Our church also supports and participates in the missions work of Casas por Cristo, a US-based organization that works with church groups to build houses for Mexican families. Casas por Cristo partners with churches inMexico to identify the most needy.
About seven years ago, Jay Reyes had just returned from one of his many builds with Casas por Cristo in Juarez, Mexico. Hearing his story, a desire to serve those in need began to grow in my heart. I had heard Jay’s stories many times but this time something in me yearned to know the experience first hand. In June of 2008, I joined Jay along with Kaitlin Jones on a trip sponsored by First Baptist Church of Shawnee. The experience was life altering! Jay was a team leader, and as soon as we got back to Shawnee, he began prepping me to follow in his foot steps and lead Clear Creek in our very own journey to Mexico. Jay and I returned to Mexico in 2009, again with First Baptist Church of Shawnee, this time with two other men from Clear Creek. Immediately following our 2009 trip, Jay and I began making the preparations to lead Clear Creek in its first church wide mission’s trip in the summer of 2010. Tragically, in the spring of 2010 Jay unexpectedly passed away. With God’s help and Jay looking down on us every step of the way we successfully completed our first trip in August of 2010. The trip is now known as the “Javier Reyes Memorial Missions Trip” in honor of Jay. We completed another trip in the summer of 2011 and plan to continue making the journey as many more times as God would allow us.