This month
I had the opportunity to visit any Latino congregations and pastors, and I see
God is blessing each of the Hispanic Ministries of the Rocky Mountain
Conference. My first activity as Hispanic Ministry Coordinator was a camp at
Buckhorn. I spent my first weekend here at Colorado viewing the beauty of the
Colorado Mountains and worshiping God with any Latino congregations. It was a blessing to see the leadership of
Pastor Hugo Melo of Rawlings WY and the great attendance of El Remanente, the
Hispanic Ministry of Pastor Rafael Luna.
Gracia
Divina was the first Hispanic ministry I visited. Guillermo Reyes is the pastor
and they are members at Alameda Heights UMC of Denver CO. I saw a great
attendance in the worship service, they were around 65, and that Sunday they received
20 people as new members of the church. I was also invited for the Pastor to
attend the Vacation Bible School where all the pastoral family were very active
serving God and reaching new people.
My third
Sunday I was at Epworth UMC, where there are two Hispanic assistant pastors:
Vicky Alvarado and Hugo Venegas working in the Hispanic Ministry over there. The
second worship service at Epworth UMC is a bilingual worship service. In my own
opinion, it is an extraordinary model to follow as Rocky Mountain Conference,
and I was very blessed worshiping God in 2 languages in two different cultures.
Without doubts this is a wonderful model to open new Hispanic Ministries in our
Conference. The worship service was led in Spanish by Pastor Vicky Alvarado and
in English by Pastor Jeff Kanost. I believe that as Rocky Mountain Conference,
we need more ministries like this one.
The fourth
Sunday, I visited the Hispanic Ministry of Pastor Lucia Correa, Enciende una
Luz. This is the Hispanic Ministry of the Smoke Hill UMC of Denver CO. It was a
great blessing to be in the worship service of this Hispanic ministry led by
brother Victor, and was impacted for the message of a wonderful preacher, Pastor
Lucia Correa. This Sunday, August 2, is its 5th anniversary and we
are very blessed because God is doing wonderful things in our Latino churches.
Also I
visited Pan de Vida, the Hispanic Ministry of Brentwood UMC. Pastor Manuel
Jimenez is leading this Hispanic Ministry and they have an extraordinary
attendance around 70 each Sunday. Pan de Vida organized the Mission U event
with the missionary Miguel Mairena talking about Latinoamerica. There was a
great attendance (31) from any of the Hispanic Ministries of our Conference.
Brothers and sisters, God is blessing our
Hispanic ministry as Rocky Mountain Conference. We want to continue working in
other areas of our ministries and hope we can serve God together. Please be
praying for the Hispanic Ministry of the Rocky Mountain. We need your prayers
and cover, and also please pray for me as the Hispanic Ministry Coordinator. We are in touch. With love Rev Cesar M. Duran