Mano de Amistad / Hand of Friendship
Humberto & Becky Ramirez – – Hispanic Ministry Update – – March 2014
First of all, let us apologize for not communicating with you for a long time. We imagine you were beginning to wonder what was going on with Humberto and Becky. But one thing you can be confident of is that the work to which we have been called is being done to the best of our abilities, and your continued support—for which we are truly thankful—has made that a possibility.
In the past year, the ministry has gone through several stages that have resulted in great blessings—even though the events didn’t feel like blessings at the time they occurred. Here are some of the things which have been happening.
One: During 2013, several of our Hispanic church families lost close relatives to death in Mexico. And while we know funerals are usually sad times, they do serve to provide closure for those in attendance. But when an undocumented person is faced with this reality, however, it is even more painful as that person can’t freely travel to Mexico for a funeral and then return to his/her family in the U.S. We thank God for the time we had previously spent encouraging close relationships between the church families, as those relationships provided the “family” support needed in the aftermath of the deaths.
Two: We are conscious of the fact it’s very important for our church members to gather together on Sunday mornings to celebrate our common faith and relationship to God, but we also realize that’s a time when most of the people are well-dressed and on their best behavior. In addition to that time, we’ve been encouraging our church families to get together for other activities in different settings than the Sunday morning services. To help facilitate the fellowship, we’ve begun having a recreation time on Sunday evenings in the gym next door to the church. Our folks love to play volleyball, indoor soccer and dodge ball and enjoy participating in games that include the whole family. And it’s been very interesting to observe how people react when they win or lose a game. These activity times have brought the individuals and families much closer to each other.
Three: Over the past year, our Hispanic congregation has increased in numbers, so much so that we recently moved our services to a larger and more accessible area inside of the building of Englewood Christian Church. The English-speaking brethren have always allowed us to freely use many different areas of the building, and now we’re having our Sunday services in the chapel which is located right next to the main auditorium. The English/Spanish services actually meet simultaneously, but continue to meet separately because of the language barriers for our first generation Hispanics. All of our kids, however, continue to have joint activities with no problem.
As a congregation, we have intentionally decided one of our greatest priorities is taking care of each other, so there won’t be any needs among us. Sometimes that involves the church deciding to help members with monetary support, while other times it involves physically working alongside those families or counseling with them to help take care of their problems. As a result of these activities, our church members have evangelized a number of their coworkers, neighbors, family members and friends by modeling what the church community should be doing on a daily basis.
Four: As you may have heard me say before, millions of dollars have been spent on missionary endeavors in Mexico and Central America. Missionaries have been sent. Church buildings have been constructed, and today many consider these countries to have been “evangelized.” Unfortunately, these countries still continue to be some of the most violent places in the world. In my heart, I (Humberto) have always had a deep love for Hispanics and their needs. In the past five years, I’ve made two trips to Mexico and Central America and have studied churches to see what might be done to help them become real Christian communities that, in turn, could transform their surrounding communities.
From April 28 to May 8, Mike Bowling—my counterpart in the English-speaking Englewood congregation—and I will be traveling to Mexico where we’ll meet with a number of church leaders and have the opportunity to share with them about the importance of the transformative work of the Christian faith—a way of living that can help the church reconnect with the daily needs of their communities. We’ll be in the city of Queretaro sharing with area ministers and with the students of the Christian University of Mexico (formerly the National Bible Institute which Humberto directed many years ago). We’ll also be able to fellowship with a number of ministers from around the country who’ll be coming to Queretaro to attend the Annual Meeting of the Association of the Churches of Christ.
We know we can’t change all the churches in Mexico, but our prayer is that we can find some open minds and hearts to take some of the ideas we share and make changes in their church and community.
We estimate the expenses for both Mike and me to make the trip to Mexico will total around $1,400. If any of you would like to help with the costs associated with the trip, your gifts would be greatly appreciated. Gifts should be sent to the address below along with a note stating the funds are to help with the trip costs.
We’ll be back in touch with you again soon with a report on the trip to Mexico along with more news from the Hispanic ministry here in Indianapolis. Thank you again for your faithful prayers and support. May God continue to richly bless you all.
Mano de Amistad / Hand of Friendship
Humberto & Becky Ramirez ¨ 8311 Rumford Rd ¨ Indianapolis, IN 46219
ramirez-ray@usa.net or beckyramirez7@gmail.com
:To view previous ministry updates, visit us at http://manodeamistad.blogspot.com/.