EP 49: Community Engagement Is Most Effective through Our Weakness - Partnership in Puerto Rico with Steven Feliciano and Joey Espinosa

And we're used to ask people what are their needs, because

maybe it's the most evident thing for us.

But we knew right away that will carry with us our sin and our

saviors complex. And even though we will have

good intentions, we will need to repent from the good actions

that will have done with the wrong intentions, right?

Well, welcome back to the Grace Church Members Podcast.

My name is Scott. I am your host today and a happy

summer. Everyone in the studio.

I have a couple of special guests.

I'm going to start with Joey, his wife Joanna.

Their three kids have been a part of Grace for 22345 years.

I've been here 29 and my wife 27 and our kids the whole life.

So we could just, this could just be a Joey Espinoza family

podcast. There's so many things you guys

have been involved in that you could talk about.

But specifically our topic today is our work in Puerto Rico.

You're currently serving as an advocate for what we're doing

there, helping pull teams together and equip them and even

lead some. So tell us a little bit more

about that and then I'm going to let you introduce our guest.

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah.

So my first trip to Puerto Rico was in 2018, which is about 8

months after Hurricane Maria. It was Grace's first team and

love being there that wasn't with Hunger Corps, with another

organization, but I've been back four more times with serving

with Hunger Core. So after Grace's first trip to

Puerto Rico, we were looking for a long term partner, which is

key for all of our overseas and local missions as well.

And within a year or so, we met Steven Feliciano and we were

really just blown away when we heard his story, his humility,

his passion, his, his love of Jesus more than anything.

And we got into some discussions and realize this could be

someone that we can partner with over the years as a church.

And it's been a pleasure. So I've been able to go back

four times and serve with hunger core and lead a few of those

trips as well too. And so I, I really enjoyed it.

It always, I was telling Steven, it feels always feels like home

when I go back there. And part of that is, is the

brotherhood that we have, but also seeing the work that

they're doing, just like minded. They want to see people come to

know Jesus. And so it's been a joy to serve

with them. So yes, Steven Feliciano has

been here for a few days and enjoying the time that's been

with him and his family, and I'll turn it over to him to

introduce what he's doing. Welcome, Steven.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

We're happy. My family, Eileen, my wife Noah,

who's four years old, and Adela, who's nine months.

They're enjoying time free from me.

And it's a pleasure to be here. We feel like Grace is truly

family. And it's been, it's been an

honor to walk with you for the last six years.

Six years. Yeah, we're happy to be here

for, I don't know, our fifth time.

I think so. That's fantastic.

And so tell us a little bit about yourself.

Did you grow up in? Puerto Rico, Sure.

I'm born and raised Puerto Rican.

I have a brother or two siblings born and raised in Manatee,

Puerto Rico. That's in the North Coast of

Puerto Rico. Average Puerto Rican that work

in a pharmaceutical for 35 years in the 90s in order to make it

you, you'll work in a pharmaceutical.

And my mom was a social worker in the public education

department of Puerto Rico, grew in church.

And then I guess I figure out that I wanted to be an engineer

because I saw my dad working with a lot of engineers.

My brother, he made the same conclusion.

He went, he's two years older, went to the West side of the

island. He hated it.

He came to the states to become a treaty animator and then went

back to Puerto Rico with student loans and the idea of doing

standard comedy shows. That was the first bad joke to

my dad, All right. And then I went to the same

university to and again to be an engineer with this idea of

success. And it was there that I met a

homeless couple that were drug addicts, took him to my home,

gave him clothes, food, and I met Jesus through them and doing

life with them. And six months later, he gets

killed and he died on his wife's arm.

I block from my apartment. And that changed my life, went

back to my hometown. And he said to my brother,

you're reaching people in the theaters, you're doing comedy.

And they want to join us to do something that is meaningful.

And I'm doing life with people that they don't need money, They

need relationships, good news and time, and they need the good

news of Jesus Christ. I think I don't know why I'm

taking a business class because I want to be an engineer, right?

