One Thursday a month, our family joins the pastors and members of Misión La Palmera for a community outreach event in Gómez Morín, a neighborhood on the edge of Ensenada: we give out tamales to anyone in the community who wants one. Tamales and prayer.
Why Thursdays? Thursdays are the day of the week the church goes out into the community to walk and to pray, but typically only one of the pastors, either Alejandra or José, can go. The other needs to work: the pastors make and sell tamales for a living.
So, once a month, Amoveo Group has begun buying one day’s worth of tamales, and we go together to give them away.
This month marked a milestone in this community outreach ministry: we are one year in. One year of getting to know our neighbors in Gómez Morín. In this neighborhood, that work has been steady but slow.
For the first few months, we set up our tables, posted on Facebook, waved signs at corners, and waited.
Eventually, people would come, accept a plate of tamales and frijoles, maybe a cup of agua fresca, and leave. Quickly. When asked if they needed any prayer, more often than not, they muttered some sort of no and left the way they came.
Trust is hard in this community. Life can be hard in this community. It sits up on the edge of Ensenada, with the city below and the mountains behind. It has one of the highest unemployment rates in the city. Most work, shopping, and school require a bus ride down into town (and a long ride back up).
One Thursday, a few months into this outreach, Pastor José, the church’s tamale maker, commented that he thought things weren’t working. Maybe it was time to change plans, to say “we tried,” and to look for another way for their church family to care for their neighbors.
I responded something like, “I think this is working. I think it just takes time and consistency.”
As we talked, across the street from where church members and Pastora Alejandra were passing out tamales, we watched a tall, thin man with worn-out work clothes and a very tired face ask Alejandra to pray for him. As she did, his countenance changed. He seemed to breathe in deeply and relax. Then he began to cry.
Pastor José and I saw it at the same time, and we knew: this will work. This is it.
One year in, and the corner and the people are familiar and warm. We meet new neighbors in Gómez Morín every month, but we also get to catch up with people we’ve now known for a year. My favorites are the children. They grow so fast, and they always have some sort of story to tell.
Several families have joined the church, but truly, that’s not the main objective of this ministry.
Here’s the point: once a month, on a street corner in front of a convenience store in Gómez Morín, Ensenada, there is a place where anyone who wants it can come and be fed, seen, known, and cared for.
In Gómez Morín, as it is in Heaven.
Would you like to support the ongoing work in Gómez Morín by sponsoring a month of tamales or helping us expand the church building (again!) to accomodate the growing need?