FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — The struggles of life are the same for every person. Affordable housing, the ability to support one’s family, transportation, health care, raising children — but for some these struggles are greater due to an environment they do not understand and a language they do not speak.
LUCHA Ministries (Latinos United through Christ in Solidarity and Support) is a community-based outreach ministry for Latinos in the Fredericksburg area. Its mission is to build support networks within the community to address the spiritual and social needs of Latinos/Hispanics and walk beside them in their struggles and share the message of Christ along the way.
Andrew Trujillo (right) with youth he mentored during his internship.
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Two students from Baylor University’s School of Social Work in Waco, Texas, recently spent several months in Fredericksburg, Va., as interns with LUCHA. Students attend classes for the fall semester while researching an area, agency and people they feel called to for an internship in the spring.
Organizations such as LUCHA work collaboratively to develop a research project along the lines of their interests which will benefits the intern and the organization, heavily focused on the integration of faith and social work practice.
This is the third year LUCHA has hosted interns from Baylor. Sue Smith, co-founder and executive director of LUCHA Ministries, says this is a great opportunity for them to learn more about ministering to an underserved population group and it offers students a great place to explore faith and practice. And, she adds, Baylor is a great place to connect with students who speak fluent Spanish.
Focus on individuals
Andrew Trujillo says the internship at LUCHA was a perfect fit for him as he seeks to share his Christian faith and develop social work skills while serving the Spanish-speaking population. He was pleased to learn of the opportunity to come to Virginia.
Andrew’s research project focused on social support. Keeping the family together and maintaining strong family ties are very important to Latinos. Many leave parents in another country to come to the United States to work. How does this separation affect their support system? Who can they turn to for help with the cultural, linguistic, economic, legal and religious questions?
Through interviews, he gathered information related to the client’s immigration and circumstances with parents in other countries. Then with the use of Skype, Andrew was able to interview parents. Working with two generations was helpful and he discovered most times the person in the U.S. scored lowest on support.
Andrew sought ways to minister to the Latino population. He led Bible studies, teaching a new Spanish Bible study class at Chancellor Baptist Church in Fredericksburg.
Student intern Jana Brazzil working with child at the after-school program at Sylvania Heights Baptist Church in Fredericksburg.
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He tutored Latinos with a desire to learn English but lacking the basic knowledge to take ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. One client he worked with could not identify the letters of the alphabet. After tutoring lessons, says Andrew, it was encouraging to see the man’s feeling of empowerment by being able to recognize a few small words.
When Latino parents are mandated by the court to take parenting classes, they find no classes offered in Spanish in the area. Partnering with the area Office on Youth and Child Protective Services, Andrew taught LUCHA’s first 6-week parenting class in Spanish.
He was able to connect with families and build relationships through an after-school program at Sylvania Heights Baptist Church in Fredericksburg.
Focus on churches
Jana Brazzil did research on congregational perceptions of Latinos. “It’s a different world up here,” she says, when it comes to acceptance of Spanish-speaking people. She finds Texas much more immigrant-friendly and knowledgeable of the policies that affect them than people in Virginia.
Focus groups from Fredericksburg and Hulls Memorial Baptist churches in Fredericksburg and Huguenot Road Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., participated with her in a 3-week session completing surveys measuring their perception of immigrants.
The first session was on immigration laws and policies. The common misconception is becoming a U.S. citizen is easy. A question frequently heard is, “Why can’t they come here legally?” which indicates little knowledge of the process involved. Depending on the country of origin it can take 15-17 years to become a citizen and immigration laws are complex.
The biblical perspective of immigration was addressed at the second focus group session with a study of the book, Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church and the Bible, by M. Daniel Carroll. The Bible mandates Christians to love the exile, sojourner, alien and strangers in the land. This becomes less difficult as Christians understand the social and cultural dimensions of immigration.
The final session connected focus groups with clients at LUCHA. Both groups shared a meal and heard the stories of Latinos and their experiences in the U.S. Putting faces with names and discovering commonalities is a big step in moving forward.
Jana was encouraged that by the end, groups realized that words like “illegal” and “alien” are inappropriate. The common perception of an alien is a extraterrestrial being, not a human, she says. It creates a sense of fear. And the violation of immigration laws is a civil, not a criminal offense. Words can foster misconceptions.
All people, regardless of where they were born or what language they speak, are children of God — created in his image. The ways that Christians and churches treat immigrants should reflect the way they would treat God.
Jana will return to Baylor to graduate in May but will return to Virginia for her M.Div. internship at LUCHA in youth ministry.
And LUCHA will benefit from the research of both Andrew and Jana as they seek to provide ministries that will better address the spiritual and social needs of Latinos.