Catherine Evelyn Covey
718 Manor Circle
McAllen, TX 78501

Catherine Covey ended her term of service on May 31, 2005, after 10 years of continuous service.

Catherine Covey is a long-term volunteer assigned by the PC(USA) to the Puentes de Cristo project in McAllen, Texas. Puentes de Cristo is one of seven projects of the Presbyterian Border Ministries (PBM), which oversees seven bi-national mission sites along the 2,000-mile Mexico-U.S. border. As financial secretary, she maintains accounting records for Puentes de Cristo as well as Frontera de Cristo and Proyecto Amistad, two border ministries.

Catherine started down the path that brought her to her current destination in 1977, when she was first diagnosed with "SLE" or Lupus, a connective tissue disease for which there is no cure. After hearing the news, she drove to a nearby state park with a rock formation called the Garden of the Gods. She cried and prayed to God that she had always wanted to be a missionary but had been unable to find a way to do it in the midst of raising her three children. Catherine told God that despite her condition she would still like to be a missionary and asked God to help her find a way.

It took ten years for Catherine to realize her dream, as she moved from Colorado to California and then to Oklahoma, where she completed a degree in computer science and accounting at a junior college. Then she went to Texas and told the pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church in Victoria her story. He put her in touch with the Presbyterian Border Ministries in San Antonio.

"Over the past ten years I have seen the help given to the people of our eight church sites in Reynosa. And I have seen the people in Mexico grow and become stronger and better from the help that Puentes de Cristo has given through their medical, nutritional, and educational programs. I have learned a lot in the past ten years—that a missionary isn’t just preaching, teaching, or showing people how to make things grow. I thank God every day for letting me fulfill my life’s ambition and even over the years, as my health has gotten worse, I am still able to help in my own way. I think people should know that God has work for everyone no matter what their talents are."

Catherine is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Mission, Texas, where she serves as an elder and is chair of the committee on representation of Mission Presbytery. She has three grown children: Elizabeth Lawrence, James Covey, and Jeffrey Covey.

Birthday: August 18