CCDA is looking to connect with Latino Christian leaders in the St. Louis Area who have an interest in community ministry. If anyone has any contacts please let me know.

Stay tuned for our new website dedicated to helping the church to become informed and engaged in the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform. 

Funding for Evangelism

Check out the Four Square Foundation formed to fuel intense evangelism efforts around the world. After selling a denomination owned radio station that yielded $200 million dollars, the set up this foundation open to the entire body of Christ.

Mexican-American/Italian/Urban Mestizo 

Looking for Leaders with GUTS

I am reading a leadership book entitled, GUTS. It talks about having the guts to lead with passion and love- attributes that are desperately needed in our church leaders today. Will we have the GUTS to give our lives, not for a cause, but for a person, Jesus the Christ? Will we have the GUTS to live (and die) for the things/people that Jesus lived/died for?

Our new mestizo future will be fueled by leaders with GUTS.

Major Surgery for our Current Immigration Policy

Friday, May 20: "...this latest and most comprehensive package has already started earning support from Republicans and Democrats, business groups and unions, and several key Hispanic organizations. President Bush, who has been promising action on immigration for years, should quickly join them, " - New York Times.

The arrival last week of a sweeping, bipartisan immigration proposal in Congress brought forth the usual conflict between those who want a solution and those who just want an emotional issue to howl about. But this latest and most comprehensive package has already started earning support from Republicans and Democrats, business groups and unions, and several key Hispanic organizations. President Bush, who has been promising action on immigration for years, should quickly join them.

The long-awaited legislation comes from Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy and Representatives Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe, both Republicans from Arizona, and Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois. Senator McCain said as he introduced the bill that it embraced the goals set down by Mr. Bush: making the borders more secure, filling jobs no American will take and finding a route to legality for workers who are already here illegally.

It is worth noting that three of the prime movers on this effort are from Arizona, a border state. They know firsthand about the hundreds who die each year trying to cross the desert from Mexico and about the many locals who are frantic about being overrun in this tragic human stampede.

Given the political tides, Senator McCain and others have focused on how their package could improve security at the borders. More than a million undocumented people are caught trying to cross into the country each year. Many make it: an estimated 11 million people are in the country illegally.

The goal is to get as many of these workers as possible to come out of their shadowy world. If that happened as planned, the strained government agencies that now deal with border issues could focus on immigrants with more sinister motives than the need for better wages.

At the center of this bill is a new temporary visa program that would allow foreign workers to fill jobs that no Americans will take. Undocumented immigrants already in the country would be eligible for these visas, which could last up to six years. To apply for permanent status, these workers would have to clear a number of hurdles, including security checks and requirements to pay back taxes and fines of $2,000 or more, and be proficient in English. Even then, they would go to the back of the immigration line. That process should be difficult enough to keep this from being an amnesty program, but not be so daunting that nobody would bother to try.

As Congressman Kolbe put it last week, this legislation "doesn't try to solve the hemorrhaging immigration problem with simply a Band-Aid. This is major surgery." The patient is definitely ready.

Father's Day at LCC

I had the opportunity to teach at the 2 Lawndale Community Church services on Father's Day. It was a great time, especially seeing how many young families are a part of LLC after years of ministry by Wayne Gordon and others. Also, having the men from the Hope House men's ministry were present: 30-40 men recovering from some kind of brokenness or addiction that are in their program sit in the front rows for both services!

I am so encouraged by the way LLC accept and support me as a mestizo brother, and it's so easy to teach in that setting.

Later that day my daughter Anna gave me the most amazing card. It basically said that I really didn't a Father's day, because in her estimation, I was special to her every day. Wow, that was something for an old dad to read. I guess that is the kind of feeling we ought to experience in church on a regular basis- us expressing to our heavenly Father how much we love and honor Him every day.