This last year has been an exciting and yet very different year for missions at Hill Country UT. God has been teaching our church a great deal about supporting missionaries on the field, especially in these tough financial times. Since we weren't able to send teams this year, our church decided to financially support the missionaries we partner with. Vern and Mary Smith have a school and clinic in Tanzania, Africa and help raise up local pastors. Jim and Teresa White are building a seminary and discipleship training center in the Dominican Republic to raise up local pastors and missionaries. A team from Hill Country UT traveled to the Dominican Republic last August to help with construction on the seminary as well as share Christ through Vacation Bible School in a village just down the road that had never heard the gospel.
This past year, we sent 7 teams to the border town of Piedras Negras, Mexico. We partner with a local church Mision Bethel to work in an impoverished community and build relationships with the children and their parents. Every semester, we send a team of medical and nursing students to hold a free clinic in the community. Our teams stay at Casa Hogar Orphanage and minister to the kids as well as the house parents by helping with general construction and work projects around the complex. We took our first week-long Spring Break trip to Piedras Negras this year and held a Sports Camp in the community; we shared the gospel with over 100 kids and thier parents. We are excited to continue our ministry there throughout the summer and the coming years.
This year, we are looking to add an additional border trip every other month as well as travel to the Dominican Republic over Winter Break and Spring Break. We are also currently making plans for a Tanzania trip next summer. God continues to change the lives of our students by getting them excited to be more missional on the University of Texas campus as they shared the gospel globally.