For several years, people involved in the Bessemer Baptist Association noticed the area’s growing Hispanic population. While they wanted to reach out to their new neighbors, they weren’t quite sure how to do it.
Help came this summer when Aquilena Carrillo, a native of Venezuela, interned at the association and helped establish a conversational English class and Bible study for those in the Hispanic community.
“Aquilena visited homes and got to know the people,” said Ed Cruce, director of missions of the association. “She was instrumental in getting things moving.”
For many years, the association has been involved in the Caracas Barrios missions team, and members have helped in different missions projects in Central America and South America through the International Mission Board. It was through this team that the association heard about Carrillo, a seminary student looking for an opportunity to work on a short-term project in the United States.
“It’s really a God thing,” Cruce said, noting how quickly the program came together, with five churches and dozens of volunteers coming on board immediately. “It’s important to be sensitive to what God is doing.”
The program kicked off in August with a Spanish-language Vacation Bible School (VBS) at Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer. On Sept. 16 — Mexican Independence Day — a huge fiesta was held at the association’s office, with about 100 people coming out for the celebration. Everyone enjoyed lots of barbecue, games, music, children’s activities and an inspiring worship service, including the singing of the national anthem of Mexico.
Soon after the VBS program, a weekly conversational English class and Bible study began at Seventh Street Baptist Church, Bessemer, under the direction of Phil Pruitt, pastor of New Life Community Church in Eastern Valley.
Pruitt spent several years working as a missionary in El Salvador, Paraguay and Colombia and two years working with Hispanic immigrants in Canada before becoming pastor of the Bessemer-area church. Though affiliated with the Church of God of Prophecy, Pruitt said he is excited to be working with the association on the project.
“The churches in this area want to reach out to anyone who is seeking and searching, to let them know those answers are found ultimately in Jesus,” said Pruitt. “Our church has operated under the idea of cooperating with other churches that have the same goals, regardless of the denomination. This project is a unified Christian effort to reach the community. It resonates a deep desire I have to see all of God’s people working together.”
The ministry has been in place for about four months, and Cruce said there are as many as 30 attending the conversational English class held at 7 p.m. each Thursday. There are also 25 to 65 Hispanics coming to the Bible study and worship service at 6 p.m. each Sunday. Both Pruitt and Byron Mosquera, Hispanic pastor at Dawson Memorial Baptist, Homewood, have been leading the weekly study. Volunteers from Dawson also help with other activities.
“This is an important gospel opportunity,” Cruce noted. “We realize there are people out there who have no personal relationship with Christ, and it is important for us to evangelize.
“We need to minister to all people of all races and cultures — not just those we have been ministering to in the past.”
Pruitt said figures for this year show that the number of Hispanics coming into the Birmingham area is about three times what was projected for the entire state 10 years ago.
All churches are going to have to find ways to reach out, he said, if they want to minister to all people in the area. Through the classes, he said, immigrants find a place where they can seek God and pray together with others from their home countries.
“It’s very rewarding to see the response of the Hispanics — the questions they ask, the requests for prayer and the growth they show,” Cruce said.
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