KidsHeart builds relationships, grows churches

Posted: 8/10/07

KidsHeart builds relationships, grows churches

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

PROGRESO—Pastor Ismael Gaspar dug his heels in the mud as the church van’s tires spun with no avail. The KidsHeart mission team from The Church at Canyon Creek, Austin, was stuck.

It took nearly an hour of pushing, spinning and sliding through Iglesia Bautista Sublime Gracia’s muddy parking lot—caused by several days of unusual Valley thunderstorms—before the van was finally released.

But Gaspar didn’t mind getting dirty. Not for Canyon Creek. If it weren’t for them, the church behind him wouldn’t look the way it does today.

A volunteer from First, College Station, assists a woman with her quilt in Lasara Community Center. Volunteers hope that teaching impoverished women to quilt will provide them with the experience needed to bring extra income to their families.

“They have helped us so much,” he said. “And not just economically. The most important thing is the fellowship and companionship they bring to us in our spiritual life. They are our friends.”

Canyon Creek first met Gaspar in 2003 through KidsHeart, a week-long missions blitz hosted by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Buckner International in some of the poorest U.S. counties along the Rio Grande River. After five years of KidsHeart, their relationship has blossomed—and so has the church.

Canyon Creek has helped the 55-member church renovate the sanctuary, construct a large pavilion, install outhouses and a playscape, and build a 780 square foot addition to the main building, which Gaspar uses as a community food pantry.

“We distribute nearly 2,000 pounds of food each week,” he said, adding that food is among his community’s most desperate needs. “And through the food pantry, we’ve been able to grow our church and share Christ with more people.”

Several Canyon Creek members have formed personal relationships with Gaspar and the Progreso community, returning several times throughout the year for small projects and fellowship.

“Our church is very missions-minded,” said Karen Funderburk, a Canyon Creek missions volunteer. “We see this church, this community, as an extension of our own.”

The long-term relationship between Canyon Creek and Sublime Gracia is just what CBF and Buckner leaders had hoped for when they began KidsHeart more than five years ago, said CBF Texas Coordinator Rick McClatchy.

Volunteers from Clear Lake Baptist Church, Houston, and Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, worked to build a house from the ground up in a week for a family in the Progreso colonia.

Since KidsHeart’s inception, more than 1,700 people have served in the Valley. Nearly 400 volunteers served this year from about 15 churches, and only two of those were first timers.

“These churches have really built strong relationships, picking the same communities to return to year after year,” McClatchy said. “Those friendships have grown. And now we can’t go into these communities without people we’ve helped (in years past) recognizing us and stopping us to say hello.”

First Baptist Church in College Station has served the Lasara community five years, hosting a community-wide Vacation Bible School, free dental clinics and quilting classes. They have also built and reconstructed several homes in the small colonia, where more than 50 percent of the population is below poverty.

This year, in addition to home repairs, the team worked to build a parsonage at Iglesia Bautista Adonai, where pastor Agustin Garcia will live. Garcia has served as a pastor for 30 years, four of which have been spent living off and on inside a small room at the church.

“Park Cities Baptist Church (in Dallas, another partner church in the Lasara community) tried to build the parsonage years ago, but he wouldn’t have it,” McClatchy said. “He wanted them to build the classrooms for the church first. He is very dedicated to that community.”

Garcia said that the mission teams, and construction work, have helped bring more families to the church, which now has about 60 members. He said it has also helped them gain credibility within the community, getting a foot in the door with area schools.

Jorge Zapata, Buckner missions coordinator in the Rio Grande Valley, said gaining the trust of leaders in the community can prove challenging for small churches. But with Buckner having a big influence in the Valley, he added, “they trust us. And soon, they learn to trust the church.

“I think we have helped pastors see they need to get involved in their community centers and become friends with the directors, the school superintendents … after about six months to a year, they will have built that presence and become the pastor for the whole community.”

“KidsHeart has helped pastors realize that if they want to reach the community, they have to reach out,” McClatchy added. “They have to do more than just preach on Sundays.”

For pastors like Gaspar and Garcia, sharing God’s love to each and every person in their community is what comes first. And they will not rest until his work is done.

“These groups have opened doors for us,” Garcia said while looking out over a group of volunteers from Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights and First Baptist in College Station playing games with Lasara children.

“Buckner was the force that started everything, and now they have come along beside us to see it through. I feel very blessed.”