Communicators Learn Culture of New Mexico
United Methodist Communicators began their annual meeting by taking time to connect to the community. They started the afternoon by giving back to their host city of Albuquerque, New Mexico through service; and then learned about the history of the indigenous Pueblo Indians and their historical relationship to Christianity, brought by Spanish conquistadors.
Bishop Max Whitfield welcomed the communicators in worship, communion and blessing before sending them forth. Then the communicators divided into two groups for their mission experience.
One group headed off to work with Casa Esperanza, a support program that helps patients and families with housing and emotional support while in Albuquerque for medical care. Communicators helped out with yard work and other maintenance cores.
The second group heade
d to The Storehouse, a food and clothing pantry. With a tremendous increase in food insecurity in the Albuquerque area, The Storehouse has gone from providing 33,000 meals in a year, in 1996, to providing 33,000 meals in 3 days, in 2009. The volunteering communicators helped prepare for the next day’s clients by restocking shelves and preparing 1 ton's worth of individual bags of rice for families.
Evening activities shifted to a welcoming reception at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. The UMAC guests were warmly welcomed and treated to an education in the history, language, and traditions of the Pueblo Indians. Of special interest to the communicators was learning how the Pueblo have been able to find connection and correlation between the predominantly Roman Catholic Christianity and their native beliefs. For the Pueblo, the natural connection is the mutual key value on prayer as a way to connect to a great Creator.