by Merv Thompson
Teaching pastor
For several years, Mission Rio Grande has engaged the imaginations and passions of a number of people from Lutheran Church of Hope, causing them to travel to Mexican border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. Partnering with Pastor Rosemary Sanchez-Guzman and members of her Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey congregation, team members have undertaken myriad projects, construction, painting, maintenance, as well as sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through worship, prayer, children’s ministry and personal relationships.
During the most recent 2011 sojourn, Pastor Sanchez-Guzman, while expressing deep appreciation to all team members for their many gifts of love and service, challenged them to now go back to West Des Moines, to Lutheran Church of Hope, look in our back yard and discern how God might use them to reach out to Latinos in our own community. It is wonderful to be missionaries in foreign lands, so much is needed; but that does not mean we should ignore the needs at home, just down the street and across the town.
The team was so moved by Pastor Sanchez-Guzman’s Spirit-filled words that someone immediately sent a message via Facebook to Senior Pastor Mike Housholder, repeating the challenge from Pastor Rosemary and informing him that the team was now returning home on fire for beginning a ministry for Latinos. Even though it was late at night (does the man ever sleep?), Mike replied clearly and unequivocally, “I am totally in favor of your vision, go for it.” Amen and Amen.
As soon as the team arrived back in West Des Moines an appointment was made with Chief Ministry Officer Gus Gustafson. He was equally as encouraging. “Whatever I can do to help you in this venture I will do,” he promised. He explained, The next step for you is to begin to pray and come up with an action plan to bring to the Lutheran Church of Hope church council. What made it such a God thing is that when word started to spread about this new ministry, new people just showed up to be a part of the time, some of them bilingual, some with deep resumes of working with Latinos in the past.
Some of the content of the action plan was as follows:
Aim-Agenda. “To bring God’s Word to people in their language, creating an opportunity for people to worship and learn and grow regardless of any language barriers.
Problem-Opportunity. The Latino population in the Des Moines area is growing, and there are few Spanish-speaking ministries to serve it. To make heaven more crowded, we wish to provide a ministry to this community in its own language.
Mission-Vision. We believe this ministry is consistent with the overall vision of Hope: to reach out to the world around us and share the everlasting love of Jesus Christ. That world around us at Lutheran Church of Hope most definitely includes Spanish-speaking residents. By the way, 23 percent of U.S. Latinos identify themselves as Protestant; and, at present, there is no other Lutheran congregation in the community that is providing these resources.
Solution. Develop a culturally relevant program at Hope for Latinos.
When the Latino Ministry team met with the Lutheran Church of Hope church council in August of 2011, it unpacked three initial goals.
1. Serve, minister and worship shoulder to shoulder with Latinos, and incorporate staff and members in this ministry.
2. Begin a “simultaneous interpretation” of the worship service and sermon as a temporary solution for Latino worship.
3. Plug into the Thursday Outreach Night event, in which food, clothes, fellowship, worship and support groups are offered for all. In addition, permission was granted to order more than a hundred Spanish Bibles, to be given away when appropriate.
With permission granted, the team now began making plans to reach out to Latinos on Thursday nights. Fliers were developed and distributed at the
huge Latino Heritage Festival held each fall in downtown Des Moines. In addition, the team members printed T-shirts that had “Hope en Accion” (Hope in Action) on the front, and the mission statement on the back (in Spanish).
Outreach Night began slowly for the Latino population. One family showed up, then another, word got out and another came. The Latino Ministry team showed up each week to provide hospitality, relationships and bilingual communication. It was not long before the team wanted to offer more than just food and fellowship, and so a Bible study was implemented following the meal.
At first it began at a table in The Bridge, but then it grew to a point where a separate room was needed to handle all of the people, both children and adults. Soon the children and adults were moved to a separate place where the children could have more of a “Sunday school Kingdom Quest experienc,” with videos, teaching and interaction, most of this in English. They were taught and engaged in Bible study in Spanish.
At Christmas of 2011, the first simultaneous translation of the sermon and worship service took place. This enabled any person with a Spanish language background to go to the Welcome Center, secure some headphones, and then be able to listen to the message in Spanish.
By early 2012 the numbers of Latinos who attended Thursday Outreach Night have grown to more than 100 per week. Almost half of them remain after the Thursday meal at 5:00 pm for fellowship, Bible study and worship (re:vive for young adults meets on Thursday evenings). An expanded Latino Ministry team continues to welcome and show hospitality to all who come on Thursdays, and those who are bilingual have even more opportunities for such interaction.
The Latino Ministry team identified a need to the church council and the need has only intensified since then, that an ultimate goal would be secure a full-time staff person of Latino heritage to lead this ministry. This would then make it possible to fulfill a second goal, to host a Latino worship service each week, with the appropriate music, language, etc. And remembering that the original challenge came from Pastor Rosemary Sanchez-Guzman, there is the strong desire to build even stronger ties with her congregation.
Because of the connection with re:vive and the fact that some of the Latinos are part of this community, the leaders of re:vive are looking closely at developing closer ties to this new ministry. In fact, they are going to host a trip this Mission Rio Grande and are launching a ministry to teens. This could make a huge impact on the entire ministry.
There are also plans be made to have the Latino mission featured rather prominently at the Taste of Hope event during the summer. This could include providing culturally relevant components such as Mexican food, organizing Latin music with mariachis, a taco truck and Spanish style dancing.
A major breakthrough in the visibility of this ministry has just taken place with the request of one of the families to hold a quinceanera at Lutheran Church of Hope. What is a quinceanera? In the Spanish culture, there is a tradition that when a young girl reaches 15 years of age, she is honored with a ceremony that recognizes that she is now moving from childhood to adulthood. Oftentimes this event incorporates a blessing from the church, and this will certainly be a part of this celebration. Other families have expressed interest in Hope hosting their daughters’ quinceanera as well.
Please pray for this new ministry, to bless the present volunteers, bring new ones, to unearth some potential bilingual staff and volunteers. There is so much potential to reach the Latino community in the Des Moines area, and vision that God has revealed to us.