And we can do a nonprofit to bridge the gap between people in

the theaters and people in the streets.

And that night we founded Hungry.

Core Wow. And what year was that?

It was 2012 two thousand and May 25th of 2012, OK.

So you and your brother, you guys founded.

Yeah. Hunger core.

Yeah, Yeah. Tell us before we get into

Hunger Core, let's let's talk a little bit about the island.

Sure, most people have never been.

They may know someone who's been.

They may know someone who's native.

But just pretend like we don't know anything.

Tell us a little bit about the culture, the life of Puerto

Rico. Puerto Rico la Isla encanto

encant encantement Puerto Rico is a small island, 100 miles by

35 miles. Small island full of color, loud

people. We are, you know, Latinos, we're

loud people. If you're going to hear like 2

main music styles is either salsa or reggaeton.

I don't like reggaeton that much, right?

Small island divided in 78 municipalities, 78 cities.

So we were part, we were Spain's territory before being in US

territory. So you're going to see our 78

municipalities having small downtowns and these downtowns

will have a square Plaza with the Catholic Church in one side

on the City Hall and the other 1-2 authorities back then,

right? And then it was where all the

city life will happen, right in these downtowns.

So still is that way. We have more than 200 beaches.

They're amazing. And you have in the center of

the mountains so you can see a lot of green greenery.

And then you can find we have the second longest sea of lane

in the world. Yeah, till Dubai.

I mean, there's right, it has to be Dubai.

And then we have population that is been, I think it's around 3

million people are going to be less than that.

And yeah, we're and we're your citizens.

We use dollars. We have Costco, Chick-fil-A and

Walmart, but we have our own culture.

We speak Spanish and and then we're allowed and we eat lots of

carbs. So it's a mix of it's, we're

Latin American country, but yeah, you're going to see some

similarities. So we've got mountains and

beaches, we've got good music and good food and friendly

people. Yeah.

Tell me, tell us about the economic condition of a lot of

these municipalities. Yeah, Puerto Rico.

I think like many other places, you can have kind of an idea of

what a place is, but if you go and, and go deep enough, where

are you do the the due diligence?

I'm going to find that there's some deeper issues that want

people expect. So even though we have like

beautiful music and when that music fades away, there's a

reality in our island. It's in the Caribbean.

So it's basically is been hit by natural disasters almost every

year. So last big disaster was in 2017

here at Camarillo. So that brought a new reality to

our island. We had the hurricane followed by

another storm to expire to Hurricane Madea.

So we're recovering when an island that is recovering.

So there's a lot of things that are needed like economic

development, educational development.

So even though our island is is beautiful, schools have been

closed. It's hard.

I think someone one study said that is a representing Puerto

Rico is the hardest city to do business in compared to all US

nation. So a lot of things that needs to

be done. We're the country with more

churches per square mile in the world.

So most of those Catholic, Catholic churches.

There's a big mix between Catholic and Pentecostal

churches, small Pentecostal churches in the mountains and in

lots of neighborhoods, and then Catholic churches in the center

of the downtowns and being more the culture, being Catholic.

And then you have like a growing population of Pentecostal

churches in the 90s. OK, yeah.

So you found Hunger Core 2012. 2012. 2012, so that's 13 years

ago now. I'm sure it's it's taken some

different pathways to get to the point now where so if someone

goes on a trip, let's say they fall 2025, spring 2026, what are

they going to see Hunger Core emphasizing when they go join

you guys in Puerto Rico. So yeah, you're right, we've

changed the time. First five years we were

basically mobilizing Puerto Rican volunteers to some parts

of Latin America to serve. We saw God's Providence,

Hurricane Maria as a moment to pivot as a ministry and focus

just in Puerto Rico. Just in Puerto Rico.

Yeah. And we chose to work with local

churches and embrace an asset based community development

approach. It's basically seeing the

communities through the lenses of their resources and other

needs. So.

Say that again. So an asset based.

Community. Community development approach.

