February 12, 2001
From town to town and village to village
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___EL PASO--Boards laid in the dirt mark out a dream.
___They form the outline of a building that soon will rise out of the dust and become a "headquarters" of sorts for taking the message of Christ to colonias in the El Paso area.
___Colonias are unincorporated areas where mostly Spanish-speaking workers stake out property in hopes of building a better way of life. Residents usually build their homes a little at a time, sometimes starting with cardboard boxes and then moving up to cinder blocks.
___Montana Vista Community Church is the hub of what is becoming a growing church-starting effort in the colonias near El Paso. Ramiro and Estela Campos began the church in Montana Vista colonia less than three years ago. Now they and other members of the congregation are reaching out to three nearby colonias.
___"They're doing some amazing things with very little money," said John Roman, project coordinator for El Paso Baptist Association.
___Campos was Montana Vista's first pastor. Juan Perez, a member of the church, is now pastor. Two other members, Victor Reyes and Armando Arvizu, are working to establish congregations in Sparks and Panarama, while Campos is now reaching out in Horizon View and Agua Dulce.
PASTOR JUAN PEREZ tells a Bible story to children at Montana Vista Community Church. It is part of a "kids' club" for the children.
___The building about to be constructed in Montana Vista will house not only the church but also the Institute for Servant Leadership, to train church leaders in area colonias.
___Campos displays a diagram illustrating the "multiplication plan for five communities." It has Montana Vista, including its leadership training, at the center. Branching out from it are four "satellites" in the area colonias. Each congregation then has "family groups" of 10 to 15 people attached to it.
___Family groups provide the seedbed for each church. This is the approach used by the Camposes in starting the work at Montana Vista.
___Originally from Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, the Camposes felt God leading them back to their home area after starting two churches in Oklahoma and one in Florida. They settled in Montana Vista, not sure exactly what they were going to do.
___Campos asked the leadership of El Paso Baptist Association how he could be used, and his gifts fit squarely with their strategic plans.
___Colonias "require a specific kind of targeted evangelism" and outreach, said Lorenzo Pena, coordinator of associational missions and administration for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and until recently director of missions for El Paso Association. "We didn't have a handle on how to start those kinds of churches. ... We knew we needed someone who was indigenous to that kind of area."
___Associational leaders wanted someone who was prepared, experienced and had a "passion for reaching those kinds of people," Pena said. "God sent us Ramiro Campos. It was a God thing."
___Campos had attended Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio, so he was prepared. He had started churches elsewhere, so he was experienced.
___And he could identify with his new neighbors. When the Camposes moved to Montana Vista, they had "no water, no gas, no roof, no doors," Mrs. Campos explained. "We had to sleep next to the doorway" to make sure no one entered.
___"We're one of them," she said. "We like the same things. We know about dreaming."
___Support for the church-starting effort has come from a variety of sources. The BGCT Church Starting Center provides money through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions. Locally, El Paso Association, First Baptist Church of Horizon City, Coronado Baptist Church in El Paso and Pueblo Nuevo Community Church in El Paso support the work.
___"This is a strong united effort," said John Silva, West Texas consultant for the Church Starting Center. The various Baptist groups are working together to provide $1,160 in funding each month.
___Almost three years ago, after much prayer, the Camposes began visiting some of the 700 homes in Montana Vista, asking God to prepare the way for a new church in the community of about 7,000 people. They went to each house looking for a "person of peace" willing to open his home to a Bible study, Mrs. Campos said. They found 12 families receptive.
___The outreach approach they used is called "Operation Lydia," and it's an initiative of Woman's Missionary Union. It involves a Bible study in which simple questions are asked of participants, said Joy Fenner, executive director of Texas WMU. "It's particularly effective for Hispanics because it's relational."
___Montana Vista Church began holding monthly "kids' clubs" in February 1999, and in April 1999 they started traditional worship services. The church now has 50 members. They hold worship and kids' clubs on alternating Sundays in a school and community building, respectively.
___Family groups, meeting in homes, remain central to the church's outreach and discipleship. Campos now has 10 leaders for the 17 family groups that are reaching 110 people in the four colonias.
___"They have to serve in their own communities," said Mrs. Campos. Then, once a month, they all meet together in Montana Vista.
___Building relationships is at the heart of the church's evangelistic efforts, she said. "We don't rush them. We give them time. Whenever you're a friend, people see you in a different way."
___Part of that relationship-building is meeting needs. Church members may help others roof or paint a house, or they may help someone get to a doctor. The people who are helped "feel so much gratitude to us," she said. "They see that we care so much for them."
___The church's outreach has focused on men and children. "My husband tries to get the papa first," Mrs. Campos said. "Hispanic people are real macho people."
___As for children, "kids is what we have the most of" in the colonia, she said. "Every family has at least three, four or more." The Camposes hope children will enjoy the kids' clubs and encourage their parents to attend.
___The process of building relationships, involving people in family groups and eventually leading them to Christ takes time. But the Camposes are patient.
___"It's not our work," Mrs. Campos said. "It's God's work. If it takes time, OK."
___Fifty-six people already have accepted Christ as Savior, said Pastor Juan Perez. "This is a good work for Jesus."
___
___Editor's note: Operation Lydia, the outreach approach being used in colonias around El Paso, is a program of Woman's Missionary Union that has been used to help start churches and channel people into existing congregations in many other types of settings as well. For more information about Operation Lydia, contact Christine Hockin-Boyd, consultant for Women on Mission for Texas WMU, at (214) 828-5152.
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