Beyond Diversity

I am 1 of 10 minorities in our overall large staff. When I first joined the ministry as a college student there were potentially 1 to 2 minorities in our overall large staff. With the appearance of our staff and some of our campuses one could argue that our ministry has grown in diversity, but what does that even mean? 

I've always wanted to see our churches and college ministries grow in diversity. I'd love to one day walk into a church service or Summer Focus Night and see the integration of various cultures, tongues and skin colors. However, I've recently discovered the work needs to go beyond looking diverse, because "The danger is that the multiethnic church often is a flower bouquet, where you cut off people from their culture, the roots of where they've come, and you gather it together so that its best day is the first day. When you bring them all together, you bring them in full bloom. Look, we have a Latina! Look, we have a black person! Look, we have a Chinese American! Tell me about your culture. But over time, there is no root. Multiethnic churches should function instead more like a graft: two shoots still connected to their roots. The shoots must be cut and wounded before they can be bound together. But what grows, is something that didn't exist before." https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/march/children-of-immigrants-multiethnic-church.html

In the process of praying and thinking through some of this with the Lord, I came across Cameron and Johana who are on staff with CCF. We set up a zoom call where I heard the story behind their sister organization, "Ethnic Christian Fellowship" which was pioneered by one of their students who is now on staff with CCF. I came into this meeting with no direction or clarity of my intentions and goals other than hearing more about what they had started. I left that zoom meeting overwhelmed, uplifted with a lot of direction which led me to reach out to one of my peers, Sirak.

Over some ramen and tears I exchanged the thoughts and ideas I had been wrestling with, my peer/friend, Sirak. Something he shared which I have continued to chew on is a simple question he planted which went along the lines of, "Who am I?" When I try answering this question for myself, I discover a testimony, a story that is connected to Mexican roots, fear, specific experiences, trauma, food, music, immigration, Spanish, insecurities, idioms, culture, habits etc. And I can imagine this being the same for other ethnic groups within and outside of our ministry. I don't have to dig deep into scripture to see that God values these differences if not look at Matthew and the genealogy we are presented with. Not only that but I want to make the claim that through these variations of tongues, languages, skin colors, culture, ethnicities, backgrounds and "differences" for a lack of a better word I am able to give God more dimension, depth and beauty, perhaps a better understanding of who he is. Unfortunately, it's easy to forget who we are, when we and others, don't make space to embrace and invite those differences. It is clear why this is important, but how can our staff across all campuses and I incorporate that space for our students? And what does that look like? Is it a matter of gathering the minorities in our staff once a semester to discuss how we are thinking through some of this and how we can ask the remaining of our team to support us? Is it a matter of starting something like my friends Cameron and Johana? Is it a matter of asking the students that same question Sirak asked me, "Who are you?" and alongside identifying more of what their culture is and the value it brings? 

Anyway. This is what the Lord has put in my heart for the last couple of months. I am currently in the journey of discovering what my role should look like in the midst of all this. I invite you to share sources, thoughts, questions with me but most importantly to join me in prayer. 

H O L A  

P R I M A V E R A !

("Hello Spring" some Spanish for ya!)

Here is a photo dump of God's glimpses,

Andrea is in my peer team and she joined me this Spring Break at the beach with my family! As we move further away from this pandemic I hope I can invite more of my students into my family.

Hate to admit it but here we are relying on Garrett to build our screen for Pizza Theo because 7 of us could not figure it out lol.

Everyone eating pizza in one of our breaks during Pizza Theo.

When the weather sucks we move our Sunday Deep Dives to zoom!

Sometimes on Wednesday's I hang out with Sandra and her 2:1 with Ashley and one of her students, Sayuri. I've gotten to know Sayuri during these hangouts through her telling of her testimony and much of her upbringing. She is considering doing an internship with our teen ministry this summer, please be praying for her fundraising.

This is Aless who I adore, this day she shared with me her desire to get baptize. We just finished FOJ and we are thinking of maybe using our time to start a Spanish Bible reading time at our campus. Please be praying for her as she continues to walk with God.

My co-fa got engaged and that ring pop is as close as ill get haha! Join me in praying for her and her fiancee as they dive into this season of change and marriage.

This is Trinity, we almost lit her cupcake on fire but anything to celebrate her birthday! lol

Every year we have our Spring Showcase where we incorporate talent from various people within and outside of our community. This year makes no exception despite COVID. Our staff has been working hard in preparing a great show for you to experience and a successful fundraiser for our students. I want to personally invite you to join us April 3rd at 6:30pm find more info of how you can contribute and support our students on this day at anyfocus.org/showcase

For the Kingdom,

Adriana