Yeah, it's an ABCD. It's we don't have to reinvent

the wheel, right? We're used to go to communities

and when I say we ministries, nonprofits, churches, right?

And we're used to ask people what are their needs because

maybe it's the most evident thing for us.

But we knew right away that we'll carry with us our sin and

our saviors complex. And even though we will have

good intentions, we will need to repent from the good actions

that will have done with the wrong intentions, right?

So I remember us starting to meet one of the communities and

my pastor saying, Steven, I just need you to remember that is

going to be not through our victories or but to our failures

that we're going to showcase the gospel because it's going to be

through our willingness to repent in front of the community

that we're going to have the opportunity to talk about the

story that is rarer than ours, right, the gospel.

So we chose to embrace that model.

We can make a lot of mistakes. We have stories of where when we

didn't do it and how we affected the community and how we needed

to repent and then start all over again.

And it's harder, it's less flashy, but it was built on a

model. A commitment that we chose to do

is committing to underserved communities for a minimum of

five years, seeing them through the lenses of the resources and

try to do a relational mission and not a transactional.

So asset based community development, ABCD, not as

flashy, harder, yeah, but it really it plays to the

sustainability, which I know is a central tenet of your mission.

It's probably slower. Way slower, yeah.

But you're emphasizing the relationships.

Tell us a little bit more about how, what does that look like

with homes, with schools, with businesses?

Because right now you've have you guys centered in to one

specific town or city. Yeah we're in one city OK and

enjoy his lead teams and we've been open with everyone and

share things that we have learned.

I can I think the best way to explain it is through you know

some cases that we have done. Yeah first family that we were

going to help in we we chose to commit to a committee called out

Amiga and Grace was part of this since the beginning.

We stood with there for five years and Puerto Ricans.

We invite ourselves to homes. We just ask for coffee and we're

I have bread, right? We have coffee.

So and then first we're strangers, then two weeks later

we're best friends, right? So we went to La Amiga and for

like 3 months and some churches commit alongside hunger to walk

with this community. So we started with a family,

single mom for kids. She started with the foundation

and some walls. And I remember we read 1 Helping

Herds and we, you know, toxic charity and many, you know, we

thought, I thought I was like super equipped to do it.

And we, I remember saying it's going to be a quick win.

We're going to build trust with the community, with partners,

with, with our staff, because we were used to do it in other

parts of the world, but not in Puerto Rico.

So we finished the house in four months.

We, I remember saying we're not going to add to the house

because adding to the house is like saying to her, you didn't

dream big enough, right? So we're all about dignity.

So when we finished the house, I thought I was cheap Gaines and I

was like, you know, giving the house away.

We had music, it was someone with a hunger shirt giving the

keys. It was not me.

I thought I was humble. The whole community was there.

We had food, everything. So we gave the house away.

New fridge, new stove, I mean new everything.

We were proud about the work that we did with volunteers and

for the next 6 years the house was empty.

And if you ask me, I'll be honest, I think it was because

of ice in what when I was saying is it was going to be a quick

win. What I was really saying I think

it was that I want to build a name for hunger myself and I

didn't want I was not care about people's story.

So since that day we say that service without relationship is

just a transaction and transactions they don't

transform people. Relationships do transform

people and actually the gospel is a relational story is not a

transactional 1. So we chose then to do another

approach. We'll stop all of our service

weeks like you guys do with us Thursday and do a barbecue.

And people were like, we want to finish that bathroom, right?

It's just like 2 hours more. And you had like guys a little

bit mad like cooking barbecue and like chicken and burgers and

they were like it. It felt like we were losing our

time, but we were building relationships.

Some months later, we met Rafa, who was a guy in his 70s,

depressed, no haircut, always in his wheelchair in his entrance

door. So Eileen and I, my wife and I,

we went there and we said, we want to know your story. 2 hours

sharing his story. And then we said, you're going

to be next. We're going to do it with you,

not for you. What resources do you have?

And he was like, ah, he was, he's grumpy.

I just received $300 a month. I don't have resources.

