Video Transcript
David: We are here with Julio Ramirez-Eve and his wife, Marty. And, Julio is the pastor at Iglesia Emanuel church here in Durham on Roxboro St. Marty is his wife and also works with Durham Public Schools. We are excited to have you guys with us this evening.
What are the blessings and encouragements you are experiencing. Having been there for 16 years now, how do you see God at work in Emanuel? What are the ways you are being encouraged in the work that you are doing?
Marty: Well the Food Bank. The Food Bank is really just taking off. It’s overwhelming. The need is overwhelming but also the amount of support we have been receiving both financial and volunteers has been very gratifying, very impressive. So many people are stepping up and wanting to reach out and help others that are in need. Even neighbors at the church, as you saw last Wednesday, Dave, like we were both out there directing traffic, and neighbors were asking, “What’s going on?” One woman handed me 40 bucks cash, several others asked and offered to make a donation online and a couple of neighbors threw on a vest themselves and helped to direct traffic further on down the street as we needed more people [to help]. So, you know, it’s nice to see how many people want to chip in.
David: Share with our people how much [the Food Bank] has grown in the last couple of months.
Julio: Ooh! The regular number that we serve is between 60 and 80. Our numbers are increasing to maybe 120 first, later it was 200, later it was 250, and the last one was 361.
Marty: Yeah, this week we ran out of food and we had to, you know, Dave, we had the heartbreaking duty of telling probably at least 100 cars, maybe more, and a lot of the cars are coming with at least two families, you know, and we had to turn those people away because we just ran out. But we managed to serve over 350 families this week and so we are going to try and maintain the same level and bring on some more volunteers in different capacities because we are kind of reaching, like, our limit of what our people can do!
Julio: Yeah!
Marty: We have been doing the Food Bank for probably 12 years now, but you know, it’s totally different now because we can’t let people come inside and pick what they want. Everything has to be curbside and we have to pack everything ahead of time and carry it out to cars. It takes a lot more, it’s a lot more labor intensive and then there is a lot more demand and then at the same time the number of volunteers has to be a lot more limited—a perfect storm.
David: So, one of the things I have been most impressed with is Emanuel is not a large congregation. You have 80-100 people.
Julio: Yeah, officially, we have 60 members. Regular attenders were more like 125.
David: Yeah, so my question is, for such a small church you are doing big work! And your people, from my perspective, are very involved volunteering, helping put the food together, cooking the meals… I mean all of that. Has that always been a part of who Emanuel is? How have you all cultivated that? I am curious. Again, has it always been that way? How, how did you teach your people to be that way?
Julio: Haha. Maybe… It’s part of the vision, the identity that we have, like as a congregation. Part of the mission is the Church Without Walls. We are more interested in the people who are outside of the church than the people that are inside. Everyone that is inside is part of the emphasis we put on mission or ministry and we have to trust and we have to take care of the community, we have to find a way to do it. And this is a responsibility that the members have in some way. The people are responding to that and they see that is how we are doing ministry.
David: It’s a beautiful thing, yeah. What would you encourage our congregation to do? How would you encourage us to pray for you all? We can be involved helping out with the Food Bank, but generally, what would you be encouraging us to do and to be praying for?
Julio: I think the part we need from Blacknall and from the Christian Church is to be present. That is a good message that the congregation needs. When the congregation is feeling that there is somebody, there is a congregation that is there for them to support and to pray, it is encouraging. “We are not alone. God’s we are.” It’s like, that is the hand of God to support us because we are connected. And prayer is important for us. For our congregation part of the culture is prayer. It is one of the significant parts of our culture. And also the family, the community, is one that every time tries to be present not only with the family but with the rest of the community. If somebody is in a bad situation, everybody tries to be present over there.
Marty: Yeah, mutual aid is an important part of the culture. You know, it could be seen as a larger concept right now with the whole community and the church, you know, as a whole. Also, I think praying and advocating for just policies towards immigrants. There are some different issues right now with different types of assistance, you know, with things that can be done at the state level even if they are not done at the federal level. There is just a need for people to be taken into consideration; people who are paying taxes and working hard and contributing to the economy. People who are really being left out of the relief efforts. Things are really not too dire right now, but, you know, they could get a lot worse. So, we need to really take care of our neighbors.
Julio: It is also a good sign for the children when they see a brother or sister from another congregation taking care of the family, it’s a message that they need in order to keep hope.
David: Can you share with us a story of hope or resilience that you have seen in your life together there?
Marty: [to Julio] Well, you can talk about the children and Children’s Church.
David: That would be great.
Julio: The Children’s Church was a new project and that project was directed to the community. The way that we created community for the children—they miss it. The majority continue to call and to ask when they can come back again to the church, when can they have the meeting with their friends. Because they miss that part. That kind of fellowship. That space was created for them.
Marty: Children’s Church was a program that just started last year and the kids would spend all day at church on Sunday, doing a variety of different activities besides just participating in worship and in Sunday School. So, it was something they really looked forward to.
David: For Blacknall folks, Emanuel usually worships at 1:30 in the afternoon and they began this Children’s Church at 9:30 on Sunday mornings and the kids would be there up until worship. And it originally was just for church kids but it has reached out to kids in the community and it’s really a cool thing.
Julio and Marty, thanks so much for sharing with us. I am wondering if one of you would be willing to pray for us and for our churches?
Julio: [praying in Spanish, Marty’s translation below]
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your blessing. We know that the presence of our God and his mercy has covered us with his grace through Christ and his sacrifice and the very presence of God in us, his Holy Spirit. May his Holy Spirit be with us, with each of you, Amen.
David: Thank you so much! We are really grateful for you guys.