04 Aug Our Hispanic Church in Santa Fe, NM

Phil Whipple, Bishop

At the end of June, I visited the Hispanic United Brethren churches in El Paso, Texas. Joining me were my wife, Sandy, and Denis Casco, Bishop of Mexico Conference.

On June 27, after a few days in El Paso, we drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico, about five hours straight north. This was my first time in New Mexico. Santa Fe is up about 7000 feet, so it wasn’t as hot as the furnace of El Paso.

We met with Pastor Jesus Lopez and his wife, Irma. Pastor Lopez is very humble in spirit, the type of person you enjoy being around. He and his family originally came form Juarez, Mexico. Jesus has two children—Jaaziel, in his early 20s, and a daughter, Berenice, who is a sophomore in high school.

Centro Cristiano Shalom, their church, a service that night, a Friday night. The congregation was very young. I would guess that Pastor Lopez, who is in his mid to late 40s, is as old as anybody in the church. Both of his children were both part of the worship team, all of whom were probably under age 25. Everything was in Spanish, but a couple songs did use some English, which helped.

My translator was a young woman in her 20s who was attending college locally. She and her husband had just given birth to their first child. She was born in the United States and grew up speaking Spanish, but English is her first language. She did a good job interpreting for me. However, she had some trouble when I asked her to read Scripture from the Spanish Bible. She speaks Spanish well, but is not accustomed to reading Spanish.

They put together a slideshow of Santa Fe to give us a sense of the city. The area has a lot of Indian influences, some satanic worship, and a strong gay movement (a big Gay Pride parade occurred on Sunday).

On Saturday, they took us around the city. One stop was an old Catholic church, now a historical building, which features a spiral staircase with no visible nails. I saw only one joint. An unknown workman built the staircase, and they don’t know how he did it.

On Saturday night, Centro Cristiano Shalom hosted a conference with other pastors and church leaders from the Hispanic community–probably 45-50 people representing about eight different churches. Jesus seemed to be a leader among them. During July, their ministerial group was bringing in a Hispanic speaker for a joint evangelistic effort. They asked me to speak about unity and reconciliation, because there seemed to be some need for that among that group of ministers. It was a very nice night. Both Denis and I spoke, and found the pastors very receptive. Pastor Lopez’s son, who is studying to become a chef, served a nice meal after the service.

The church holds its regular Sunday service at 5 pm. I preached again. Each night’s service was followed by a meal. The people were warm and gracious, and encouraged us to come back. They gave me and Denis very nice long-sleeve shirts on which was printed the UB logo along with the words “Church of the United Brothers in Christ,” a more literal translation of “brethren.” The same wording, along with the UB logo, is used on the outside of the church building.

During the time of Bishop Ray Seilhamer in the late 1990s, a event was organized through Latin American Ministries to training Hispanic UB ministers in the United States. Pastor Lopez took that training. He showed me a certificate of completion hanging on his wall.

Jesus’ command of English is okay, but not great. His wife, Irma, doesn’t understand English at all. The son, in his early 20s, was born in Juarez but entered US schools during his junior high years, whereas the daughter, Bernice, has been in US schools all her life. Her English is very good. Sitting around the table after services, Bernice did the interpreting.

Sunday night, after the service, Pastor Lopez was comfortable enough to sit down and have a conversation with me in English. He could converse fine in English, but he’s uncomfortable doing so, feeling he might miss something. It’s a confidence issue. But the next time I visit, I know I’ll be able to conserve with Jesus without an interpreter.

Next: Back in El Paso with Rev. Robert Espinoza.