And it was an opportunity for us to say our faith informs

everything that we do. And we believe that you have

resources. You were created with skills and

talents and relationships. You're not alone.

So we did this awkward silence. And then Rafa stands up.

I didn't know he could walk. And he goes to his bedroom and

he brings a wood pallet table and a wood pallet chair.

And he says, I can do this furniture.

I used to work in a furniture, a furniture factory.

So in two weeks we put a 20 footer container with tools,

went to visit him, he had a haircut.

His living room was a chop workshop and he comes from his

bedroom with two designs of two tables of two chairs that we

finance his whole house with the furniture that we sold.

No. Maybe some windows, but we

haven't seen the wheelchair in five years.

And. Then he kept doing furniture

pieces even though when we finished the house, one day I

pass by and he stops me and he says like, look what I bought

with the money that I made. And he goes to his bedroom and

brings me a big Bible with this letters this big, right?

And he's like, I'm in my process, but I'm reading it

everything. So I will learn that there's two

things we don't have to help God, right?

We just have to be obedient there.

And then it will make a difference if we look people as

Jesus, look at them through the lenses of their resources.

And those are like 2 cases that we've learned the hard way with

one and the other one will steal.

Like enjoy sharing their. Story Yeah, no, that's, that's a

good, that's a good comparison or good contrast.

So, Joey, when you have gone on the trips and you kind of enter

into this story that hunger cores created, what's been your

experience? Have you been able to see the

relational side of things? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

First of all, just even being with the Hunger Core team.

So Steven and and the staff at Hunger Core, you know, just is

always, again, it feels like going home when I'm there and

the relationship we have there. But then getting to know the

homeowners, that's always a treat, whether it's Adris

sharing her story or working with Megali.

I mean, Megali's the, that was where who we worked with a

couple weeks ago and she's down in the trench laying blocks,

putting on mortar, everything like that.

So this is the homeowner. This is the homeowner.

Yeah, yeah. It's actually a for, for her

father right next door. But she lives right next door

that she is down building the home with us.

And so it doesn't feel like we're going to do on our own to

do for her. We're doing with her.

And that's the same way we feel about Hunger Core as well, too,

that we're, they're, they're, they're doing the work that God

has called him to do. And we get to serve with them

and alongside them. And, but it's always put for me

personally, like I would say because I, yeah, I like

certainty. I like control.

I like how things are the same. And every time I've gone to

Puerto Rico, God shows me or does something different.

And it's a great reminder for me that I'm not in control.

And that's a good thing that God's at work in Puerto Rico, in

Greenville, all over the world. And it's a pleasure to be a part

of that. But I would say, and, and then

even that is, well, I think of an example like like Julio and

he's one of the field leaders. So one of the great things about

serving in Puerto Rico's, like me, you don't have to have

skills. You don't have to have any kind

of home building skills because they have team leaders there,

field leaders who can teach you everything you need to know.

And so I can go but, but Julio, not only is he good, but he what

he does, but he does it because he loves God.

And so he explains that he might come behind you and, and correct

your work or teach you how to do it better, but it's not, it's

not to make you feel bad. What Julio says is God gave me

his best when he sent Jesus. And so when I work on a home, I

want to give the homeowner the best because God gave me the

best. And it's a great reminder for me

because that's not true for me in Puerto Rico.

That's true for everything I do in Greenville, you know, whether

it's at my job or serving on Sunday mornings with my family,

with my money, with everything we do that OK, if God gave me

his best, I need to give my best as well.

So it's a it's a great reminder that I got even just a few weeks

ago in Puerto Rico. Yeah.

It says a lot about the culture that you've created.

Joey, let's put a little more color on the trip.

How many people are we talking about?

Yeah, our teams are usually between 15 and 25, you know, so

we aim for, you know, 18 or 20 is a good sized team, but we can

do a little more. I know Hunger Corps is equipped

to do bigger teams than that. So we wouldn't have a problem

with that. It's it's a week long, so we

typically leave on Saturday to we fly to Greenville on Saturday

and come back on the next Friday with their.

