Missions movement expanding among Hispanics7/30/2007
By Sue Sprenkle
RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Claudia Ramirez* knew God called her to the Arab world, but her small church tried to convince her otherwise.The Spanish-speaking church bordering Texas and Mexico told the 20-something that Christian workers came to them, not the other way around. Ramirez disagreed, packed her bags and headed to North Africa.
“Our responsibility is to God’s people, and His people are all over the world,” Ramirez says, noting that her church’s attitude since has changed. “After spending two years here (North Africa), my church has totally grasped this idea of reaching the world. Their eyes have been opened to the world just from my obedience to go.”
Ramirez and her church are part of a growing missions movement among Spanish speakers in the United States. They are just one of 3,000 Southern Baptist Hispanic churches to become involved in missions outside of the Latin community.
In 1999, the International Mission Board reported having 29 Hispanic missionaries. Jason Carlisle, Hispanic mobilization consultant for the IMB, says these 29 were appointed over a 20-year period. By 2003, there were more than 100 Hispanic missionaries on the field. In 2006, there were 25 applicants to the board’s International Service Corps (ISC) program. In the first three months of 2007, the ISC program already had received 10 applicants.
Traditionally, Spanish-speaking churches reach out to their communities. Hispanic church leaders say that in the past decade, many started looking beyond the city limits to their home countries. A desire to share the Gospel with family members still living in their mother countries fueled volunteer trips to Latin America. From there, trips expanded to other areas of Latin America. A common language, Spanish, made it a natural fit.
Mauricio Alvarez, senior pastor of Casa de Vida para Las Naciones (House of Life for the Nations) in Greenacres, Fla., says the next stage of the missions movement is to look beyond language and take the Gospel to places where there is no Christian witness. Alvarez works with Southern Baptist Spanish-speaking churches to mobilize them for missions. His church includes 19 different Spanish-speaking nationalities, giving it a vested interest in the world.
“For years, missionaries have gone to Latin America or to work with Hispanics in the States,” says Alvarez, whose life was influenced as a young boy in Uruguay by Southern Baptist missionaries. “This example of missions has taken root among the Latin population. In the last 20 years, a missionary movement among Latinos started emerging. We began to realize that we can do missions and that it’s our responsibility, too.”
Bea Mesquias, a Woman’s Missionary Union leader from Harlingen, Texas, accepted the challenge to go beyond her comfort zone. Normally, she takes WMU groups on mission trips to Mexico. She says it’s a natural thing to do for the Spanish-speaking groups. However, the trip that made the greatest impact on her was her first in a non-Spanish-speaking country, Moldova. There, she saw poverty in Eastern Europe as she’s never experienced in Mexico. Moldovan women happily gave up their entire week’s ration of food to serve her a “proper” five-course Moldovan meal.
“It’s a totally different experience being in a place you can’t speak the language,” Mesquias says, as a new Moldovan friend who did not speak English or Spanish tightly hugs her neck. “I found out that you can express God’s love without talking. It’s in a look, in a smile or an embrace. We are all God’s children and need to experience His love.”
Alvarez’s first trip to North Africa also changed his view of missions. He says the North Africans looked like him – brown eyes, brown hair and olive skin. A mutual interest in international soccer teams quickly bonded them. He also found that the culture in most third-world countries is close to his own Latin culture, where interpersonal relationships are highly valued. One North African man commented to Alvarez’s volunteer team that every Latin volunteer he had met had a “special light and love” radiating from him. The eyes of one volunteer lit up as he realized the man referred to the love of Jesus Christ, giving him an opportunity to share the Gospel.
Carlisle says in the past few years, more Hispanic volunteer teams are taking trips to the unreached world. Several vision trips have been organized to introduce Hispanic volunteers to specific needs on the mission field in hopes that the vision for God’s kingdom will continue to expand. Carlisle says the vision is for more than just going, it’s also for prayer support and giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
Giving monetarily to support mission efforts is a growing trend among Hispanic churches, Carlisle says. In 2005, Iglesia Bautista El Calvario in Seymour, Ind ., was recognized as the church giving the highest amount per capita to the Lottie Moon offering. The 25-member church, which draws nearly double that number in attendance, collected $10,000 for the offering. Alvarez’s own church, with about 100 members, also is one of the highest giving churches per capita to the annual offering. Its Lottie Moon offering receipts for 2006 totaled $33,206.
“Latinos can do missions – it’s our responsibility to join God at work!” Alvarez says. “It is the time for us to work together in reaching the world for Christ.”
The opportunities are vast, from open evangelism in Senegal to training Nigerian churches how to evangelize in persecuted areas.
While in North Africa, a former Muslim man told Alvarez stories of being harassed in the markets and threatened for being a Christian. Despite threats he continues to spread the Gospel.
“I was struck by what these people give up to be Christians,” Alvarez says, admitting he also was struck by the man’s final request. “He told me, ‘Please tell your people to come help us.’”
*Name changed for security reasons.
Emily Peters and Jesse Lyautey contributed to this story.
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