Jahaziel Cantu, a pastor with Cristo Rey Presbyterian Church in the Love Field area, has joined with the TNPC family in order to plan and organize weekly ESL classes at Town North. In doing so, he plans to build a network of relationships with Hispanic families through contacts at Town North. Already, 90% of the ESL students are people he has never met before. Like native Mexicans such as myself, Jahaziel enjoys tacos "estílo Mexicano" (Mexican style). Jahaziel is from the northern industrial city of Monterrey. Relatively speaking, this is a short (only 10 hours) drive from Dallas. Just as "Yankees" in the US have an accent that differs from Southerners, northern Mexicans have an accent that differs slightly from that of southern Mexicans. In describing his family, Jahaziel says, "I grew up in a Christian home. My parents always taught us to pray, to read the Bible, and to always try to honor God in what we are doing." Jahaziel accepted Christ when he was 7. His faith in God continued to grow even through his high school years. "I was the coordinator of the north zone of Mexico with the Presbyterian Church national team, and I was able to see the great need of pastors. " Jahaziel says, adding, "I was able to see how God was working in my heart and I see the call of God, God calling me when I was in high school. And (because of that call), I wanted to pursue a Master of Divinity after college." (A Master of Divinity is a pastoral degree.) Jahaziel currently works at Cristo Rey, and plans to spend at least 10 hours per week working with ESL and multicultural families on top of that. Jahaziel is well acquainted with the challenges in a multicultural church. In Cristo Rey, 40% of the congregation are English speakers and 60% of are Spanish speakers. "Our intention (in starting) an outreach program (ESL) is to start connections, to start relationships with these (people)," says Jahaziel. Jahaziel plans to work with multicultural families at TNPC to build a network to reach out to other families. Already, 90% of the ESL students are people he has never met before. "(The ESL program) is a great blessing, because they see the love really fast in Town North. (This is) because we are open to the ESL program. It is a free program and they know that we want to help the community." Jahaziel says. Town North and its people look forward to welcoming new members with prayer and the love of Christ.
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Town North Presbyterian Church |