Mabel's Building Mission For more than 10 years now, a group staying for the winter at Canyon Lake RV in Mission, Texas, has been involved in a humanitarian project in Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. Associated with Mabel’s Free Clinic Association, a group of retirees residing at Canyon Lake RV Park build free, basic 12’ X 16’ houses for poor working families in Nuevo Progresso. A Mexican contact selects deserving families for the house. The criteria are: 1) They must own the land, 2) They must have a job, and 3) They must have a child or be expecting one. In one year 27 houses were built, one each on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the winter months. The cost for each house is about $900, which all comes from donations. All labor and administration is donated by the “Canyon Lake Builders”. With each house the family is given a bench (sometimes their only furniture), a box of food staples, clothing, and a quilt for each one in the family. Also expectant mothers are given a baby layette. The Quilts are made by the women in the Canyon Lake RV Park.
Back Bay Mission Back Bay Mission was founded in 1922 as an outreach effort of the First Evangelical Church of Biloxi (later United Church of Christ), whose members responded with compassion and service to the needs of poor "fisher folk" living in deplorable conditions along the Back Bay of Biloxi, Mississippi. Since then, Back Bay Mission has continually grown its services and ministries, always keeping the impoverished and marginalized at the center of its concern. Although there were no longer any UCC congregations in Biloxi or in the state of Mississippi by the early 1970s, Back Bay Mission remained to offer a witness of the United Church of Christ. Its commitment is to be faithfully responsive to the emerging and critical needs of God's people, ever seeking a day of greater justice and peace. Following the crippling Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Back Bay Mission found itself with no habitable facilities. In fact, of the seven buildings, six have been demolished and the seventh is awaiting a complete interior rebuild. All ministries were discontinued for a few weeks before receiving two donated work trailers from which the staff resumed work and began shaping services to fit the space and the post-Katrina reality. Within a few months workcamping, now more accurately called "disaster relief/recovery," began receiving work teams from across the country to help the Mississippi Gulf Coast dig out and rebuild. Three mobile homes now serve as housing for these inspired and inspiring groups. Because of the incredible outpouring of support from UCC churches, individuals, and organizations, Back Bay Mission is recovering more quickly than many locally based agencies. The staff of seven full time employees and four part time persons provide direct services to poor families while creating new independent service agencies. Because of past and current UCC investment in Back Bay Mission's work, over $10 million in vital services are delivered annually to South Mississippians in such diverse areas as education, legal aid, health care, feeding programs, early childhood development, family counseling, housing, and domestic violence. A trip is to Back Bay is being planned for the summer of 2010. Please contact Rose Kleinert with any questions. Thanks. August 10-16 2008
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United Church of Christ Sauk City Wisconsin, God is still speaking |
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