Nov. 30, 2009 issue
New ‘families’ in a new land
Spanish-speaking refugees start house churches in Quebec
By Gladys Terichow Mennonite Central CommitteePage:
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MONTREAL — Lively gospel music and Spanish lyrics at the House of Friendship remind Pastor Lucy Roca of a worship service at Teusaquillo Mennonite Church.
Pastors of Mennonite house churches in Quebec, from left, Lucy Roca, Niny Martinez and Gloria Pinto, help Spanish-speaking refugees rebuild their lives in Quebec. — Photo by Nina Linton/MCC
The Teusaquillo church, a Mennonite Central Committee partner organization in Bogota, Colombia, provides spiritual, physical and emotional support to people uprooted by violence.
Services at the House of Friendship in Montreal, which is supported by MCC Quebec, also remind Roca of the ministry she started in Quebec in 2006.
She helps the Teusaquillo church in Colombia expand its activities internationally by starting Spanish-speaking Mennonite house churches for refugees resettling in Quebec.
Roca, lead pastor of Iglesia Menonita Refugio de Paz, (Refuge of Peace Mennonite Church), said the house churches provide an extended family support system for people uprooted from their homes by violence and persecution.
“This is a place where you can find what you can’t find anyplace else,” she said. “You find peace and support here.”
In addition to a weekly gathering that includes biblical teachings, discussions, singing and a meal, the pastors of the house churches provide pastoral care.
On the last Sunday of every month, pastors of the four new Spanish-speaking Mennonite house churches in Sherbrooke, Montreal and Quebec City meet for a worship service at House of Friendship.
Roca said she and other pastors of these churches understand the trauma of fleeing violence, the grief of leaving behind families and the difficulties of learning a new language and adjusting to life in a new country.
Roca and her husband, Diogenes Rosero Alvarez, along with their daughters, Paula, Estefania and Lucia, were forced to flee their home in Barranquilla in 2001 and seek refuge in Bogota, 435 miles south.
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