Jorge Braun enjoys reading his hometown newspaper. And like many people today, he does so via the Internet. But Jorge’s story has a unique twist. This member of Glenmary’s mission in Hamburg, Ark., isn’t reading the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette or the Ashley County Ledger. Jorge comes to the “computer lab” at Holy Spirit Catholic Church to read his hometown newspaper from Mexico.

The congregation of the Hamburg mission is made up mostly of Hispanic families and single men. Seventy-five to 100 attend Mass every week. And the mission is growing, evidenced by the large number of baptisms.

Although most Hispanics come to the area as migrant workers, many, like Jorge, are putting down roots by buying homes. “A couple of folks have even buried family here,” says Father Neil Pezzulo, who pastors this mission as well as one in Crossett. “That’s a sign they’re here to stay.”

The computer lab where Jorge and other parishioners get news from Mexico is the result of a connection made through Glenmary’s Adopt-a-Mission Program.

When St. Raphael Church in Oshkosh, Wis., adopted the Hamburg mission in 2002, parishioners Tom and Maureen Donovan asked Father Neil how they could help. He told them how computer access could boost the academic standing of kids in the parish whose families could not afford a home computer.

He also explained how Internet access would help Hispanic members of all ages stay in touch with family and friends in Mexico where they can access e-mail through Internet cafes and public libraries.

Several months later St. Raphael delivered eight computers to Hamburg, along with computer furniture constructed by members of this Oshkosh parish. The Hamburg mission community responded to this gift of computers in a way common in Hispanic culture: with a blessing.

“When we blessed the computers, I pulled up on the Internet a couple of newspapers from members’ hometowns in Mexico,” says Father Neil. Some, like Jorge, have responded immediately to the new opportunity. Others are a bit slower at moving into the computer age.

The new parish “computer lab” is housed in a bungalow behind the Hamburg church. The room is outfitted with four computers, two of which are connected to the Internet.

A fifth computer from St. Raphael has been installed in the Crossett, Ark., rectory where Father Neil lives. It is used to prepare weekly bulletins for the Crossett and Hamburg missions. And the other three computers have been given to parish students for use while away at college.

When Father Neil first discussed the educational need for computers with his Adopt-a-Mission partner in Wisconsin, he imagined the equipment being used primarily by elementary and middle school students, since high school parishioners have access to computers in school.

Currently, he admits, the kids use them mostly to play games and “goof around surfing the ‘net”—not unlike young people their age in many other places. But he feels confident that parish young people will gradually begin to use them for educational as well as recreational purposes.

Enhancing computer access for a rural community in Arkansas would not have been at the top of any Glenmary missioner’s wish list 20, or maybe even 10, years ago.

But today, access to the World Wide Web has become a significant way of linking isolated communities to the wider world—and to the larger Church. And for many Hamburg parishioners, to home.