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Hispanic
Ministry North of the Border
Efrain Romero leaves Tijuana to pastor the San Diego
Hispanic Presbyterian Church
PH Board Member in Chula Vista Hispanic Ministry
New
Ministry continues development – Just Coffee
Just
Coffee Office Equipment and PH projector stolen
Progress at Dios Es Amor Mission in La Planicie
Enrique Romero sabbatical
New Mission & Community Center in La Planicie
Our community health and development nurse Martha
Gonzalez
Preaching
in the U.S
New Minibus
Mission Teams (Spring 2007, Summer
2007)
Soldwisch personal stuff
Dear Partners in Mission,
It’s been a while since I’ve written – I’m still alive and
active in ministry here at the border, very busy in fact. Just returned from
three week vacation in the Philippines at the end of May, started this update
but never finished it as I got caught up in the rush of summer mission team
activities in Tijuana and south, and now am finally getting it sent.
New Ministry continues development – Just Coffee
–
The new high tech roaster is was assembled in Tijuana in July and just now made
operational. This is enabling the Café Justo coffee growers cooperative
to add another community to their program helping traditional coffee
farmers on the southern border of Mexico in Chiapas market their organic shade
grown Arabica coffee with U.S. churches, groups and individuals. The farmers
can thus receive not only a fair price for their coffee beans but also earn the
profits from processing, roasting and marketing that usually go to middle men.
Started three years about by our sister ministry Frontera de Cristo, it enables
the farmers to stay and even prosper in their traditional homesteads. The new
roasting operation in Tijuana, manned by Efrén, who came up from Chiapas and
spent six weeks in training at the roasting facility across from Douglas, AZ,
will process coffee from even higher altitudes which should taste even better,
from El Aguila, to enable more farmers to be involved in this
cooperative. We’re looking for 20 churches to take on this ministry to be
distribution points. (www.JustCoffee.org)
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Just Coffee Office Equipment and PH projector stolen –
Late Saturday night, August 25, thieves managed to remove the security bars
from the 15 foot high window behind the Mt Horeb Mission complex and break into
the Just Coffee offices, stealing all the new office equipment they had just
installed – computer, laser printer-copier-scanner, DSL modem, and the digital
projector of Pueblos Hermanos which had just been used in a presentation there.
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Progress at Dios Es Amor Mission in La Planicie,
Tijuana: The past two years our partner Rev. Enrique Romero has been pastoring
this mission in east Tijuana, where I had been interim pastor a second time for
three months. The church has come alive again and is growing – from four
communicant members to 20 now and Sunday attendance of 50 (including children),
and the singing and praise is beautiful. Enrique has been training leaders and
developing home Bible studies or cell groups, to reach more people with the
Gospel.
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Enrique Romero sabbatical: The Presbytery and
Pueblos Hermanos Board have just authorized Enrique to begin a six month
sabbatical September 23, 2007. He hopes to work on his English, study
evangelism through cell groups, and get some rest from the constant demands of
pastoring new church developments the past 19 years.
I will help pastor the Dios Es Amor Mission when I return from a month of
sharing mission work in three Pennsylvania presbyteries as part of the PCUSA’s
Mission Challenge 2007.
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New Mission & Community Center in La Planicie,
Tijuana. With the growth of the Dios Es Amor Mission, retired pastor Rev.
Samuel Woo, formerly of the United Korean Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles and
the economic sponsor of the creation of the mission, raised funds to purchase
the lot behind the multi-purpose sanctuary and build a 5,164 square foot center
for class rooms, fellowship hall and community outreach. Utilizing the talents
of men of the congregation (plus one from Nueva Vida Congregation in El Pipila)
under Deacon Noé Solano they have built a fellowship hall, kitchen, bathrooms,
prayer room, pastor’s office and three class rooms – community outreach rooms,
pausing after 90% completion awaiting the raising of more funds. Mission teams
from Carson City, Nevada, Summerville, SC, Puyallup, WA and Pleasant Hill, CA
have worked on various stages and finishing touches (plus wiring the downstairs
main room). The hope is to have the official dedication in conjunction with the
10th anniversary of the mission next month.
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Chiropractic mission outreach continues: Dr. Steve
Wilson continues to come every other Friday evening to the Dios Es Amor Mission
to share his chiropractic skill and faith with the 80 to 100 people who are
always there. Folk sing pray, share testimonies, even a short sermon once in a
while as they are waiting for their turn with Dr. Wilson, and of course Pastor
Enrique is sharing the gospel and then visiting these people in their homes.
