St. Patrick's Day South-of-the-Border-style

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and as advertized a few posts ago (see Synergistic Swirl) our South-of-the-Border-style of celebrating it went on as planned. In fact, it flowed way better than I expected it given the variables involved: two fellowships of different ethnic backgrounds from two different communities coming together for the very first time and being led in worship by a man who was unknown to everyone except the family who had invited him to come and lead us. I expected a natural awkwardness and an understandable tentativeness simply due to the fact that all parties involved were, for the most part, strangers to one another. But not so. We danced together like partners who had been together for many a round of the Juarabe Tapatio (otherwise known as the Mexican Hat dance.)

David did not dress like this

I had spoke by phone with Monica on Saturday afternoon and asked if their friends who would be leading us in worship (David and Leah) would care to come in on that day to set up and get acclimated instead of having to rush things come Sunday morning. But she assured me that David (pronounced DA-VEED) would be their early the next day. I, of course, heard that as an American of European descent. If our service begins at 10 a.m., “early” - to me – is, at the very latest, 9 a.m. But David is not an American of European extract but one of Mexican lineage. 9 a.m. came and went as did 9:15 and 9:30. By that time, some of our own people were in the building most of them downstairs helping Renee in the kitchen. At 9:40 a.m., Austin walked into the building with Leah and jokingly reminded me that this was a South-of-the-border-style party after all. And yet within five minutes, David had joined his wife and they were tuning up while at the same time handing me their flash drive with the songs in English and Spanish upon them. By 9:50, many of the folks from the Hispanic Wesleyan Church began to enter the building and fill up the whole north side of the sanctuary (because it was the side closest to Rice Lake?) Dr. Ayling and his wife, Anna, arrived and after a quick greeting handed me his flash drive and then it occurred to me I had no one to run boards. Fortunately our daughter, Emma, is a quick study and within a few minutes had David and Leah set to go. It was, unbelievably, 9:59, and all the major players and many of the people who were going to be there from either fellowship were present and accounted for. (As it turned out, if there was anyone who was on “Mexico” time it was half of us from Refuge who slowly arrived between 9:50 and 10:40.)

A minute before we began, I quickly explained to David the general order of things and then our worship gathering began and flowed as if we had been doing this thing together every Sunday for years. David is an anointed worship leader who led us skillfully and yet with great subtlety (to me, the sign of a good worship leader is one who does not draw attention to himself whatsoever; simply by his playing and leading your attention drifts naturally where it is supposed to be.) Whether the song was in Spanish or in English, a spirit of worship resided in the place. I purposefully allowed the greeting time to go long. Not only were there approximately 150 people in the place that customarily has only 50 in it on any given Sunday but also to encourage both groups to try and mingle a bit. Since everyone was out of sorts to some degree it actually had a quite festive feel of things (which is appropriate for a fiesta.)

David

Leah with three of their four children

We also had some friends from Chetek Alliance Church on hand since by the end of this week a small team from their fellowship as well as a couple from ours will be heading to Guatemala over spring break to visit Anita at the Destiny of Hope Orphanage in Villa Nueva. So following our time of worship and prayer, we called everyone heading to Central America to come forward and spent some time praying over them.

Dr. Ayling

Dr. Ayling, the pastor of the Hispanic Wesleyan Church, is a native Chilean but you would think he was from Europe given his distinctive Anglo complexion and hair. And, once upon a time, his relatives were from there but they had long immigrated to Chile a few generations before he was even born so he is Chilean through and through. He was delightful to listen to as he shared in English and then would pause and translate the same into Spanish. By choice, he did not preach (“as I am hungry for tacos”) but he reminded us that a multi-ethnic gathering such as ours was the normal flavor of a kingdom event according to the Scriptures. Citing Galatians, he reminded us what the Apostle Paul said of this thing called “church”,

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:26-28, NIV)

or

“...pues todos sois hijos de Dios mediante la fe en Cristo Jesús. Porque todos los que fuisteis bautizados en Cristo, de Cristo os habéis revestido. No hay judío ni griego; no hay esclavo ni libre; no hay hombre ni mujer; porque todos sois uno en Cristo Jesús.” (3:26-28, La Biblia de las Américas)

And, of course, before he was finished he had prayed for us in Spanish as we insist every person of foreign descent do so in our place. I don't know what he was saying but I do know he petitioned God for us with mucho gusto to wit we all said “Amen!”

When the gathering was over, I know the ladies in the basement were heartily nervous fretting how all of us were going to be seated in the lower level and would their be enough to feed this small mob. But no worries. It was a Jesus-gathering after all and whenever he is host, the food never runs out and everyone always has enough. The lower level was packed to capacity but everyone found a place to sit and enjoyed a good meal together and we even had left-overs. While it's true the folks from HWC sat with themselves and the rest of sat with ourselves, that wasn't a matter of prejudice but natural affinity of people who out of habit sitting with those they are most comfortable with. I, however, sat with Louis and met a new friend and fortunately for me his English is way better than my Spanish. I hope I have cause to meet with him again.

 

My new friend, Louis

At the end of the day as people began to leave, Lindsey, the coordinator for Hispanic ministries at Red Cedar Community Church, approached me and shared with me what a blessing this gathering had been. “The Hispanic people do not usually feel welcome in Barron County so when a church goes out of their way to be hospitable it is huge blessing. So thank you.” If you ask me, the blessing was all ours.

We've been invited to join them some Sunday in Rice Lake and it was be wrong to not accept the invitation. Perhaps by Cinco de Mayo? But instead of tacos next time perhaps we sit down to a meal of corned beef and hash?