So we have the weekend first. So we we worship on Sunday

morning when you know, the next day and have some free time and

then we get to work on Monday morning.

Four days of work. Yeah, four days or or 3 1/2 and

then we we have fun or build some relationships.

You know, that's different for each team.

Sometimes we do work a little longer.

Last year was special. We actually went with the home

owner, with Adris and and her sons and went to a coffee shop

and had coffee and desserts with them.

And that was just a treat. That was just to be able to hang

out with them and fellowship that doesn't feel like we're

accomplishing. But the relationship that we

built with her was. Great.

Engage the homeowners are that's that's such a such a telling

part of the ministry. Steven, tell us a little bit

more. So we've talked a lot about

homes. What role does home ownership

play in changing cycles of generational poverty?

Some that I think we might take for granted here in the States.

Yeah, sure. It's been progressive on our

side to learn how to do it right now what we again, we have to be

consistent of having the right approach.

And it's not only trying to implement an ABCD, but it's a

biblical one, right? So what we ask people is to that

we're going to walk alongside them.

We consider ourselves as when we go to the community as students,

not as teachers. So there's there's an author

that I like that he says that people they need, they don't

need heroes, they need peers. So we go as peers.

So that means you're going to invest either in sweat equity or

another kind of investment. We we'll leave.

That's dignifying. So it's a case by case, but we

have cases like Camilo and Josie, who they're they were

healthy and they couple that could do something and invest.

I don't know, social workers, they go through an evolution and

we get to an agreement that they're going to be invest X

amount of hours of work or a mix of they wanted like really

beautiful windows. We do the the basic ones now.

We were like, sure, that's kind of empowerment, right?

You want to feel good about your home.

So we're we're not covering that cost, right.

And until you you bring those windows, we're going to be

either stopping the project. It's up to you.

So it's a, it's not like one-size-fits-all.

But then we have cases like Jensen, who invested more than

1000 hours of Labor in his home. So again, Magali, who is the

case and the person that we're the family that we're helping

now, her father is 83 years old. He has dementia.

One resource that he has is his daughter who is healthy who we

believe God wants to work in her life and by inviting her to be

part of our staff. She's always on the field

because she's investing half of her time is volunteer labor and

half of her time we're paying her because we we believe is

dignifying. When teams leave, she help us

clean vans and go to the airport and she joins our staff.

The whole purpose that we what we do, this is not only because

we believe is dignifying is because we want to have a

relational equity with with the people that we serve.

So the more time that we spend together, not only they're going

to see things that maybe they'll desire, but they're going to see

also things that are going to let them know that we're broken.

And if they see something that is beautiful or desirable, our

goal will be not for them to think that we're perfect because

we're super broken. It's that we need God, right?

And if you see each other asking for forgiveness, or if you see

each other being merciful to 1 and each other, we hope that you

get to the conclusion that is not because of our strength, but

it's because of the good news of Jesus Christ.

But what you're describing is this much bigger holistic

picture than just sharing the four spiritual laws or the Roman

road or a testimony. I mean, this is not just sharing

the gospel in the way that people might think about, you

know, what it means to to talk about the hope that they have in

Jesus. Like you're living it right

through relationships, but also as you're working hard and and

building a home that is going to help change possibly generations

of a family help us get over. Sometimes we have this divide

between the church work and non church work, or sacred work and

non sacred or secular work. How do you understand that?

How do you explain that to your teams that are coming in?

So every every Monday night we go and share our vision and I

share a way more a longer version of this, but we happen

to share with people that we serve.

That Bible is a it's a book that you open it and there's a

creator creating everything. And at the end of every day he

said it was good. And at the end of his creation,

he says things were really good. It was like really really enjoy

what he created. Closest word is the Shalom.

It was perfect. Then the fall and four

relationships were broken with God, running away from God with

self feeling ashamed and naked with others, with Aiden saying

that woman that you gave me and with creation.

