LYNCHBURG — Nearly 200 Latinos from the Lynchburg area gathered the Saturday before Labor Day in the city's Peaks View Park for a soccer tournament and picnic sponsored by the Lynchburg Baptist Association.
Lynchburg association director of missions Robert Putt knew from studying census data and from simple observation that a significant Latino population lived in the area. In addition, a Hispanic pastor in the Farmville area told him that a growing number of people were visiting his congregation from the Lynchburg area.
Finding a way to minister to them proved elusive, however. So where did they go for help? Mexican restaurants!
Photo by Cindy Sanchez
Two soccer teams face off in Lynchburg's Peaks View Park at a tournament sponsored by area Baptists.
According to Virginia Baptist Mission Board field strategist Tom Stocks, they asked the restaurant workers what they did for fun. They discovered an almost universal interest in soccer among the Spanish-speaking population. So they decided to host a soccer tournament to meet their Latino neighbors.
Putt remembers that their first challenge was to find the people and institutional partners who could help them. Eventually, 14 partners, including the Piedmont and Appomattox Baptist associations and several churches, came together to plan and pull-off a novel approach to ministry.
Cindy Sanchez, a member of Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church in Lynchburg, became the point-person after being challenged by Putt to join the effort. “They wanted to reach out to the Hispanic community to provide a place for them to worship and to find encouragement and support and fellowship. That appealed to me, being Hispanic myself,” she said.
Calling their effort “Latinos for Christ,” they went back to the Mexican restaurants to publicize what they were doing. “We said we would like to host the tournament. We will supply the trophies, referees, drinks and a picnic meal,” reported Stocks. News spread within the Latino community mostly by word of mouth.
Sanchez was delighted with the turn out. “It turned out to be a bigger thing than we thought it would be,” she laughed. “They [Latinos] are always saying, ‘There's no place to go and nothing to do. No Hispanic theaters and that kind of thing.' We decided to put together something they have a lot of interest in. We wanted to minister to them but did not want to turn them into some thing they are not.”
Along with the tournament, which was the primary draw, the group provided bilingual Bibles supplied by the Gideons and Pastor Abel gave a brief devotional. Sanchez remembers being impressed that they were actually reading the Bibles. People in the stands were reading while they watched the soccer matches.
Photo by Cindy Sanchez
Trophies were presented to the winning teams in a picnic pavilion following the soccer tournament.
Stocks was also impressed. “You know, usually when you pass out Bibles a few get left behind. People either forget to take them or just don't want them. With this group not a single Bible was left behind.”
“They kept coming to me and asking in Spanish, ‘Why are the gringos doing this?' ” said Sanchez. They were grateful, but also a little suspicious that it could be a way of getting information about them to be used later against them. They could hardly believe that the Baptists simply wanted to help them. “It was almost like they expected a catch. They didn't realize the park was there and that they could use it.”
Sanchez reflected on the conversation she had with one of the women. “She said, ‘My children were born here and I tell them that they must never be part of the problem, they must be part of the solution.' She didn't want to have anything to do with what we were doing if it was from the government because she did not want to take charity and a burden to the government.”
The sponsoring groups learned several things about their Latino neighbors. First, they leaned that in the Lynchburg area there is little for Hispanics to do socially. “My phone was ringing off the hook with people calling Monday and Tuesday asking, ‘What are we going to do this weekend?' ” Sanchez said.
Second, 85 percent of the Hispanics who attended the tournament/ picnic said they wanted Bible studies in Spanish.
Third, they discovered a pressing need and tremendous desire for English classes to be offered.
They also learned that there were general and some rather significant health-care concerns that needed to be addressed.
In response, the group has already scheduled a health fair to be held Nov. 8, from 2 until 8 p.m. at College Hill Baptist Church in Lynchburg. One dentist has already pledged his support and the group is seeking the support of area physicians. Sentara Heath Care has pledged to provide bilingual nurses to assist with screening.
Another soccer tournament/picnic and a Spanish language movie night are also being planned.
“I see where they want a church of their own so bad that could be in their language and of their culture. In some cases they meet in existing churches, but they don't want to feel like guests or red-headed step children being allowed to use the facilities. They want a church of their own,” asserts Sanchez.
For information about the Health Fair or to volunteer services, call Robert Putt at (434) 238-6322.