Penitas, TX – Mar. 2-8, 2025

Singer-songwriter Patti Casey grew up in Vergennes, Vermont, “The Smallest City in the USA.” In college, she was recognized for her songwriting and great vocal talents, and began a career as a solo performer and collaborator with many other artists.  In 2010, she wrote the gospel song, “Spread Joy Over This Land” for her album, “The Heart of a Wandering Boy.” It is an acapella arrangement with several layers of voices and words.  It seems that every time I listen to it, I hear a phrase or voice that I’d not noticed before.

Gonna shout out for praise and glory

Gonna tell it all over again, gonna spread joy over this land

Gonna put my shoulder to the yoke, gonna lean in,

Gonna work hard ‘til the evenin’

Then I’m gonna go down easy, gonna spread joy over this land

These words and complicated merging of voices and energy are a very accurate portrayal of the dynamics found at any MDS disaster response.  At the Penitas MDS response this past week we had an almost completely new group of volunteers.  Short term volunteers came from Ontario and Ohio, providing the energy, skills, and shoulders for our long term volunteers to lead at the job sites, feed in the dining room, and in general be the “Hands and Feet of Jesus.”   By their efforts, they were able to spread a lot of joy over the Penitas community as the four new houses got closer to completion.

Gonna lay my burden by the side of the road

Help my neighbor pick up his load

And we’re gonna walk, ‘though our feet are slow, gonna spread joy over this land

At our first house, many final punch list activities were completed.  There are a few remaining, but on Friday a determined group gave the entire house a deep cleaning in preparation for the dedication on Thursday of next week. The crew could witness the joy they created to spread in the form of wide smiles on Sra. Maria and Sr. Javier’s faces during a visit. With the house nice and clean, very little is needed before Thursday.

The second house was a little bit behind until this week, but good strides were made toward completion.  The most visible task was building the front porch.  The client dismantled a portion of the old house, in which they are living, to provide space to build the porch.  Some tasks are delayed due to missing items, but when those are provided, the tasks on the final punch list will be checked off and deep cleaning done.  With the building of that porch, a load was lifted from Sra. Aurelia’s bundle of concerns and questions about when she can move into the new house.

Our third house, for Sr. Juan and Sra. Ingrid, the laying of the flooring on Monday and Tuesday opened a jubilant path to many things inside the house.  Kitchen cabinets were set in place, plus closet and linen shelves were received, painted and installed. Installation of interior doors, trim and baseboards lack just a few more steps to reach the end of that critical path in the schedule.

In our final house, for Sr. Victor and Sra. Victoria, the most critical path task of drywall mudding achieved good progress.  The crew leader and his young apprentices were almost ready to start applying primer paint.  This is a major accomplishment for volunteers who’ve rarely had a drywall mudding tool in their hands and were guided by a first-time MDS crew leader.  Good Job!

I’m gonna rise and run to the mountain

Gonna spread joy over this land

Gonna cast the seeds from the palm of my hand

And though the light is weak and the soil is mean

Joy rises up from a power unseen

In the midst of the work on the houses, it became clear that we were going to have days without enough work for the crews, so we cast a few seeds.  We received another name from the Texas Ramp Project and one crew performed a lot of cutting and assembly of the ramp sections on Thursday.  We are expecting to haul those sections to that house and install the 40 foot ramp for Sr. Zacarias starting next Monday.

To the wailing wall at the end of the day

Leave my prayers like the good book say

Do what I can and get outta the way, gonna spread joy over this land

As a project director, I see my task is mostly to do what I can to prepare for the work and then get out of the way.  That was certainly the case this week.  There is no need to go to the wailing wall. We can just give thanks for the joy spread over this small part of South Texas.

From the MDS Penitas Response in Hidalgo County, Texas

Judy, Joanne, Jonelle, Donna, Laura, Elvin, Brian, David and Carl