In November, several Oak Grove sophomores and juniors embarked on a mission trip to Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Their experience was amazing and they would like to thank the entire Oak Grove community for their support and prayers.

Here's are some highlights that deeply affected students on the trip:

Exploring the River Walk and The Alamo in the beautiful city of San Antonio.  Eating AMAZING authentic Mexican food.

Touring the Ozanam Center in Brownsville, a refuge for immigrants and homeless families. They did some work there as well.  

Taking part in the teen service worship, where they sang bilingual songs! Grovers performed a skit for the children and then made necklaces, bracelets and drew pictures.

One day we headed out to what seemed like the edge of the earth, to an
impoverished community north and west of Mission, Texas. Very eye opening.

Students cared deeply about the work they were doing, and approached their work as "if this were my home, how would I want it to look?"    

They learned to sheet rock, mud and tape seams and corners of a house for a family.

See the families' faces when they walked through their houses being built.   

The students had an itinerary of what the trip should look like, but that itinerary changed according to what the Holy Spirit wanted the itinerary to look like. Bob Noel, Director of Student Leadership firmly believes this as he met with a neighboring pastor while there and she shared her ministry and how committed her church is to helping the children of their community to break the cycle of poverty through education and hope in Christ.  She asked

if our students would meet with her youth and discuss life.

 

And the bus ride was a great bonding experience for all of us!

The devotions were so wonderful while there, the students seemed to love speaking about their experiences and worshiping our awesome God!