Hope & Love in Stockton
Grace and peace be upon you all. At the new home of Iglesia Luterana Santa María Peregrina, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in South Stockton (306 E. Clay Street Stockton, CA 95206), the staff of Mt. Cross, led by Seminarian Christa Wyneken García, brought hope and love to the children who attended the summer camp the week of July 6-10. Among these young campers, there were migrant children whose parents were taken into custody by ICE agents in a traffic stop.
The title of the Summer Camp was “Wear Love.” Christa, Jess, Tyler and Sofía, the Mt Cross staff, showed the participants the meaning of God’s love through games, Bible Studies, songs, prayers, arts and crafts and their kindness. We did not have many kids given the fact that many families are afraid of going out, because of the increase of ICE activity in the Lodi-Stockton area, but also because many are working hours that do not allow them to send their kids and be able to pick them up. Other families leave to other states looking for work and return in late August. Nevertheless, the collaboration between the Sierra Pacific Synod, Iglesia Luterana Santa María Peregrina, Mt. Cross Outdoors Ministries and St. Mark’s United Methodist Church planted a seed of hope and love in one of the poorest ZIP codes in the state of California: 95206.
It is there in the margins that God awaits us all. Just like Christ was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem as a marginalized peasant Jew by the Roman Empire, we are called to meet Christ at the foot of the crosses experienced by other marginalized communities. We find Christ in the means of grace, but we also find him among his little ones, in the margins. The Love and Hope of God were experienced in one of the marginalized communities of the wealthiest state in the nation. The seed has been planted. Next year, I know more children will attend because the Word has been planted. Amen.
-The Rev. Nelson H. Rabell-González, M. Div., STM, and BSME Pastor at Iglesia Luterana Santa María Peregrina (Stockton,CA)
and Saron Lutheran Church (Escalon, CA)