John 21:17  "Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep." 

CANAL FEEDING PROGRAM

This children's feeding program began in 2005, when we found out that several children were being sent to school in the morning without breakfast and since the schools in Mexico do not have lunch programs, many did not get to eat until late afternoon.  The colonia where they live has no running water, no electricity, and the houses are mostly made of scrap wood, cardboard, and plastic.  After many trials and errors, we have a young married woman, Paola, who prepares breakfast for approx. 30 children every school morning. We supply her with the food and a small amount of cash each month for extras and she rises at 6am each day to have breakfast ready by 7am so the children can catch the bus at 7:30am.  After doing this for a year, we were finally invited into her home only to find that she had only dirt floors, a wire spool for a kitchen table, a few pieces of wood nailed up for shelves for the food and one old beat-up ice chest to keep the food cool.  Her living room furniture was a pair of bucket seats from an old car and the beds were made of "hard" straw stuffed mattresses.  The roof was only a piece of plastic full of holes that allowed everything to get wet when it rained and because the house was on the side of a hill, the rain water ran under the walls and through the house in rivers.  Thanks to the help of a church in Houston, we were able to bring in fill dirt, build a retaining wall, pour a concrete floor and build her a 12' X 24" house complete with furniture, a stove, sink, and cabinets.  We then added a patio on the front and got a table and food cabinet and built some benches for the kids to have a place to eat. 

Update 2009: This area has grown up now and is fairly stable for a colonia in Mexico and they are able to meet their own needs.  We feel this was a very successful program and blessed many for the 3 years that it was in effect.  Thank you all who helped with it.

CANAL BANK FEEDING  

To see pics of Paola's old house and the new one being built - go to Special Projects. 

Below: Paola's new house and childrens feeding patio. 

Pancakes at 7AM - Paola gets up at 6AM every morning to prepare breakfast.  Below: Jerry M. from ORCC - Marilyn Hickey Ministries, Inc. visits Mexico with us. 

Storage cabinet for the food, with milk from Kingdom Resources and juices from Laredo Stepping Stone.

Food deliveries: Pray for grace when crossing the border with the food...they sometimes turn us back and that causes, loss of time and gas when we have to go to another bridge to cross over with the food.  Food is delivered once per month and we give Paola $100/month to buy fresh fruits, veggies, milk, tortillas, bread, etc. that would spoil before we returned.

Above: Food delivery in 2006 with Andrew, who helped start this program.  Below: Food delivery with 2008 Christmas bicycles for Paola's girls.

PAST FEEDING PROJECTS

From 2005 through 2007, we also had feeding programs going on in two other colonias. 

PHARR BRIDGE PROGRAM:

This feeding program was a great outreach to the community, the children were fed break-fast at the 10AM school break in the church, where they were prayed for, taught how to pray, and taught a short Bible lesson.  This was stopped in 2006, as other missionaries began to work in the area and feed the children. Pray for the church which is now built permanently & for pastor Francisco. Below: This is how the area/homes looked when we started this program. It is now built up greatly, but still has no water or electricity.

Above is the church where they feed and prayed with the children.  Below: This day they had 2 bean & cheese tacos, punch, and cookies. 

ROSIE'S PROGRAM:

This program was near the Reynosa dump & next to a railroad track. Here they served lunch at 1PM after school let out. Near the end of the program we had 60 children being fed every day. Below is Rosie, the main cook, who served the children in her home after we donated funds to build a second story for her & her family to sleep in.

Below: Lunch is served - tostadas and sodas.

Below: Pastor Frieda (from Marilyn Hickey Ministries) prays over the food for the children. The children were also taught bible verses and songs here during lunchtime and they preformed for us.