Cornerstone helps other ministries along Rio Grande meet human needs_20904

Posted: 2/06/04

Cornerstone helps other ministries
along Rio Grande meet human needs

By George Henson

Staff Writer

QUEMADO–In the barren, sun-baked terrain between Eagle Pass and Del Rio, a mustard seed of faith grew into a ministry much larger than Steve and Lori Mercer ever imagined.

The couple came to Texas from Indiana with an eye to opening a children's home in South Texas. They had been foster parents for many years and wanted to expand their ministry by sharing their love with even more children.

After they joined First Baptist Church in Quemado, they initially wanted their new ministry, Cornerstone Children's Ranch, to be linked directly to the church. But Pastor Terry Simons counseled them to remain an independent organization so non-Baptists might be more likely to help.

Lori and Steve Mercer

State regulations soon quashed the couple's plans for a children's home. Mercer had earned an undergraduate degree in social services, but the state required a master's degree in the specialty to administer a children's home.

That stumbling block became a stepping-stone, however. Now, rather than ministering to a few dozen children, they are meeting the needs of more than 26,000 people of all ages. “My God had better ideas than we did,” Mrs. Mercer said.

They launched a relief ministry that helps to provide food, clothing, medical supplies, automobiles and other supplies to individuals and institutions on both sides of the Rio Grande, she said.

“We work with unwed mother homes, orphanages, medical clinics and churches. We take it to the churches, and they distribute it to the people they minister to in their communities. Also, some of it has to go to the pastors themselves because some of them give all they have just to keep their churches going,” Mrs. Mercer said.

They also help a ministry to illegal aliens who are being deported to Mexico. Most are far from home with no money and no food.

Many of these people, mostly men, receive Christ as they have reached rock bottom and are open to the possibility that something is missing from their lives, she said.

After listening to the message of the gospel, they are given food and encouraged to take the message they have heard back to their villages.

As the Cornerstone ministry has grown, so have its needs. Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association helped the ministry secure a 10-acre site for construction of a 6,000-foot warehouse.

It stores washing machines, dryers, food, clothing, medical supplies and even an optical machine that is being kept until construction is completed on an eye clinic in Mexico.

“Just about anything someone can put on a truck, we can find a home for,” Mrs. Mercer said.

The Mercers' ministry filled a niche in the region, said Jack Calk, retired director of missions for Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association.

“Bringing all these things together in one place and then distributing them is one of the things we needed to have done in the area, rather than trying to do it piecemeal,” he said.

While financial, food and medical donations always are needed, the ministry's most crucial needs are prayer and volunteers, Mrs. Mercer said.

“Prayer will always be our No. 1 need,” she said. “All of this depends on God's provision.”

The answer to some of those prayers would be in the form of more volunteers.

“Piedras Negras has a population of more than 1 million people. River Ministry does an awful lot of work down here, but there are still so many people whose needs are not being met,” she said.

The Mercers plan to build a new headquarters for Cornerstone Children's Ranch, complete with apartments for volunteers.

But finances dictate the construction be done by volunteers. Currently the camp has hook-ups for two RV campsites, and it is to be expanded.

Volunteers also are needed to install the camp's meat lockers so the ministry can store and distribute more meat.

None of that is anything like what the Mercers thought they were coming to Texas to do, but they say it's all right.

“I think the Lord sometimes uses your plans to gets you where he wants you until you realize what he wants you to do as he reveals his will for your life,” she said.

Cornerstone Children's Ranch can be contacted at (830) 757-1993.