And right away comes this greater.

There comes a prophecy that someone is going to come.

And then the Old Testament is full of stories of nation called

Israel. God gave him the law to live in

a way that they didn't did. And let's say you're a farmer

and you don't pick the crops in the other part so widows and

orphans and foreigners can come and have something to eat.

So all of a sudden this Kingdom behaves different than other

people. And by the way, this Kingdom has

a king that lives in a tent, right?

And is not human. And then these people are called

to forgive each other. That's on the 7th year.

And then the whole purpose it was for nations that were

surrounding Israel to look at them and say I don't get

everything that they do. Somehow women, they look

happier, they're valued. And if you leave your land rest

on the 7th year, you're a fool. But somehow their crops are

good. The whole idea was for people to

say, I don't get everything that they do, but if they're like

that, I want to know they're king.

So somehow this Israel was this group of firefighters that

received a call that there's a building in flames and they

break the window and they come to save people and they're

trapped and they need to be saved.

That's you and that's I. And here comes the perfect

Israelite. It was not Moses who people

thought he was the perfect deliverer, but he fell short.

David who was a perfect king and he fell short.

Samson who was a perfect judge and he fell short.

It was the one who who the prophecies were speaking about.

And he lived the life that unite should live and we didn't live

and he suffers that that unite should suffer and we didn't.

He dies on the cross and he rose again.

And now he's inviting not only Jews, but everyone that puts

their faith in him to the reconcile the ministry of of

reconciliation. That means to put everything in

the right relationship with the father again, because guess

what, at the end of the book, he's going to restore

everything. So if you see the Bible, that

big story that way, it means that this creator won't rest

until he restores everything. That means everything.

Some theologians say, right? Every square inch of the

universe. God is saying it's mine.

It'll make sense that every area, every dynamic of life.

It's something that God wants to put in the right relationship

with the Father again, we just ask have to ask ourselves what

are you calling me to restore? What are you calling me to put

in the right relationship with you And also as a ministry.

It became evident that it was three things, a social

development, economic development, and educational

development in our city. But it means that if if someone

it's an accountant, God is calling that calling that person

to put things in the right relationship with the Father.

Again, it's just like we as an as a ministry, as a nonprofit,

we're choosing to work with local churches and say we're

going to do maybe the heavy lifting in terms of hats, hands

on work with teens like Christchurch building, getting

community equity, showing the community love.

We're mentoring small business owners.

But at the end of the day, what we're doing is empowering the

local church to shepherd people because we believe that is as as

important as to restore a small business and for a small

business in our city to thrive as our souls under eternity.

So we're not, we're trying not reinvent the wheel, but we're

trying is just to be obedient. Yeah, every square inch is being

restored, and you're just taking responsibility for whatever

God's put in front of you. One municipality at a time, one

household at a time, one relationship at a time.

Yeah, and one team at a time. So how are we seeing this Joey

affect the folks of Grace Church as they go?

Yeah, You know, I think for us it's this is a huge discipleship

opportunity. Like I part of the reason that

we go and I, I'm, I want people to go, it's just for their own

spiritual growth. I've seen that in my life.

I would say of being at Grace Church, you know, 29 years

mission trips are probably one of the top two things that God

has used to help me grow in my relationship with Jesus.

A lot of that for me and it probably for other people at

Grace churches because we're not in control and we can't make

things happen. We are not going to, we can't

send enough teams to Puerto Rico to solve the poverty problem and

to build houses that we can't do that.

But God is at work. Like that's not actually not the

goal, but God uses that just to remind us, OK, we're out of

control. We are not the like the word you

use, Steve, and we're not the saviors.

We can't go do that. And we have to realize that that

we have to. It's a humbling experience and

it's a way for us to trust God. So I think that's one of the

main reasons. I think another reason is, is

obviously God is at work in Puerto Rico and we have the

pleasure of being a part of that, that, yeah, God's at work

there and we get to join in with that.

