Lodging? Meals? Entertainment? A grant foots the bill for Spanish-speaking ministers and their families to recharge at a Texas resort.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
GRAPEVINE, Texas — For a family with children, a vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park resort can cost thousands of dollars.
That’s a luxury the Rojos — father Alonzo, mother Megan, 9-year-old Alex, 7-year-old Ana and 6-year-old Abigail — typically could not afford.
“We would have really had to save up for it and find a really good deal,” said Megan Rojo, whose husband serves as the youth minister for the Springdale Church of Christ, a Spanish-speaking congregation in Arkansas.
But then Chase Turner, president and CEO of the Herald of Truth, invited the family of five to come and enjoy the Howlin’ Tornado funnel slide, Slap Tail Pond wave pool and Crooked Creek lazy river.
All for free.
“I mean, we don’t have to worry about the cost of food or the entertainment side or the lodging. Honestly, all we had financially to do was to get here, and we handled that,” the wife and mother said of the 335-mile drive to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
With many schools closed for fall break, a Lilly Endowment Inc. grant funded this week’s ministry family renewal retreat at Great Wolf, organized by Herald of Truth’s MESA ministry.
Short for “Mission: Evangelize Spanish America,” MESA works to empower Spanish-speaking ministries across the United States.
Since 2023, the domestic effort led by Zane Perkins, a former church planter in Santiago, Chile, has developed a network of 118 church partners — with a goal of sharing Jesus with the nation’s growing Hispanic population.
“We’re here to give you a blessing and help you continue to bless others, as you do every day,” Perkins told the 41 adults and 29 children from nine states who attended the retreat.
This story appears in the November print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Photo provided by Great Wolf Lodge
