Jack and Juliette McClendon
6601 N. Taylor Road
Mission, TX 78572
puentes@hiline.net

Jack and Juliette ended their term of service in June 2003. They are available to speak when their schedule permits. To invite them to speak, see their current contact information on the Mission Speakers page.

From 1943 to 1963, Jack and Juliette McClendon served as missionaries in Mexico, under appointment by the former Presbyterian Church (U.S.). Then they decided to do other things for the following 38 years. But last year they felt called back to ministry with the Mexican people and, as a result, they have recently been appointed to serve as long-term international volunteers at the Presbyterian Border Ministry site in Puentes de Cristo, Hidalgo, Texas.

After a three-week cross-cultural and ecumenical orientation in July and August of 2001, the McClendons reported for duty. Jack has been doing carpentry, mechanical repair, and some gardening. He will be building tables, chairs, and cabinets, and repairing and reconditioning sewing machines for the teaching program in Reynosa. His gardening efforts will focus on teaching children to plant and grow their own vegetables. Juliette will do translation and interpretation, teach Bible classes, and give classes in music and singing for children and adults. She will also work with the ministry to pastors and members of churches, as well as with the program of nutrition and tutoring for the Girls’ Clubs. Their term of service ends in June 2003.

Letters from
Jack and Juliette McClendon

• May 2003
• December 2002
• May 2002
• December 2001

"I have been called to mission service since youth, and am eager to continue here," says Juliette. "The amazing work of the Lord among those who hear for the first time of the power of His presence, as well as among those whom He has called to be the representatives of that presence, sustain me as I seek to continue my service to God’s mission here at the border."

Puentes de Cristo is a ministry to and with Mexicans at the border, providing medical attention, food for children, help with school assignments, and pre-natal care. "The city where this project of the Border Ministry is located," writes Juliette, "has more than a million inhabitants, impossible traffic, dusty unpaved streets, and unheated shacks mixed with brick houses throughout."

Besides their 20 years of mission experience in Mexico, the McClendons also served for two years in Paraguay with the United States Peace Corps. Juliette has taught third grade Spanish in Big Spring, Texas, and has taught Spanish at two colleges in San Antonio, Texas: Our Lady of the Lake College and San Antonio College. Juliette taught at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, for 12 years, including six years as head of the department of foreign languages. After retiring from teaching, Juliette worked for twenty years as owner and manager of a dog-breeding kennel.

Jack was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1949. In addition to the 20 years he served in Mexico he was also pastor or assistant pastor in Presbyterian churches in Woodsboro, Merkel, Midland, Odessa, San Antonio, Coahoma, and Dallas.

Juliette attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, for two years after graduating from high school. She then earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin. She also received her master’s degree and her doctorate from the University of Texas.

Jack holds a bachelor’s degree from Daniel Baker College and a certificate from Austin Theological Seminary in Texas.

Birthdays:
Juliette - April 22
Jack - June 24