It seems like ancient history when I think back to the beginning of the Hispanic ministry at JIBC. For years and years, JIBC partnered with Charleston Baptist Association to participate in migrant ministries. Before his death, Clancy Bowick was a strong advocate for helping reach the Hispanic community. He and many volunteers worked for years serving in the Name of Jesus meeting spiritual and physical needs.
The ministry then took an upward turn when JIBC had the opportunity to support a Hispanic Mission Church. That was exciting and extremely challenging. We really had no one who spoke Spanish. So we had language and cultural barriers to cross. Finding Hispanic leaders was among the most difficult of all challenges. We struggled through a few years until Dr. Skip Martin, former missionary and professor at CSU dropped into visit. He immediately helped us correct some issues and then served as “Interim” Hispanic pastor until we could find a leaders. Many of you will remember how Hector and Shannon Cruz came to help at that time. These were still building years that had many obstacles to overcome. Among the largest barriers was Hector’s status as an immigrant. By the way, they have gone back to Honduras to fix that status issue and to re-enter the United States through the proper channels. While in Honduras, they have been serving in ministry. Our youth group had the opportunity to join them a few summers ago.
The Hispanic Church really took a leap toward growth and stability as the Lord led Pastor Claudio and his wife, Claudia to join Iglesia Luz Y Verdad. They were trained under the theological education of Dr. Skip Martin at CSU. The Lord brought other significant leadership, like Aaron Guadarrama, to the Hispanic church. They have grown from a mission of JIBC to a Hispanic Church. They have their own praise band, they live stream their worship services, they have a nursery and children’s ministries, a food ministry and several strong outreach missions and ministries in the community.
Many of our JIBC church family may not know Iglesia Luz Y Verdad actually meets on the JIBC campus. They now have almost the entire Ministry Center Building located on the Maybank Highway side of the campus. We only use the two apartments for Marty and Frankie. Everything else is the ministry of Luz Y Verdad. That is probably over $30, 000 worth of support JIBC is able to give to missions. Luz Y Verdad is one of the largest Hispanic ministries in the Charleston area. It is also one of the strongest, healthiest churches. While they are no longer a mission of JIBC, we gladly call them Kingdom partners. It is a great investment in reaching the fastest growing part of our population.
Thank you for giving so generously to make such mission work possible. We can give freely because our Father has moved our church family to give so generously. He uses you to bless this ministry. You might not realize that JIBC launched the largest Chinese Church in Charleston and now is helping to support one of the largest and strongest Hispanic churches in Charleston. Thank you and praise the Lord.
Pastor Tom
