Penitas, TX – Feb. 9-15, 2025

This is the week when we observe Valentine’s Day, so it is appropriate that there was a morning devotion and a song that each highlight the importance of the heart in everything that you choose to do in life.

Tuesday, the driver for the team of short term volunteers from Pennsylvania read chapter 13 from 1st Corinthians .  The message I heard that morning was that your actions and words only matter when they are guided by the charity, or love, in later translations, that you have as a follower of Christ.

In a song written in 2006, Guy Clark, one of the most brilliant of Texas songwriters, tells of the importance of having everything you do “Come From the Heart”

My daddy told me when I was a young boy

A lesson he learned, it was a long time ago

If you want to have someone to hold onto

You’re gonna have to learn to let go

You got to sing like you don’t need the money

Love like you’ll never get hurt

You got to dance like nobody’s watchin’

It’s gotta come from the heart

If you want it to work

This week’s short-term volunteers include many who were in Port Isabel last January and had worked on setting trusses at the Nazarene Church because we did not have permits to work on the scheduled houses.  The long-term volunteers from Ohio and Michigan this year were able to ensure there would be no shortage of tasks to be done this week.  Between the on-site leadership and great meals, the crews were able to put a lot of love and heart into the work on our four houses this week.

Yes, that’s right, four houses.  We started the fourth house for our response for 2025 in Penitas, Texas.  By Friday, Valentine’s Day, the windows, doors, roofing shingles and some of the exterior siding are installed on that house.  The crew also watched the remainder of the old house being hauled away.  We can only imagine the feelings going through the hearts of Mr. Victor and Mrs. Victoria as they see their new home take shape.

We started the week with our first two houses needing only a few days to complete the drywall finishing.  At our house number 1, all of the interior walls are now painted and the sub-floor is clean and ready for installation of the vinyl flooring through-out the house.  The second house is about ready for a final wipe-down of the walls and application of primer and final coats on the interior ceiling and walls.  It takes a lot of heart, and good dust masks, to spend several days spreading and sanding drywall mud on a hot South Texas day.

At the house for Mr. Juan and Mrs. Ingrid, the exterior walls are all clad in Salmon Pink siding and progress was made on the rough-in electrical work. Insulation was installed in many of the walls and drywall was delivered.  After only two weeks of work, the love and heart-felt energy put into the job are clearly visible.

You got to sing like you don’t need the money

Love like you’ll never get hurt

You got to dance like nobody’s watchin’

It’s gotta come from the heart

If you want it to work

Guy Clark’s words describe actions that are sometimes risky, but also sources of extreme joy when they go well.  We experienced one of those in a roomful of people singing with all their hearts on Thursday evening.  The harmonies shared around the circle certainly “worked.”  That joy was ample pay for the efforts of the week.

We say goodbye to the three Rosedale Trades Program students, Ben, Kraig, and Ryan, who’ve been here for 6 weeks.   We wish them well as they return to their studies, and thank them for the heart they put into the work here.

From the MDS Penitas Response in Hidalgo County, Texas

Brenda, Bernice, Joanna, Melissa, Layne, Jay, Jason, Laura and Carl