One of the things, and I, I probably heard it from you or

one of your, one of one of the staff of Hunger Core is one of

the goals is for all these homeowners to see hundreds of

people, hundreds of, of white people mostly are coming from

United States because they love God and they want you to love

God as well too. And that's a very tangible way

to see that because we may not keep the relationship with that

homeowner, but you guys will. And part of their testament,

part of the witness to them is that all these people came

because they love Jesus. So maybe this Jesus is worth

thinking about. Maybe I should like Rapha.

Maybe I should get get a Bible and read about this Jesus that

all these people believe in. And that's why they came and

worked on the House with that. Yeah, and and some people

wrestle with the idea of short term trips and they say, oh, you

go for a week and you think you transform a whole community or a

family and I get it. But you're doing a short term

trip based on a long term commitment.

Our staff even though you guys leave on Friday, our staff is

there next Monday. Having volunteers were just our

staff. So what maybe what what you

don't realize is that having such a small us being such a

small ministry, 7 people and staff having group of churches

coming like week after week with receive more than maybe 5000

volunteers in the last seven years.

It gives us as a ministry a relational capital in the city

that just the seven of us we can't.

So for for us, not only like spending time with you, it's a

joy growing spiritually is a joy you feel and you you expand the

scope that we can have as a ministry just by through

presents, right, by having a coffee in blooming cup in the

coffee shop that we're mentoring, just by building a

home. Like I I was, I was last week in

the Barber shop this last week to come here.

So I was there and the Barber, we just we moved to the city

that we're serving and and he was like, oh, so is there a

house? You guys are building a house

down there? I was like, yeah, sure.

It was AI think it was a grace team that was there.

And he was like, what you guys are doing is amazing.

And you guys did, you did another one on the street that

was out there. I was, yeah.

And he was like, so it's amazing that work that you guys are

doing. How do you guys choose people?

And and all of a sudden, if it's just the seven of us like

people, we don't do it to be seen, right?

But just to be witnesses of what he's doing through his church is

amazing. And it, it's we can't do that.

And, and again, it's not up to us, right?

It's just God, God doing the work.

But it's a short term trip based on a long term commitment in a

multi year kind of commitment with the city that makes a

difference. And also because not only you

guys come as a church, but we're working with local churches than

to shepherd the people that were impacted.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and you said it like you

don't do it to make hunger course scene.

You guys are doing it to make Jesus scene and that only

happens because of 5000 people, 700 people a year or whatever it

is that come down there and now there's OK, people notice that,

people in the town notice that. They start asking questions.

Well, yeah, you have to do it the right way.

Yeah. And when you don't do it the

right way, you have to. You have to repent.

You have to apologize. And I love that part of your

story. Yeah.

Good name is good name is better than fine riches.

Thanks. Proverb says a little something

about that. Yeah.

And, and I think you would say this.

And so our family has been on the other end of being the

people that receives teams. And it seems like for you and,

and, and for your team, like there's an encouragement, like I

remember for us when we were serving on mission for several

years when people came down and reminded us that we're not

alone, that God sees you, right? You, your team of seven, and

there's your family, right? And it's, sometimes it's, it's

hard and you forget and you just think we're alone and we're

tired and we're exhausted. And why are we doing this?

And then when people keep coming down, it reminds, Hey, God sees

what you're doing and he wants to, he wants to remind you,

you're not alone in this. And so for our team to go down

there and to spend a week with other believers who are doing

God's work, like we wanted to be an encouragement to you that

hey, we're, we're here because God loves you and we get the

fellowship together. And that's just a foretaste of

But we'll have an eternity when we'll all speak the same

language, or at least understand each other.

That's right. Yeah.

And I often say to to Eileen, my wife, that I think my job is to

go every Monday to meet teams, share the vision, show where

we're going to go as an organization, as a ministry,

then go back that Monday night. And once my head hits the

pillow, I'm like, are we? Can we?

And that's kind of a kind of a week after week, right?

But yesterday I was at at Grace Church at downtown.

And a guy comes to me. He might be in his late 60s.