Many people have been helped by the combination of prayer and chiropractic
“adjustment”. This ministry grew out of Enrique’s getting treatment for an
accident on birthday in September , 2005, and inviting Dr. Wilson to visit
Tijuana. Go to top of page
Efrain Romero leaves Tijuana to pastor the San Diego
Hispanic Presbyterian Church. Efrain Romero, our Mission Team Coordinator
of many years, and then pastor of the Nueva Vida Congregation for almost two
years, became the pastor of San Diego Presbytery’s La Iglesia Presbiteriana
in down town San Diego this April. This mission church began in the early
1980’s by Rev. Tom Simpson (not much of an Hispanic name, huh, but he sure
speaks Spanish better than I do) nested in First Presbyterian Church of San
Diego, grew to over 100 members and then moved to its own facilities in 1998
(after a lot of renovation work by the members of the congregation and folk of
the Presbytery). Efrain, having graduated from our Tijuana extension seminary
in 2005, was commissioned pastor in June, 2005, of the Nueva Vida Congregation
in El Pípila that he had helped his father build up over the previous eight
years. It took some doing, of course, for the congregation to come to accept
him as pastor instead of the pastor’s kid – youth leader – music leader, but it
happened, and they developed a strong core group of leaders through four cell
groups (married men, married women, unmarried men, unmarried women) as well as
reaching new people. Efrain had served a year in Tacoma, Washington, helping
the Presbyterian churches there do a Hispanic New Church Development probe.
Efrain and the congregation of La Iglesia in San
Diego have worked well together, adding new worship services (Sunday and
Wednesday evening) and home Bible study outreach.
Iglesia
is a mission church of San Diego Presbytery, which named me chair of the
Steering Committee which is overseeing the mission church and its relation to
the Presbytery. Poor Efrian! After 12 years with me as his supervisor as
Pueblos Hermanos Mission Team Coordinator, he continues to have to relate to me
in some sense of supervision (our committee must approve their church budget,
for example), though our committee’s primary role is that of support.
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New Hispanic Ministry in Chula Vista led by Pueblos
Hermanos Board Member. Elder Nicasio Rojas, who was baptized Presbyterian
in our first church Dios Habla Hoy (he’s presently their treasurer) and long
time member of Pueblos Hermanos Board of Directors, is leading the new Hispanic
outreach of the Chula Vista Presbyterian Church in conjunction with the San
Diego Evangelism Committee. (
I’ve been helping out in different ways since the beginning. Wednesday evening
Bible studies began more than a year ago; Sunday evening worship in the
sanctuary was inaugurated January of this year. )
This group has grown to more than 30 adults, and provided
the tamale dinner at the San Diego Presbytery meeting hosted by Chula Vista PC
last March. Nicasio, together with co-founder Hugo Carbajal of the Presbytery
Evangelism Committee, has just finished a year of lay pastor training offered
through San Francisco Theological Seminary at its Pasadena campus. There has
been tremendous support by the members and session of the Chula Vista Church.
The goal is to have an integrated Hispanic ministry, the Hispanic members being
members of the church in all respects, rather than spinning off a separate
Hispanic Church: last month 24 of the group were received as members of Chula
Vista PC and the church filed its petition for Nicasio’s Religious Worker Visa
with U.S. immigration authorities (USCIS: Citizenship and Immigration Services
which was spun off from INS.)
This is a fulfillment of one of the
original goals for Pueblos
Hermanos to start a Hispanic
Presbyterian church in the south San Diego area.
Of course it is San Diego Presbytery and its churches that are doing the
ministry, but the grass roots leaders of these two Hispanic ministries grew up
in the midst of our Pueblos Hermanos work.
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Note: the third Hispanic ministry in San Diego
Presbytery also pastured by Pueblos Hermanos “alumnus”. Juan Daniel
Espitia, first Mexican missionary and co-director of Pueblos Hermanos (1985-88),
became pastor of Hispanic Ministries of the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church
last March. After planting the Dios Habla Hoy Church in Tijuana with the
Soldwisches, he studied in Iowa and then Princeton University and Seminary,
getting a double Masters of Social Work and Divinty. The past several years he
has been working with hospitals in Yuma, Arizona. It’s interesting that the
three major Hispanic outreaches of the Presbytery of San Diego are all using
personnel associated with Pueblos Hermanos.
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Preaching in the U.S.
Last fall Efrain and I (Bill) were the featured speakers at Gordon College’s
(Boston area) Global Opportunities Week. It was an exciting time,
developing integrated presentations together – Efra speaking in Spanish with my
translation, then a bit from me, then Efra again, then a few last closing words
from me. The students loved us, because Efra always put in a graphic memorable
illustration with a lot of punch. Gordon College sends 25 to 40 people to work
with our churches in Tijuana and Casa de Esperanza Orphanage each March.
In April Enrique preached and I shared about our ministry
at Calvary PC, Riverside, CA, pastured by my seminary friend Rev. Dean Kokjer.
I never cease to be amazed how warmly people receive Enrique and Efrain’s
preaching with my translation. In August I preached at the Chula Vista PC
(Chula Vista, CA) and the Iglesia Hispana Presbiteriana (in Spanish, of
course) Go to top of page
New Minibus: Rev. Skip Johnson did it again –
he brought out another minibus for the churches in Baja California, driving it
all the way from Hutchinson, Kansas with a Presbyterian Elder co-pilot. This
time he brought 20 desks and chairs which had been on their way to the dump in
Kansas, which we brought to the new kindergarten in Altiplano, Tijuana, where 40
kindergarten kids had been crammed into two rooms in a 16x20’ house, and
received another 12’x24’ room from the La Jolla kids. We’re still looking for
seats to install (it is set up to transport people in wheel chairs) so we can
import it to Mexico.
