Hispanic Ministry Report to the Spring Meeting of the RBA

Providence Baptist Church

I stand before you with a full heart.

This past Sunday I drove down to almost the very tip of River Road in Lancaster and picked up 5 women who had just arrived the night before from Mexico to pick crabs at Captain Tom’s Seafood for the next few months. I knocked on the back door of the house, and heard them talking to each other as one of them came to the door to open it.

When she did, we reached for each other and just hugged for a really long time.  We were both crying. You see, it’d been at least two years since we had seen each other, and at least four since she was last here. It was Isidra Arellanes – she goes by Yola.

She and her family hosted us when we traveled to their neighborhood outside Mexico City and built that store for her neighbor who had the son who is not able to care for himself so she could both care for him and provide for the family.

Isidra is the one that looked at Leslie and me on that first trip we made to Mexico back in 2005 and said ‘There needs to be a Baptist church in Chimalhuacan.’ She and her family have become family to US over the years.

The other woman I hugged and cried with was her sister in law Minerva. You may remember me telling you about her husband Chano drowning when he was trying to come here to work. That crossing was the first time he had ever tried something like that.

They’d left Chimalhuacan the previous Monday to travel to Monterrey to go through the interview process before coming across, and after spending a day traveling there, spent two days going through the process, then another three days on the road to Richmond. But when I asked them if they wanted to come to the gathering at Jerusalem, they readily agreed.

The words of institution weren’t spoken, and it wasn’t a little piece of bread and a sip of grape juice that was served, but it was a meal shared. We celebrated communion. 

So my heart is full of joy that they are back in our midst.

But my heart is full of sorrow as well. My friends Juan and Pedro were picked up by ICE agents a few weeks ago, and Juan’s wife has decided that she will be going back to Mexico with their children to be with him there. I will be taking them to the Mexican consulate in DC to help them get their passports in order next week. So we will be saying goodbye to one more family.

Pedro’s wife and family are trying to get the help of an attorney to see if they can work out a way for him to stay. That IS a possibility – at least in the short term – even as he is going through the deportation proceedings, BECAUSE he is in the system – and is by virtue of that fact a legally recognized individual, for whatever length of time it takes his case to be dealt with, he could be eligible to receive a work permit, a valid Social Security number, and by that be able to get a official Virginia driver’s license. That is what is happening with another friend of ours. His court date has been set for February 13, 2014. 

On a more local, immediate note, with the continuing economic struggles in the area, we are giving away more food from the food pantry that you have helped us stock, and we are looking towards next August to offer backpacks and school supplies to the families that still remain. A few have left, but there are still many who have found ways to stick around. I would encourage you to join in either one or both of those efforts as a continuing expression of our care for our neighbors in the Latino community.

We are also continuing to collect and give out welcome bags to the workers who come here on H2A or H2B visas to work in either the plant nurseries, vegetable farms, or crab or oyster houses around the Neck.  We can send you the handouts that explain what goes into them and how they are made.

That season – for the workers to be coming in – is ramping up. Please pray for their safety as they travel as well as while they are here, and for their families as they are separated from each other.

There are still lots of dates available to host Encuentros if you would like to do so, just let us know.

Thank you, for allowing us to partner with you in “being Christ’s presence” to people who are by definition living on the margins of our society. It is a privilege and a blessing beyond measure.