School of Hard Knocks
Impoverished colonias along the Texas/Mexico border have become a classroom for students from the Baptist University of the Americas. 

Story and Photography by Scott Collins

Maura and Guillermo Escobar, along with Rolando Aguirre are doing foreign missions. Cheyenne Solis and Omar Chavarria see themselves as home missionaries.

Together, they travel the same highways and byways of the lower Rio Grande Valley, their vehicles loaded with food, blankets, heaters and hope.

One moment they are students. The next, they’re teachers. They are always ministers.

The five are or have been student interns from the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio working with Buckner Children and Family Services’ Border Ministries and the Rio Grande Children Home. In their final days before completing their studies, they have expanded their classroom beyond the walls of academia.

The Escobars are from Ecuador, while Aguirre is a native of Colombia. Solis and Chavarria grew up in South Texas.

“God has reminded me that there is a need right here and that missions is also in your own backyard,” Solis said. “I’ve realized that missions and ministry are right here.”

Solis admits that even though he was raised in this part of Texas, he was unaware of the desperate needs found in the colonias along the Texas/Mexico border. Colonias are unincorporated settlements where residents often lack basic services such as electricity and running water.

He said after moving to San Antonio to attend BUA he had no intention of returning home.

“I always said I didn’t want to come back to the Rio Grande Valley, but I’ve realized there is a need that I had never noticed before,” Solis said.

So with the encouragement of Rick McClatchy, coordinator of Texas Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and an adjunct professor at BUA, Solis accepted an internship funded by CBF. When his internship ended, Solis accepted a full-time position with Buckner Border Ministries.

CBF has been a major influence on the internship program, providing funding and hands-on involvement. Chavarria’s internship is fully funded through a CBF grant.

In addition to his Buckner ministry, Chavarria has started a new church in one of the colonias. The income he receives as an intern is “a blessing,” he said. “It gives me the financial support to be able to work with these families as a pastor.

“I can be more connected to the people in the colonia and they can feel free to ask for help,” he added.

For Guillermo Escobar, the internship experience is enabling him and his wife Maura to “put into practice the lessons we’ve learned in school. Here, we are applying the theory and theology we took at BUA”

The Escobars are involved in the colonia ministries of Buckner as well as the residential work with children at the children’s home. Their experience has led them to pursue future work in residential child care. It has also opened their minds to mission opportunities in Texas.

“As an international student, I thought the United States didn’t have any needs,” Guillermo said. “But I was really surprised at the condition of people living in the colonias. People have great needs,” he added. “If we establish a relationship first, they open the door.”

Like Solis, Aguirre ended his BUA internship by accepting a position with Buckner, where he works as a child care caseworker with the children’s home.

“If you don’t have preparation, you can’t do this work as well as you should,” he said. “I’m putting everything I’ve learned into practice. All those things I’ve learned come to mind when I need them.”

Tommy Speed, executive director for the Rio Grande Valley, said the BUA internship program fills a major void for Buckner by providing much-needed staff who can work in the culture and language of South Texas.

“The interns have made all the difference in the world in how we work in the colonias,” he said. They have the ability to “demonstrate that God loves the people instead of just telling them.

”To learn more about the BUA internship program or Buckner ministries in the Rio Grande Valley, contact Tommy Speed at 956-585-4847 or tspeed@buckner.org.