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Our community health and development nurse Martha
Gonzalez has been very busy giving basic hygiene and mental health classes
in seven public primary and kindergartens (teaching more than 2,500 students)
and teaching parenting classes for parents related to those schools (444 parents
this past school year). She also has a young adolescents club (70 youth)
focusing on values and helping them make the transition though the turbulent
junior high school years in a healthy way (e.g. resisting the temptations to
become involved in drugs, gangs or premarital sex). She also leads a “grand
parents club” to help senior citizens live fulfilling lives and prepare
“pre-seniors” for their senior years. This summer she worked with other NGO’s
putting on four health fairs, providing screening for hypertension, diabetes,
breast and cervical cancer, etc. plus lots of information as well as follow-up
treatments for those whose testing showed the need.
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Mission Teams
(Spring, 2007)
Last year mission teams
brought 397 people from the U.S. to share in the life and ministry of nine
different Presbyterian churches in Baja California. This winter-spring
teams from Grosse Pointe Woods (Detroit area) and Wheaton (Chicago area) worked
with the churches of Mexicali. A particular highlight was a united worship
service of all the city’s Presbyterian churches with the Wheaton group and folks
from Brawley, CA at the Presbyterian seminary in Mexicali – one of those
occasions when the Spirit was bringing everything together just right. During
Easter Week youth from La Jolla PC, San Diego Young Life, Camp Calvin Crest, and
First Presbyterian. Bakersfield built ten houses for church and community
members. The Bakersfield group working with the Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion Missions
in the hills west of the Tijuana River, the recipients will repay the churches
for the cost of the materials so that other families may be helped in the
future. First Presbyterian Carson City, Nevada, folk restored the Salud y Vida
trailer after thieves had through its floor and walls and stolen the electrical
wiring among other things. They also repaired water damage accumulated over the
years and installed new gutters. Nurse Martha and the many people who use the
trailer were delighted.
Mission Teams (Summer, 2007)
This summer teams from Springwood PC Whitsett, NC and United PC of Portland, OR
worked with the folk of our older Presbyterian church in Baja California, the
Buen Pastor Church. Hamblen Park PC of Spokane, WA and First PC of Vancouver,
WA brought youth to work with the Nuevo Jerusalén Church in Ensenada and its
mission Cristo El Camino 15 miles south in Canyon Buen Vista, while adults from
St. Marks of Portland, OR worked with the Dios Con Nosotros Congregation in
Otay, Tijuana. Youth from Bethany PC Grants Pass, OR and Sequoyah Hills PC
Knoxville, TN as well as up the highway from Graham Memorial PC in Coronado
helped the Nueva Vida Congregation, El Pípila, Tijuana in building their care
takers house (so a family living in the church will discourage burglaries) and
paint the facilities. An adult and chldren’s group from St Andrews, Pleasant
Hill, CA finished off important details of the care taker’s house and did some
wiring up the road at Dios Es Amor, La Planicie, Tijuana, which also received
large groups of youth from Shepherd of the Hills PC, Puyallup, WA and Bethany
United Methodist Church of Summerville, SC (Friar Dixon, their youth pastor is a
Presbyterian). Pasadena PC brought a group of adults and Hispanic youth to work
with the folks at Bethel in Tecate, and Isaias Rivera brought a group of nine
young people who related to Nueva Vida, Dios Es Amor and the Iglesia Hispana de
San Diego.
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We are so grateful to these groups who have come
with such a wonderful spirit of service and Christian fellowship.
Mission Trip to New Orleans:
Our two best plumber-electricians and their hard working spouses accompanied the
St Andrews PC of Pleasant Hill, CA on a week trip to do flood clean-up and
recovery work in New Orleans. Yes, after two years there are still entire
neighborhoods that have not even had the debris removed from the yards and
lots.
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Soldwisch personal stuff: November 5 2005, we
finally became grandparents (daughter Shana Maria presently living in Manila
gave birth to Layla Grace; last November son Jonathan married Gwendolyn Jovenal
of San Diego, I officiated; January 2 Susan had a mastectomy and is now almost
fully recovered, and was able to visit the Philippines (where the grand daughter
is) in April and May (I joined her for three weeks in May). She returns to the
Philippines in October while I spend the month as part of PCUSA’s Mission
Challenge 2007 visiting three presbyteries in Pennsulvania. Oh yes, we finally
have high-speed internet (notice the new e-mail address, though the old one
still works along with all of its spam).
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William A.
Soldwisch
Pueblos Hermanos Presbyterian Border Ministry
wsoldwisch and then the "at" sign and then cox then dot then net
(have to put the address this way so automatic spammers can't
easily pick it up off of the net)
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