EI Senor sea con ustedes. Another generation would have said, Der Herr sei mit euch! while we simply say, The Lord be with you.
Whether in German, English or Spanish, the message of God's grace is for all people everywhere, and as Christians we have Christ's commission to bring the Gospel to all nations.
While most of our congregations support the work in far away mission fields, we sometimes overlook the mission fields God places at our doorstep. At St. Paul's, Latimer, we have recently begun a Hispanic ministry.
This past summer, St. Paul's wanted to offer a summer Vacation Bible School type program for the unchurched children in our community. We called the program WOW for Worship On Wednesdays and prepared fliers in both English and Spanish. Of the 33 children taking part in our WOW program, one third were Hispanic.
Because of the success of this program, we extended it throughout the school year. As we once again canvassed the area for this program, Maria, grandmother to one of the children asked "When are you going to have a service in Spanish for us?" With the approval and support of the congregation, we began by offering a Spanish service one Saturday night a month and soon added a second service. Our worship includes hymns in Spanish, liturgy and prayers in Spanish and the sermon given in Spanish and English. We follow the service with an opportunity for snacks and fellowship. The average attendance at our Spanish services has been running about 20-25.
One highlight of our experience was our Spanish Christmas Eve service. While the Christmas story was read, the children acted out the story. For most ofthe children, this was the first time they had taken part in a Christmas program.
Since beginning the Spanish service, we have expanded our efforts by offering an English class for the Latimer Hispanic community. In addition we have been approached by a Hispanic population in Dows, Iowa and have had a number of people from that community take part in our services as well.
Among the comments we have received on this program is the following: "We have lived in Latimer for ten years and no one invited us to church. We want our children to pray and learn about Jesus. Thank you for letting us be a part of your church."
What does it take to offer a Spanish program? At Latimer we have been ,blessed in having Tom Tyrrell, who teaches English as a Second Language classes, do much of the necessary translation work. Our liturgies are printed in Spanish and English, as many of the children can speak Spanish but cannot read it. We plan to teach a catechism class so that we can expand our worship ftomjust a preaching service to services in which the Sacrament of the Altar can be offered as well.
While we may not do everything perfectly; we are making an effort and God is blessing that effort. When God opens doors for us, He will also provide the ability and the materials to meet the challenges. If He has used our congregation with its German heritage to reach out to a Hispanic population, perhaps He can use yours as well.
While most of the Latimer people are permanent residents, many of the Dows people are transitory. One man who took part in our services, told us that because he liked what he heard, when he returned home he was going to look up a Lutheran Church in his area.
Together we can join in saying: El Senor sea con ustedes or The Lord be with you.
