Minsterio De Fe and the people of Reynosa, Mexico

Ministerio de Fe (Faith Ministries) is the primary Meeting House mission partner in Mexico.colonias, where people live in substandard conditions. Founded in 1994, Faith Ministries has organized volunteer workers from congregations and organizations across the U.S. to construct more than 700 houses serving 3600 local family members. The nonprofit organization has built two church complexes each comprising a sanctuary, pastor's home, offices, fellowship hall, dormitories, bathrooms with showers, kitchen facilities, courtyard and medical clinic. A third is underway, and there are plans for a total of five. The new medical clinic that opened in August 2006 will serve thousands of people with its six exam rooms, a pharmacy, dorms for visiting medical teams to stay in, and its own water purification treatment facility. Faith Ministries has provided more than 300 children's tuition scholarships, which for these families provides the only means to education as there is no public school in Mexico. Based just across the Mexican border in McAllen, Texas, Faith Ministries provides housing, medical care, education, and evangelism in Reynosa's

Meeting House work camp teams have built ten 12'x24' concrete block homes in Reynosa over ten years, each summer working side-by-side with Mexican brothers and sisters as well as the recipient family. In 2005 Meeting House members participated in a new children's art program, in conjunction with Ministerio de Fe's Third Presbyterian Church and Pastor Alfredo. In 2006 the Meeting House sent a record 28 persons to the work camp, and one local. Here at home, one member made a special quilt for the Mexican recipient family, Vacation Bible School children donated a collection of their money for the Reynosa children, and Service Week youth created and filled schoolbags with school supplies for Reynosa students. The Meeting House provides annual financial support for Ministerio de Fe and sponsors four tuition scholarships for Reynosa children.

Mission trip reflections by Meeting House Members

• Marcia A. Smith, 2004

• Kristina Dahmann, 2005

• Judith Dahmann, 2005

• Dona DeLeon, 2006