Latino Outreach in Council Bluffs

January 17, 2010 — Latino Outreach in Council Bluffs

 

Pastor Ruben Mendoza has worked for the last 3½ years with the Hispanic/Latino ministry at the Broadway United Methodist Church in Council Bluffs.

 

Approximately 100 Hispanics worship weekly at Broadway in their own language. Each week the sermons are videotaped to share with other district and church ministries.  A two-year-old jail ministry provides spiritual support to prison inmates at the Pottawattamie County Jail. Across the Missouri River in Omaha two other ministries,  Centro Latino and Justice for Our Neighbors, are partners in caring for people in the region.

 

Supported by the Unified Grant Program of the Iowa Annual Conference, Pastor Mendoza also helps the Southwest District Hispanic Ministries Team to extend the church’s outreach to Latino people all over the district with eight different ministries. He also has visited other conferences in Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee with the goal of learning and making better our work in Iowa even as we share with them.

 

“As a family,” Pastor Mendoza writes in his report to the congregation last September, “we have learned a great deal in these three years [in Council Bluffs], and we have had some wonderful experiences. My children now speak two languages.  My wife, Yolanda, and I are very excited and content to work for such a great church as Broadway United Methodist Church. Thank you for your continued support of me and my family. May God bless your lives and our ministry together through Broadway United Methodist Church.  We thank you for your continued support of this ministry which is so important to our Hispanic/Latino communities.” Visit their Web site at http://broadwayunitedmethodist.com for more information.