Buckner volunteers help Valley woman receive dying wish

Posted: 11/09/07

Buckner volunteers help
Valley woman receive dying wish

By Analiz González

Buckner International

ELSA—Martina García wanted to live, and she asked God for life. But if she couldn’t have that, she made one request—that God would give her family a home.

For 12 years the García family lived in a bus in Elsa, a small community northeast of McAllen. When they moved in, there was no electricity or water. They had to go to a friend’s house to shower and cool off from the South Texas heat. Then they carried back buckets to wash clothes and dirty dishes.

The bus where the Garcias lived before their house was completed.

But there was no protection from bugs. And every night, mosquitoes would bite their newborn baby.

Eventually, they convinced neighbors to let them tap into their electricity and water. They got rid of the bus seats and replaced them with a stove, a refrigerator, shelves and a small wooden table. Then they hung a water hose over the entrance and covered it with a thick blanket to use as a shower. They even added a one-room annex with a restroom next to the bus.

The modified bus offered slightly improved living conditions. But soon, tragedy hit the family.

After García gave birth to the family’s third child at age 41, she was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer. The colon cancer could be treated with chemotherapy, but the doctor told her the liver cancer was terminal.

As she received chemotherapy, it caused side-effects that made it hard to sleep. Her mouth filled with open sores, so the only thing she could taste was blood. And she was constantly nauseated and drained. Her two older boys, ages 16 and 13, helped care for the baby while her husband took care of her.

Jorge Zapata, director of Buckner Border Ministries, heard about the family when someone he knew saw their story on a local television news broadcast, García said.

Volunteers from churches in the Rio Grande Valley and from Northside Baptist Church in Victoria joined mission workers with KidsHeart, a collaborative effort between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Buckner, to build a home for the Garcías.

Finally, 12 years after moving into the bus, the family received what they wanted for so long— a three-bedroom home.

“All of God’s people really came together to get this done,” Zapata said. “We bought material to frame the house. The Valley Hispanic Baptist Men helped with the walls, and a church from Victoria took care of the roof and all the inside. Buckner provided the insulation and sheet rock.”

García said the hardest thing about being sick wasn’t her suffering, but her family’s worries. It’s hard for her husband to take care of the baby, she said, and wiped a tear before it left the rim of her eye. Even though she’s in a lot of pain, she has to be strong for her family.

García died in her home Nov. 4—two weeks after she made a profession of faith in Christ.

“We finally have our home now,” García’s husband, Juvencio, told Zapata. “It was Martina’s dream. I just wish the house didn’t feel so empty.”