And he said, I was two weeks ago there.

It was my first time. And he was like, his eyes were

teary. And he was like, it transformed

my life. I said to him, thank you.

Because hunger is now in a restructuring process, right?

It's been a year and a half in the making.

Now we're the board approve our restructuring and we're going to

have another year and a half or two years to see the results.

I was like, I needed to hear that right, because as you guys

do ministry, grace is is a big church and you guys are

impacting lots of people. It's our identity come from

Christ, right? But it's just there's a mystery

that happens when God's people get together that it, it's hard

to explain. And for us, because we're not a

local church, hunger court, we work with local churches.

Sometimes it can feel isolating because we don't have a, a like

a weekly service, right? It's when teams like you guys

come. And then there's there's

something special also about churches like you guys that have

worked with us for six years, not only volunteers coming, it's

like volunteers coming for the third, the 4th time.

You're like, we don't deserve right.

You're coming to Puerto Rico so many times.

So it's, it's a for us, it's a blessing.

Yeah. When we started with the

question was what's the purpose of this conversation?

And I told you guys I would love for us to have a wait list of

people to join these trips. And I do.

I do want that. I want them to contact Joey.

I want them to contact Samantha Chapman.

But here's actually what I want now, more than that, I want

people to be able to examine their own resources and their

own relationships that they have, what God has given them

and see the goodness of God and all of that.

And see what is in front of them, The territory that is in

front of them, where God is claiming every single inch for

his restoration Kingdom and to to be good stewards of that.

And sometimes we need to go on a mission to be able to get

clearer on the mission that God has given us in our families, in

our neighborhoods, in our workplaces.

And so sometimes getting on an airplane is what jolts us to see

the goodness of God in our own backyard.

And so that might be you, probably is you.

But if you don't get to go to Puerto Rico for another six

months, don't miss the opportunities that are right in

your backyard to just to to be a a gospel influencer with words,

with deeds, with your relationships, with your

actions, with your humility, and with your confidence that only

comes from the Savior that Steven is so eloquently remind

us of. What else guys?

As we wrap up, anything else we want to add?

No, just two things. I just want to say thank you.

It's always felt with Grace Church, that is not a

transactional thing. It's always felt like it's, it's

relational. That's the reason why we're here

this week just to spend time with you guys.

And then last thing is we can't mean is that this is kind of the

wounded healer story, right? While he's calling and maybe

he's putting your heart to go to Puerto Rico or to I know you

guys have all their trips right to other places.

He's he's he's in the business of restoring one of those four

relationships that were broken, but God with self, with others,

our creation. The question that you have to

ask yourself is that I encourage you to ask yourself is what is

it broken and what are you calling me to put in the right

relationship with with you again, right.

And then through through Holy Spirit and the work of that he

does in his church and through his people.

I'm sure that he's going to, he's going to finish that what

he started in your life. To that effect, would you pray

for our church? Sure.

Just close our time and pray that we would be attuned to

those four things. Amen.

Yeah, sure God is. It's I just I don't deserve to

be here. I don't our family doesn't

deserve to be loved and care for us as you've done through

through this amazing church. And actually that's that's kind

of a whole point. You're constantly doing things

for us that we didn't deserve. And that's the story of the

gospel. And I'm just glad that this

church, I think, embodies and priests this.

I just ask you that you keep listening, Grace.

You can keep putting their hearts, their agenda, their

congregation, their people, things that are not in the right

relationship with you, that you keep using them to impact their

city, and that you remind each one of them that you're going to

restore everything and you're using broken vessels like us to

do it. What an amazing privilege to do

it. Me as a Puerto Rican brother in

Christ, I'm just, I'm just happy to see how they're sending their

people to our island. I'm just grateful.

Just ask you that you keep blessing them as a church, keep

them grounded in your word and keep them, keep sending them to

Puerto Rico to enjoy, have fun and see more people like

Magalis, like Rafa, like Camilo, like Josie being transformed not

by us, but by the power of the word name.

I pray. Amen.