Bullock-Centennial Association Hispanic mission has promising future

While an Alabama August steams around them, a group of young Hispanics sits cool inside a doublewide trailer next to the predominantly Hispanic trailer park in Union Springs. They look comfortable not only because of the cool air — there’s a hope in their hearts and smiles on their faces that need no translation.
   
The portable, air-conditioned facility, provided to Bullock-Centennial Baptist Association by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, is the home of Principe de Paz (Prince of Peace) Mision Bautista Hispana, a Bullock-Centennial Hispanic mission.
   
The members of the small, but growing, congregation tolerate sweet tea but have developed a true thirst for God’s Word. The desire for the Word developed from the teaching, leadership and commitment of Colombia-born William Robles and the collective evangelistic vision of Bullock-Centennial Association leaders, who describe Robles as an “answered prayer” and a “man of peace.” 
   
Robles, 43, a Montgomery-area chemist and member of the Hispanic mission of Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association, was brought to Bullock-Centennial Association’s attention by Omar Hernandez, director of Hispanic ministries for Montgomery Association. 
   
The response to Robles has been overwhelmingly positive. 
   
New believer Manuel Lopez said Robles is “fantastico.” Lopez has been coming to Principe de Paz since it began meeting May 20. “Deseo saber más sobre Jesús (I want to know more about Jesus),” he said. 
   
Since he started Principe de Paz, Robles has led 17 Hispanics to the Lord. But as a true disciple of discipleship, he holds that it’s not the quantity of souls won but the quality of faith that counts. 
   
Robles arrives several hours before the services each week — held Saturdays at 4 p.m. — to canvass the trailer park, knocking on doors. His English is hesitant; his calling is not. 
   
“I try to be here every Saturday very early, make visitations and share the gospel. I have a list of people I have reached out to, and many have made professions of faith but they are not coming (to the services). It is my hope that one day that they will be here,” he said. “My job is not inside the church so much; my job is still reaching out making relationships. They don’t know anything about me; I don’t know anything about them. But I know what I’m doing.”
   
Though they hear of God’s promises in their native tongue, the people who come to Principe de Paz learn about Jesus and abundant life as if it were a new language. To most, it is.
   
“They’re not from the Bible Belt,” said Ted Youngblood, director of missions for Bullock-Centennial Association. “If you said ‘Jesus’ to me and you talked about baptism, I’d understand what you were talking about because I was born around here but they’re from another world.”  
   
With nine churches in its network, Youngblood’s is the smallest Baptist association not only in the state of Alabama but also in the entire Southern Baptist Convention, according to him. Principe de Paz eventually may become the association’s 10th church. 
   
“We are praying and we know that God will continue to bless it and go on and allow this to be the 10th Baptist church (in the association),” Youngblood said. 
   
David Stewart, another leader instrumental in the mission, agreed, saying “That’s been my goal from the beginning.”
   
Stewart, who serves as pastor of both Inverness and Midway Baptist churches in Bullock-Centennial Association, in addition to being a full-time pharmacist, is largely regarded as the visionary of the association’s Hispanic outreach.
   
To this he replies, “Well I guess so but the good Lord is the one who did it all; He’s the one who deserves all the credit.” 
   
To keep Christian peace with Alabama’s evolving cultural landscape, Stewart had for years nurtured within his association an active evangelistic awareness of Bullock County’s growing Hispanic population. 
   
“I had been trying to move the association towards a Hispanic ministry for some time but nothing much was happening,” he said. 
   
The presence of Robles changed all that. 
   
“He’s been very dedicated, very organized, and he does an excellent job at keeping up with (those he is reaching out to),” Stewart said of Robles. “He’s teaching them what we can’t because of the language barrier.”
   
In spite of Bullock-Centennial Association’s size, it has big plans for its latest eternal investment.  
   
“We are the smallest and poorest association in that Bullock County has the lowest per capita income of any county in Alabama. But we are on fire for Hispanic ministry and the prison ministry,” Youngblood said. “Jesus does not give a hoot how a soul is wrapped up, and He has particularly given us a test to see if we will go and minister to people who aren’t like us, people who some might see as a nuisance, people right under our noses who might not come in such pretty wrappers. I think that we are passing that test.”
   
And it’s important that they pass it, because the spiritual need is deep, Robles said. “I love these people,” he said. “They have a lot of needs, but the first need they have is Jesus Christ in their heart.”