individuals, families and friends of the group.
 

We all crawled out of our bunk beds around 6 am. The weather is warm, and the sleep was refreshing. After breakfast, Brian Park shared a devotion with us about ‘Powerful Moments’ in our lives, using Ephesians 5:15-16 as a reference. We all have our ‘aha’ moments, but he encouraged us to ‘walk circumspectly, redeeming the time…’.  After a group prayer, Marty and Bob gave an orientation for the week, reviewing important rules, a brief summary of construction projects, then Brian gave out van assignments, and we were on our way across the border. The group that I was with loaded up clothes, blankets, gloves, hats and toys from the Power warehouse, then stopped at a supermarket in Acuna to pick up packages of rice and beans. We drove to a neighborhood on the outskirts of Acuna and parked the 2 vans. They actually had running water, sewer and electricity at the houses, even though the roads were dirt and filled with ruts. Most houses were built of masonry block, and generally had no heat. Several women from Pat Schmeling’s church in Acuna came with us to help gather the neighborhood families. The initial gathering of about 25 swelled to about 80 after Pat hooked up his boom box and started playing Christian songs in Spanish, with everybody clapping along. Pat is fluent in Spanish, and he gave a rousing gospel message to the crowd of mostly mothers with little children. Several Power guys gave testimonies, translated by Pat. We had an emotional prayer time (in Spanish). I understood enough to realize that we were praying for a miracle healing of a small intellectually disabled boy and several marriages. 4 people came forward and accepted Christ, then we passed out the goodies to everybody. Lunch was at Pat’s church, which is doing very well after he took over actively managing it 14 months ago. Then it was back across the border to Faith Missions, where we spent the afternoon finishing up the exterior painting of the dormitory building. After a dinner of steak, potatoes, green beans, salad and cake, the 3 year jackets were given out, and we were dismissed early, as we have a long travel day tomorrow, after doing a few more projects here is Del Rio and Acuna.