Having two languages side by side in my bilingual Bible is priceless
I wish all of this foundational work was easy and fast. It’s not. But the challenge is fun, gratifying… and sometimes exhausting.
Church relationships and Spanish learning are two priorities I had even before arriving in Fort Morgan. I knew they would both be important for my work plans with the International Association for Refugees. Though these two topics seem distinct, there is a lot of overlap for me.
There are a handful of Hispanic churches in town. I have visited three of them so far – one Baptist and two of the Pentecostal sort. There is a Catholic church I haven’t visited yet that seems quite active and has a lot of services, some in Spanish and some English. Interestingly, one of the priests there is from Kenya and speaks fluent Spanish. I look forward to meeting him.
I would love to become familiar with every Hispanic church in town, but that’s a difficult task in a community with a lot of churches, especially when adding language and cultural challenges. I’ve realized that getting connected and sharing ideas (a two-way conversation) is much harder with the added layers of complexity. I have decided to focus most of my efforts, at least for now, with just one Hispanic church.
I’ve been to my “church of choice” three times so far, with a different experience each time. On the first visit, someone was kind enough to translate into English for most of the service. I felt spoiled. On the second visit, I was late. Pausing in the middle of his sermon, the guest preacher asked me about my Spanish ability and then started translating portions of his own sermon, an impressive feat that made me feel a bit guilty for complicating his job. A big treat from that service was the meal they had afterwards. The chicken mole and salsa were amazing! I was back for a normal Sunday morning last weekend and, for the first time, just participated in the service without any fanfare.
My early 2024 goal is to start attending Wednesday evening services there most weeks to accelerate both language acquisition and relationship development. There are some very friendly, passionate people there, and the pastor speaks very clear Spanish, a huge bonus for me. We'll see how it goes.
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