Community Service

SANTA FE, N.M. – It has been exciting to see members of the various Santa Fe Spanish Seventh-day Adventist churches come together this year and work actively in community service. Most recently, Women’s Ministries directors Edith Cummings of Santa Fe Marcy Park Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church and Martha Oceguera of the Santa Fe Airport Seventh-day Adventist Company put together what they call “buckets of hope” for women of the Esperanza Shelter, a support center for battered families in Santa Fe. The buckets contained toiletries, gift cards, blankets and other household items. Esperanza Director Sophie Dant was moved to tears and expressed tremendous gratitude for the kind and loving act of compassion. “Seeing those beautiful buckets full of gifts for the women of Esperanza Shelter made us feel like it was Christmas again,” said Dant. “I’m thankful to the Seventh-day Adventist Church for bringing happiness and love to our shelter.”

The Santa Fe Airport Company members are also ministering to the homeless community in Santa Fe. Every Friday morning, several members of the congregation prepare homemade burritos and place them in a bag along with water, chips and church literature. These bags are becoming a symbol of hope to those receiving them and many in the homeless community eagerly look forward to receiving the bags and seeing their “angels of compassion” every week. “Many of our homeless brothers do not know how to read,” says Martha Oceguera. “Yet, it is touching to see that the ones that do read look forward to reading the inspirational literature we provide to their friends.”

It is no wonder the motto throughout the Santa Fe churches is, “We are one church with several congregations.” We definitely are one church, and I encourage all the congregations in our world church to find ways to reach our communities and meet their needs. In doing so, both our churches and communities will be blessed and we will shine in our communities like the noon day!

By Leonard Cummings, Adventist Community Services Director