RBA Hispanic Ministry Report
Thursday, March 22, 2007Four years ago tomorrow WE held the first Hispanic Gathering that WE were involved with at Coan Church. I remember being excited and somewhat terrified all at the same time. Leslie and I had been working on the choruses that we were going to sing. I had done some searching online and got the sense that some of the choruses I’d grown up singing were known across denominational lines throughout Latin America. It ended up being, for the most part, a duet on Leslie’s and my part.
There were one or two songs that the folks that came recognized, but for the most part they were not familiar with the ones I’d chosen. Over the next couple of weeks and months, in talking to Cecilia and some of the other folks, we learned several choruses that were familiar to them, and the volume of voices that joined together in singing at the beginning of the worship services grew.
Over the last four years, we’ve had opportunities to learn more of the songs THEY know and have also been able to share some of our most meaningful hymns with them. We still sing “At The Cross” almost every gathering, and have taught them “He Leadeth Me”, “Because He Lives”, and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.
Just a couple of stories from the ministry: on Valentine’s day four of our friends were involved in a car accident caused by ice on the road. Two of the women who were riding in the car were seriously injured. They were not life-threatening injuries, but they WERE such that they will not be able to work for at least another couple of months, and probably more. Their names are Antonia Diaz and Clemencia Orozco.
About the same time, a woman who is a citizen, called and asked me to help her with her situation – she and her husband have 8 children, four of whom are not yet school age. The youngest is coming up on 3 months old. He is their sole means of support, and he was detained by the department of homeland security and taken to Portsmouth, where he’s been for the last two months. His court hearing to determine if he will be allowed to remain here and feed and take care of his family while working out his legal status will be sometime over the next couple of weeks. Their names are Vrenda and Ramiro Espinoza.
At the end of February I drove Fidela Corona and Tobias Rojas to Mary Washington Hospital to deliver their son. We got there in plenty of time. In Fact, it was the second time in as many weeks that I’d taken her there with the intention of having her induced. She had developed preeclampsia in the last few weeks of the pregnancy, and the symptoms had finally gotten to the point where they were going to HAVE to take the baby. Thankfully, everything turned out fine. Larry Rojas is doing fine.
Lastly, there’s Guillermo and Felicitas Mercado Sarmiento and their daughters America and Casandra. Guillermo works at one of the local plants making a little over eight dollars an hour. Their stay so far – they moved here about a year ago – has been almost a continual struggle. They decided early on that he would be the only one to work outside the home, and Felicitas would stay home and care for the girls. They have had a terrible time finding a place to live, but they finally DID find a place up on Newland Road, across the corner from where Pea Ridge Rd comes out onto Newland Rd. Their rent is $650.00 a month, plus utilities. The owner, who is also Mexican, has told them that they can have at most 2 other tenants living with them, either a couple or individuals. Guillermo is a careful man. He is a hard worker, a caring father and husband, and he is being very careful about who they end up sharing the house with. He told me last night that if he doesn’t find anyone that HE is comfortable and secure in sharing the house with, he is perfectly willing to just let it be them. As hard as that would be for them to make ends meet, he would still rather do that then have to deal with the fallout from folks who weren’t as diligent as he is in taking care of where they live.
There’ve been a couple of other families with baby issues – one three day old boy developed a urinary tract infection and had to be taken to MCV, another toddler with down’s syndrome developed yet another case of pneumonia and had to be treated in the emergency room, another girl has had recurring problems that required a trip to MCV …
It’s been a particularly busy few weeks. When I worked up the mileage to date that I’ve put on the car just since the second week of February, I was stunned. I realized why I’d been feeling so tired lately, why I had the flare-up with my back week before last.
As I was getting ready for tonight, a scripture came to mind, Galatians 6:9; let me read a couple of the surrounding verses just to give you an idea of what Paul was in the middle of saying:
8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
We’ve been doing this for four years. YOU’VE been doing it longer – I think we ALL need to hear the word of the Lord when he tells us to not get tired of doing what is right.
Multiple individuals have told me to slow down. Of late, my body has joined that number and is telling me the same thing in no uncertain terms. In that vein, I think there may be some (here’s that word) changes that will be seen in the way the Hispanic Ministry is being carried out. What is happening now is good and right, and holy. The worship times at gatherings, as I’ve shared before, have become truly worshipful, the Bible Studies can get seriously interactive. Most of that will continue. There comes a point where the running may need to turn to walking for a while, still pressing toward that goal, but being careful to not burn out. I would like to ask you to pray as an association for what that will look like. The idea has been floated to settle the gathering at a single location, to have a shared facility, ideally. Please pray for that vision. The ministry continues, people are recognizing the full implication of what it means when they call themselves Christians, and are beginning to live into that knowledge.
In the worship services, the words that are being sung are not only going out from our mouths, they are going into our heads and into our hearts. The scripture that is read is going out and inward as well, and I stand firmly on the promise that it will not return to us empty.
Thank you. For your continued prayer, and support, and love, and encouragement.
Kenny
