An Unexpected Blessing
by Frida Rangel
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to tag along with Carlos Inglés, one of our Spanish ministers, in his usual Tuesday morning grocery drop offs. What I didn’t know was that these interactions would go beyond the process of simply giving groceries to a family. Our last stop was to a woman’s home who had gathered multiple immigrant families together to be able to spend a few minutes with us.
While there, everyone shared a bit about their background and how they had seen or felt God more recently. While this is something that is often asked during check-ins with other Christians, I was not emotionally prepared for what their responses would be. All of them shared about the hardships and dangers of immigrating into another country, and how it was truly through God alone that they were now in this
country. And even beyond that, they saw God through the people that they interacted with in their journey, as well as those who made an effort to provide them aid while settling into this country. As a daughter of immigrant parents, these stories struck a deep emotional chord in me and made me reflect.
It made me reflect on how thankful I am to have been able to hear their stories and let them know that they are seen and loved. This demographic of people is often overlooked and almost always extremely vulnerable. I am grateful for the opportunity that we have here at Impact to serve people like these families and create relationships with them. They became connected to the church through the Tuesday morning and Wednesday night Resource Center food pantry, and have now created meaningful relationships with our spanish-speaking
ministers. These are the stories that reflect our Christian missions of discipleship and fellowship at its purest form. My job here at the church has given me these opportunities to meet the people that make Impact what it is and it brings me so much joy to see all of the familiar faces at the food pantry every week.
