ASB 2013

     This year, I had the best spring break of my life (so far). Instead of spending the week sitting on the couch at home, or drinking away my stresses on Padre Island, I chose to go on a mission trip to the diocese of Brownsville.

     The week started with an eventful drive to San Juan, Texas (just outside of McAllen). Unlike the typical school style road trips, our drive resembled that of a very large and obnoxiously loud family. Whenever someone wanted to eat, we stopped. If someone needed to go to the bathroom, we stopped. If someone felt the need to check their hair in a mirror, we stopped. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I loved the fact that we weren't on a strict schedule - it made the trip much more relaxed. You'd think that this would add a significant amount of travel time. However, thanks to the speedy driving habits of Fr. Joseph, we made it in about 6.5 hours (only an hour over the estimate).

Excited for the trip with Eugenia

James, Gio, and Joel at Whataburger

Credit goes to Shane for Vine-ing our drive in van 1

     We arrived in San Juan at around 8:00pm. It is here that the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle is located. Alternative Spring Break (ASB) was a mixture of a mission trip as well as a pilgrimage. Our mission work consisted of helping the Newman Center at UT Pan American and our pilgrimage was centered around visiting this amazing Basilica. The staff at the Basilica served as excellent hosts and offered us a very generous rate to stay at their on site housing. This is where we stayed for the duration of our trip, 3 nights.

Excuse the poor quality iPhone picture

      Tuesday morning we headed off to the University of Texas Pan American (UTPA) to meet our friend Joe, the campus minister at the Newman Center. 

UH campus minister, Gio, with UTPA campus minister, Joe.

     He presented us with our task for the day... and I'm just going to go ahead and say that it was not easy. The center at UTPA owns a small house right across the parking lot. It has a lot of potential, but the problem is that it has been abandoned for years. As a result, the quaint 3 bedroom house looked like a scene from the "Hoarders: Buried Alive" show. But not to worry, 15 of us stormed into the house and cleaned it out completely. 

Cleaning all the stuff out of the house went surprisingly quickly

I was useless when it came to the heavy lifting. But we formed one heck of a cleaning crew.
Look at those sparkling floors!

     Wednesday was spent doing some minor housekeeping work at the actual Newman Center. It was much more relaxed than our previous day of playing "Extreme Makeover Home Edition." The best part however was when we got news of our new pope! There is no group of people I would have rather been with to watch this exciting moment in church history. 

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Excuse this incredibly unflattering picture of me, but it shows the excitement.

Papa Francisco!  

     The first two days of our trip was our mission work, and the last day was our pilgrimage. We spent Thursday morning at the Basilica for daily mass and Stations of the Cross. It was absolutely gorgeous and so peaceful. You could feel really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I was also able to find a new bible in the gift shop which I had been planning on buying for a while!

Breathtaking altar

Giant mural on the side of the Basilica made out of tiny glass tiles

     To say I'm blessed to have gone on this trip is an understatement. This week allowed me to see mission work from an entirely new perspective. On Monday afternoon we left as a group of 21 friends and acquaintances  By the time we got back to Houston on Thursday night, we were a family. I love my ASB family, not just as a result of the memories we made but of the humbling experience we shared while serving in the poorest of all dioceses.
     God allowed me to go on this mission trip not only to serve him and his people, but to enrich my life by making 21 new brothers and sisters. I couldn't have ever imagined a more perfect spring break. I'm already counting down the days until next year.