From Isolation to Purpose

"I created my own cell," is how Ivan Laredo described his life before coming to Baptist Temple. He was not behind bars. He was living alone in an apartment, surrounded by people who still lived the lifestyle he was trying to leave behind. He had a television, a phone, Christian programming, and a Bible. What he did not have was fellowship. 

People in the neighborhood kept telling him about Baptist Temple. They talked about the Tuesday evening meal and encouraged him to come. These were not church members. They were people who knew where to find a hot meal and a friendly face. They all told him the same thing: "Go to Baptist Temple." 

One evening, after returning from donating plasma, Laredo had enough of the isolation. He looked at the clock. It was after 5:30. Instead of spending another evening alone, he walked into the cafeteria looking for company.

He found more than a meal. Someone told him there was a Bible study immediately afterward. That was exactly what he had been missing. Laredo knew from experience that it is difficult to walk away from an old life by yourself. He had spent years pursuing alcohol, drugs, and other destructive habits with everything he had. As he put it, he was "full steam ahead." He realized that if he was going to follow Christ, he needed to be just as intentional about surrounding himself with people who shared his faith. 

Laredo's journey has not been an easy one. He began drinking at thirteen and describes his life as a roller coaster. He was introduced to Christ as a teenager through the mother of his high school sweetheart, but his spiritual journey has included many starts and stops along the way. Today, however, he celebrates six years of sobriety. He speaks openly about his gratitude to God for bringing him this far.

What stands out most is not what Laredo has left behind but what he has found. He serves at the HP CAN food pantry on the BT Campus, helps with food distribution, and attends Bible studies. He works alongside people he once would not have imagined himself serving beside. Looking at his current life, he shakes his head and says, "This is not me, Pastor." Friends who knew him years ago would be shocked to see him serving others and investing his time in ministry. Yet that is often how God works. The people most surprised by a transformed life are the people who knew us before Christ began changing us. 

Laredo says serving gives him purpose. It helps him stay focused and grounded. More importantly, he sees it as service to God's Kingdom rather than simply volunteering. He talks about an urgency in his heart, a desire to stop "flip-flopping" and fully commit himself to following Christ. His heart is in it. He wants to be there. 

He said, "This church reaches out to the actual community," observing that churches can become so busy serving themselves that they forget the people living just beyond their walls. Laredo first encountered Baptist Temple because the community knew the church was there. Long before he joined a Bible study or helped distribute food, people in the neighborhood were already pointing him toward a place where he could find help, friendship, and hope.

The Tuesday meal brought him through the door. Fellowship kept him coming back. Service gave him purpose. You never know what God will do with an invitation to dinner. Sometimes it becomes a place at the table. Sometimes it becomes a ministry. Sometimes it changes a life.

A Familiar Gym, a Larger Purpose

The Baptist Temple Campus gym has long been a place where neighbors gather and build community. Recently, that space was used for a study connected to assistive technology and rehabilitation, giving researchers and participants a familiar setting in which to observe movement, communication, and access outside a clinic or classroom.

That setting matters. For people living with limb loss, access to care is often shaped by transportation, trust, and relationships. By making the gym available, the Highland Park Community Assistance Network (HP CAN) helped reduce those barriers and supported practical learning that can inform how assistive devices, therapies, and services are designed for everyday use.

The study also reflects a larger effort in South Texas to improve support for people with complex mobility and rehabilitation needs. At UT Health San Antonio, programs such as Project ASPIRE (Advancing Successful Preparation of Interprofessional Related Services in Education Settings) prepare future occupational therapy and speech-language pathology professionals to serve children with high-intensity needs. This work is strongest when it is connected to the places where people live, learn, and participate in community life.

For HP CAN, this connection is mission based. The gym served not only as a place for recreation and fellowship but also as a practical site for study activities tied to mobility and rehabilitation.

Assistive technology is most useful when it works in the normal conditions of daily life: walking across open floors, communicating in busy rooms, managing fatigue, and participating at home, at school, at church, and in the community. A community setting can help researchers see practical barriers and strengths that may not appear in more controlled environments.

The BT Campus gym has been part of the community from its beginning. Basketball and volleyball leagues, summer camps, and open recreation have all used the space for fellowship and physical fitness. Grants from the Baptist Health Foundation and the Charity Ball Association, along with contributions from individual donors, have helped create a community space that serves the spiritual and physical needs of our neighbors. By opening that space for this study, HP CAN used what it had—hospitality, trust, and a familiar gym—to support work aimed at improving mobility, participation, and independence.
 

A Morning of Mulch and Service

Every few years, our inclusive playground needs a fresh layer of mulch—not because the old mulch is completely replaced, but because it settles and compacts over time. What looks like a simple maintenance job is actually an important part of keeping the playground safe, usable, and healthy for the trees around it. The mulch helps with drainage, cushions the play area, and keeps the grounds in good condition for the children who use them every day.

This was not ordinary landscaping mulch. It was International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA)-certified mulch, an engineered wood fiber designed specifically for playground use. The job required shovels, wheelbarrows, buckets, organization, and a great deal of labor.

The work became a community effort. Volunteers from the Community Health Awareness for Adolescents and Teens (C.H.A.A.T.) summer day camp program, children and teachers from the BT Early Learning Center summer camp, and several other adults came together to take on the task. C.H.A.A.T. was involved because the group needed a community service project, they were already on the BT campus, and the playground mulch project gave them a practical way to serve.

The amount of mulch was impressive. Several truckloads were delivered, and future work would bring even more—four trucks carrying seven yards each, for a total of twenty-eight yards, or roughly eighteen tons of mulch. In the past, the job had always been done with volunteer labor, creating tremendous savings while also giving people a chance to work together for a shared purpose.

Steve Grinnell began the day working alone, the morning felt a little slow and uncertain. When the children and other volunteers arrived, however, his attitude changed. The work was no longer his burden alone. What he had expected to be a frustrating morning became, in his words, a blessing. Children, teenagers, teachers, and adults moved together across the playground, filling buckets, pushing wheelbarrows, and spreading mulch into play areas.

The children brought an energy that changed the whole atmosphere. Some wanted to shovel. Others preferred carrying buckets. A few of the younger children wanted to push wheelbarrows. The BT Early Learning Center summer day camp children came with smaller buckets and hurried back and forth with excitement. The adults had to remind them to slow down so no one would get hurt, but their enthusiasm made the hard work feel lighter.

The adults were organized and steady and worked alongside the children, helping them stay focused and safe while allowing them to choose jobs they were excited to do. Music played through a small sound system, adding to the sense that this was more than a chore; it was a shared experience.

By 11 o’clock, the work was finished. The enormous piles of mulch had disappeared, and the playground had been renewed. What had seemed at first like a heavy job became manageable because so many hands joined in. The children were hard workers, the adults provided structure, and everyone contributed to something that would benefit the community.

The most memorable part of the day was not just the amount of mulch moved, or the money saved on labor. It was the way the project brought people together. One adult who had started the morning working alone admitted that he was not happy at first. But when the children and volunteers arrived, his attitude changed completely. What he thought might be a difficult morning became a blessing.

In the end, the mulch project showed how ordinary service can become meaningful when a community works together. Buckets of mulch, shovels, wheelbarrows, and a playground became the setting for teamwork, responsibility, and joy. The children learned that they could contribute, the adults saw the power of organized cooperation, and the playground was renewed through everyone’s effort.