April 9, 2001
Texas volunteers spark avalanche
of Hispanic ministries in Kentucky
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___When Gus and Gloria Reyes loaded up their small pickup to travel to Kentucky as Mission Service Corps volunteers in 1996, there were four Hispanic Baptist congregationsin the entire state.
GUS & GLORIA REYES are Texas Mission Service Corps volunteers and the parents of Albert Reyes, president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School.
___Today, there are more than 60.
___Though health concerns forced the Corpus Christi couple to return to Texas in 1999, their groundbreaking ministry in Kentucky continues to bear fruit, according to Larry Martin, director of missions for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
___They didn't personally start all those congregations, although they did start a large number in the three years they served there. Their lasting contribution, however, was in lighting the fire of missions and evangelism among Kentucky Baptists for reaching Hispanics.
___Just a few years before the Reyeses moved to Kentucky, the 1990 U.S. Census found the commonwealth to have the second-most-indigenous population in the nation. And that indigenous population was white, not Hispanic.
___But as labor patterns changed, increasing numbers of Hispanic workers migrated to Kentucky to work in the tobacco fields and elsewhere.
___Pam Cobb, then director of missions for Henry County Baptist Association, put out a request for help through Mission Service Corps. Soon, she was connected with the Reyeses, who recently had signed on with the Baptist volunteer missions program.
___They located in Shelbyville, a small town about 30 miles east of Louisville and the center of the state's tobacco farming industry.
___Early on, a pastor in the area told the Reyeses, "We're not ready to accept Hispanics in our congregations."
___The Texans began to reach out to Hispanic laborers and their families, meeting physical and financial needs as well as spiritual needs--all while forming new congregations and attempting to sensitize existing Anglo congregations to the need.
___Martin recalled the time Mrs. Reyes found a Hispanic woman who was six weeks away from delivering a baby--living in a horse stall. It was late fall, when the weather is turning cold in Kentucky. The woman had electricity but no water or heat.
___The Reyeses took her to live with them in their house. Then after the baby was born, they helped her find a place to live.
___"They are such loving and caring people," Martin said. "Gloria constantly was going with women who were ready to deliver, taking them to the hospital, serving as an interpreter for them. They simply were continually giving themselves to people."
___And they knew how to get things done, Martin added.
___"Gloria and Gus are such great resource people and networkers," he explained. "They knew where to find the resources and were not afraid to ask. They understood so well how to form a new ministry with the type of foundation that would help it to last."
___For their part, the Reyeses believe they were simply doing what God told them to do.
___"Trust and obey," said Reyes, a retired deputy U.S. marshal. "When you obey God and trust, he will open the doors. ... When we started trusting God, things happened. ... There were things we were doing that were almost impossible."
___For example, Reyes received an invitation to speak at an independent Baptist church that gave virtually nothing to missions. As a result of that speaking engagement, however, the church joined the Kentucky Baptist Convention and helped launch a mission congregation. After one year, the mission had grown so strong it began supporting the mother church.
___"When you ask God for a mountain, you better get out of the way," Reyes explained.
___For information about current Mission Service Corps opportunities, call the Texas Mission Service Corps office at (214) 828-5292.
___
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