God's Love In Action

Yesterday I wrote about the escalating meanness in America. I am a full blooded Latino, of Spanish extraction. I am proud of my heritage and proud to be an American citizen. While I don't know anything about my ancestors that immigrated to this country, several generations of Salazars have lived in this country and made positive contributions. I hate the racial overtones that are dominating the situation in Arizona. We have made so many strides forward, I don't want to go back.

In the 1950s there was a migrant worker program in the US called the Bracero program. It actually started in 1947 and ended in 1964. Workers from Mexico, largely agricultural workers, were allowed to come to the US and work for a period of time. I remember going with my grandparents to some of the farms and ranches around San Jose, California to visit with Braceros in the evening. My grandparents shared the Gospel, took clothes and other necessities, and I remember my grandmother talking with some of the ladies, perhaps comforting them because they were away from their children. My grandfather had pioneered a Spanish speaking Assemblies of God church by this time, and other church members joined them on their trips to the Bracero camps. There were not any ulterior motives here, none of them would join the church, they wouldn't contribute any offerings, they wouldn't bring other people into the church, this was ministry, pure ministry.

While this took place over 50 years ago, this is a memory that is vividly etched in my mind. I can still still see the little huts where the Braceros slept. I can almost smell the smoke from the fires that burned in 55 gallon drums for warmth, and I remember my grandfather walking from hut to hut telling the men that we were there and asking them to gather together. The farmers and ranchers welcomed the ministry because they saw the changes that occured in the Braceros lives as they committed themselves to the Lord. Who knows the impact of these changed lives as they went home to their families and communities? What I know, is, that I saw God's love in action. We really need to see more of that today. Oh God, help us to engage the meaness in our country with Your love.