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Spanishtown
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It’s becoming a trend – businesses offering Spanish classes to their employees to help them communicate with the rising number of Hispanic people they deal with regularly. Churches are no exception. An innovative program based in the Chicago area is offering pastors a chance to learn a new language, and break down some barriers with their new neighbors. Reed Galin has today’s lesson. [Spanish] |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Rockford, Ill.)
Nat: Group sings “Solamente Espanol”
“All Spanish, all the time” is more than a song; it’s a mindset. Five
days ago, many in this group had no idea what the lyrics meant.
The Rev. Kirk Reed/Trinity United Methodist Church, Wilmette, Ill.:
“Complete immersion in Spanish. It took a couple of days before we began
to loosen up.”
“Spanishtown” is a weeklong United Methodist language program that
welcomes all denominations. It was designed to help church leaders
better communicate with Spanish-speaking members.
The Rev. Kirk Reed/Trinity United Methodist Church: “In our area here in
Chicago, I believe the last figure I saw was 1.6 million Spanish
speakers, and we need to be in ministry with them.”
The Rev. Maryann Meador/First United Methodist Church of Mendota, Ill.:
“I wanted to become fluent, so that I could reach out to those persons
in the community and perhaps start a service in Spanish and invite them
into the church.”
Nat: Group performing skit
Javier Martinez/Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston,
Ill.: “Today, everybody is just speaking very fluently, and they know
they are going to make mistakes but they don’t worry anymore.”
Many of the Spanish-speaking volunteers have taken vacation to come
teach. It’s their way of helping to break down language and cultural
barriers.
Delia Ramirez/Humboldt Park United Methodist Church, Chicago, Ill.:
“We’re constantly putting dividing lines, ‘Well the Latinos will have
their own church here, the African Americans here, Asian here.’ But by
being here, we’re able to build that bridge and realize that we’re more
similar than we are different.”
The Rev. John Darlington/Christ United Methodist Church, Rochester,
Minn.: “I want to be able to go back and help the people in my
congregation to begin to think from the point of view from some of the
minorities that are becoming ever-present.”
TAG:
Spanishtown is modeled after the Englishtown immersion program that is
taught in Spain. Pastor Reed hopes to create more language programs like
Spanishtown in other cities to continue helping church leaders from
different faith traditions.
For more information, log onto
www.spanishtown.info or its Spanish
component at
www.pueblohispano.com. Or you call Kirk Reed at 847-309-3629.