COURTESY PHOTO

Julie Rice, who will be a junior at Roger Bacon in the fall, gets to know one of the orphans during the mission trip.

Roger Bacon students make Mexico their mission

ARCHDIOCESE — The work was back-breaking and the heat oppressive, but it was worth it. This summer, 13 Roger Bacon students and four adults traveled with Back2Back Ministries to Monterrey, Mexico, to work for a week with seven children’s homes.

Barb Coyle, Director of Community Outreach, says, "Our students worked in 110-degree weather doing concrete work, painting buildings, digging ditches, building bunk beds and picnic tables and never once complained about the heat or the difficulty of their job assignment.

When I asked what motivated them, the response from every student was the same: the beautiful smiles from the children we were doing the work for in the orphanages."

With children ranging in age from five to 17, Back2Back’s current project is to build 16 homes, which will house eight orphans and a house parent.