Mission project in La Carbonera, Mexico,touches
hurricane victims, needy people in community

By Carroll Frankenberger
St. Mark UMC, McAllen
La Carbonera, Mexico, is a small fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico. During the summer of 2005, Hurricane Emily paid a visit to that town and left behind many terribly damaged or destroyed homes.
Fourteen people from two South Texas United Methodist congregations (St. Mark UMC, McAllen, and First UMC, Edinburg) went to this village Oct. 26 to build one simple cinder block home for a displaced family.
The Rev. Laura Brewster of First UMC, Edinburg, and formerly of St. Mark UMC led the team. Lynn Noe, Wayne Johnson, Dot and Ed Paine, Bob Mock, and I represented St. Mark.
We gathered early Friday morning with our sleeping bags, some tools, a change of clothes, our passports, a few snacks and lots of bottled water. Each of us had a common goal in mind. We were to finish the house and return to our homes by Sunday.
La familia de Perez Hernandez were the recipients of the casita. Alex was about 16 months old. His mom, Annalilia, and her parents, Amado and Alajidrina, had been living with in-laws for two years.
Alajidrina told me that their entire family had evacuated two years ago as Emily approached. Upon their return, they found their home destroyed. Several others had had homes rebuilt for them by groups of Americans.
Our team fee paid for building materials. Our mission team, some family members and men of the community worked to construct the cinder-block house. We helped mix cement and lay blocks. The house began to shape up with two doors and two windows.
Friday night, as we tried to sleep, we were kept awake part of the night by barking dogs, crowing roosters and buzzing mosquitoes.
Even so, we got up at dawn, had breakfast and began our work again. Much to our surprise, we completely finished the home by 3 p.m.
We said our goodbyes to the family members at the new home and told them that we had enjoyed helping them. We thanked the women who had prepared our meals and the men of the community who had been our fellow workers.
We left some gifts that included toys, hand-knitted sweaters for the children and a few other items.
After miles of dodging potholes on our trip home, we found our way through the sprawling city of Reynosa. We experienced another extended wait at the border and arrived at the church parking lot tired and hungry.
Never would I ever have imagined when I was Laura Brewster’s third grade teacher years ago that I would be working side by side with her as adults. As we hugged good-bye on the church parking lot, we jumped up and down holding each other like two little girls laughing at ourselves.