A mariachi band performed at Iglesia Bautista Templo in Lubbock as part of a Cinco de Mayo celebration Baptists in the area sponsored to reach their community. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Ed Sena)
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LUBBOCK, Texas (ABP) — The sound of mariachi band music and the smell
of fresh-grilled fajitas floated through the air in May as 13 churches
in the Lubbock, Texas, area sponsored a Cinco de Mayo outreach event
designed
to celebrate Hispanic culture and share the hope of Christ.
Hispanic churches from Lubbock and six other communities joined with the Lubbock Area Baptist Association to support the event, with additional help provided through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger.
More than 1,000 people came to the celebration at Iglesia Bautista Templo (Temple Baptist Church) in Lubbock, where volunteers gave away more than 500 pounds of fajita meat, along with beans, rice and tortillas.
“We were casting the vision of giving back to our community,” said Edward Sena, Lubbock Area Baptist Association director of church services and starts.
Cinco de Mayo — Spanish for the 5th of May — commemorates the victory of outnumbered Mexican forces over French troops at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It is observed most widely in the Mexican state of Puebla and as a celebration of Mexican culture among Mexican-American immigrants and others in the United States.
A week before the celebration, volunteers from several churches went door-to-door in the neighborhood surrounding Iglesia Bautista Templo to distribute fliers and invite people to the free meal.
Hispanic churches from Lubbock, Crosbyton, Lockney, Plainview, Floydada, Levelland and New Home joined with Lubbock Area Baptist Association to support a Cinco de Mayo outreach event. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Ed Sena)
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The event kicked off with a fajita-grilling contest involving 17 teams from various churches. The cooked fajitas were given to people attending the event.
“The goal with the cook-off where the churches were going to be bringing their grillers is that they would encourage anyone they knew that was lost — family members and co-workers — to come,” said Salvador Trevino, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Templo. “We had some grillers that weren’t Christians. [They came because] they knew church members and loved to grill.”
After the competition and dinner, everyone was invited inside the church for a celebration service. Grupo Agape, a mariachi band from San Antonio, led worship and Roland Lopez, Hispanic church planting consultant with the San Antonio Baptist Association, preached.
Twenty-two people began relationships with Christ during the service, and another 25 said they want to be more committed in living their lives to honor Christ.
“What I saw through the event was not only those people who came to know Christ, but also I saw a community come to recognize that there is a church here,” Trevino said. “They don’t just see the building itself, but they were exposed to the church and exposed the community to see that there is something going on here.”
As the churches worked together to minister to the community, Jesse Rincones, pastor of Alliance Baptist Church in Lubbock, said he was glad the members are seeing that holidays offer a prime opportunity to engage people with the gospel.
“When there are community celebrations, the church should be there, too, so that the church is viewed as people who are participating with the community and not a group that has their own events expecting people to come to us,” Rincones said.
Iglesia Bautista Templo in Lubbock offered a free fajita meal to the community on Cinco de Mayo—an event designed to meet needs and share the gospel. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Ed Sena)
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Not only were people in the community touched by the event, but it also strengthened the bond between the participating churches, helping volunteers see what is possible when they work together.
“It brought unity,” Sena said. “It brought churches together to work together. I think it brought excitement simply because of the decisions they saw made.”
Plans are being formed to host a citywide Cinco de Mayo outreach in 2011, as well as to help the other Hispanic Baptist churches in the Texas Panhandle region initiate similar events in their communities.
“I think it is time that our churches get rid of the mentality from the community of the lost people that we are takers and that we just want something from them,” Sena said. “But rather, [they should be seen as] churches that engage our communities culturally and ethnically to meet the needs of the people whether it be through a cultural experience or through something else but to have the bottom line of sharing the gospel.”
Events like the Cinco de Mayo festival are avenues to notice needs in their community and to begin to do more to help others, Trevino said.
“I hope we can lead the church to host more events,” Trevino said. “But not only that — I want people to be able to come into our church and find services and help with their needs…. I believe it is showing our people that it is going to take work to reach others. They are not going to just come through the doors. It is showing our people that we have to work at this.”
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Kaitlin Chapman writes for Texas Baptist communications.
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