Impacting the Community with God’s Love
Comparte Amor is “share love” in Spanish. Created by the youth group of the North Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the ministry aims to “Impact Our Community with God’s Love.” The ministry was born from a desire to bless the community and church during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the youth department approached me with the Idea of Comparte Amor, I was amazed. As their pastor, I thanked the Lord for our church youth leaders: Karen Marquez, Aimee Monge, Frida Rosas, Saul and Melisa Jaquez, Gerardo and Anissa Jaquez and all of the North Valley Church youth. They focused on a few areas to make a difference through acts of compassion.
The first was to create a safe environment where people could share their mental health struggles. Our youth made an effort to share the importance of speaking about stress, depression and anxiety. They invited the community to participate in drive-thru prayers in various locations using the hashtags #prayingforyou and #comparte. We felt the compassion of God come to the Albuquerque community through prayer.
When an officer from the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department was killed in the line of duty, there was distress and pain in our community. Our youth created “Appreciation for the Blue,” a way to show gratitude towards law enforcement. Our youth took more than 200 goodie bags with treats and notes saying thank you to the sheriff’s department. The following Saturday, we honored two local police officers who are members of our church.
Our youth also noticed that some of our elderly members did not return to church after the COVID-19 pandemic. After learning how to make vegan cookies, our youth prepared baskets with tasty treats and surprised our elderly church members. However, they didn’t stop there. They decided to expand their reach to visit elderly members of the community. In both instances, they offered to sing songs and pray with them. I know our elderly of the church and community were very happy and felt blessed.
An important event for our youth was “Making Strides of New Mexico 2021,” the annual breast cancer awareness walk. Our youth were prepared with their slogan, “Faith Over Fear, Together We Are Stronger.” They made a conscious effort to share the importance of love and support to the ones who are going through breast cancer.
I thank God for the North Valley Church youth and their ministry, Comparte Amor. I pray for them every day, for the Lord to fill them with His Holy Spirit and for them to continue to share God’s love in our community.
By Saul Flores. Flores is the Pastor of the North Valley Spanish and La Roca Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Albuquerque, New Mexico. North Valley Spanish and La Roca Spanish are churches in the Texico Conference.