La Mesa Ministry and Calendar/Ministerio y calendario de La Mesa
by Leslie Weimer
Our La Mesa ministry, which is intended to teach English and Spanish and forge new friendships and communities, runs from January to April and September to November. Communities are being built, English and Spanish are improving for all, and the love of Christ is evident in each gathering. Many of our ESL students began the classes with some trepidation and reservations, but now they’re becoming more confident, developing new friendships, and learning English. Several members of La Mesa have started coming to St Margaret’s church services on a regular basis. The students are doing so well that we’ve decided to continue the classes on Sundays between the regular sessions. The summer classes will be mostly conversational, informal, and tailored to their requests or needs. We do not have the budget for dinners so we will offer the classes from 4- 5:30 PM on Sundays and we will provide snacks. If anyone would like to donate snacks it would be appreciated. The students are excited about continuing their learning during the summer and participating in a few special activities. Gracias.
WHAT IS LA MESA?
St. Margaret's has multiple ministries under the umbrella of "La Mesa," which means The Table. La Mesa includes two ten-week cycles of English and Spanish classes each year, which give students the opportunity to learn each language and then practice over a shared meal, at the table. La Mesa also includes several bilingual masses throughout the year in which the rector leads much of the mass and the Eucharist in Spanish while lay persons read Scripture and the prayers of the people alternating in both languages. The sermon is pre-recorded in Spanish by clergy from around the Episcopal Church and a brief translation is given in English after the recording is played during the mass. In the summer and holiday seasons, La Mesa hosts conversation circles that allow students to continue to engage in language and cultural activities and special celebrations such as the feast of the Virgin de Guadalupe, Las Posadas, and Tres Reyes.
Watch a video about the La Mesa Ministry at St. Margaret's
NEEDS
History
In February 2022 at our annual retreat, we cast a vision for a ministry that would invite our Hispanic siblings into fellowship with us at St. Margaret's. Our initial thoughts were that this should be something to do with language and cultural exchange, and that food should be involved. Thus, La Mesa (which translates to "The Table") was born. Over the past year we have quietly been laying the foundation for this ministry, which publicly kicked off with our first round of classes on January 15th, 2023.
Some of this foundational work included:
*5 people received training via the Episcopal Latino Ministry Competency Course during 2022 and 2023!
*Multiple meetings with Elmer Romero, from Houston, to learn more about teaching language classes and think about curriculum development.
*Multiple meetings with our larger leadership team to decide on the format for the classes and handle details such as advertising, food, childcare, etc.
*Using the Beer and Hymns event as our first fundraiser to have some seed money.
*Ultimately raising $12,000 (praise God for people's generosity!) for our first full year of ministry (2023).
*Planning and carrying out cultural exchange activities for our church family including the altar for the Day of the Dead and bilingual masses and feasts for Our Lady of Guadalupe and Las Posadas. More than 40 people attended each of our bilingual masses in December, and a group of 20+ put together the altar, which remained up for a couple of weeks in October/November.
We began meeting and learning English and Spanish on January 8th.
*We meet at St. Margaret’s on Sundays from 6-8pm for 15-week sessions. Each week of class includes around 30-40 participants total (a mix of native English and Spanish speakers seeking to learn the other language).
*We continue to seek people who can help prepare meals for La Mesa (plan to feed 30-40 people). We also need childcare volunteers to help watch children during the classes. We are also looking for language teachers – those with experience teaching ESL / Spanish – interested in volunteering and assisting with ongoing curriculum development.
For more information please contact our co-leaders: Danielle Miembre via email by clicking HERE or Handy Acosta by clicking HERE
To donate towards the La Mesa Ministry, please click HERE and make a donation. Please put La Mesa Ministry in the "Message" line.
