SPRINGFIELD – For many people there are Christmas parties and dinners to attend this time of year for work, school and social clubs. And the pastors and wives in the Springfield area are no exception to that.
But for the ethnic pastors in Greene County there was a Christmas dinner organized in early December just for them and that made their fellowship and enjoyment of the holiday even richer.
Joshua Hall, director of missions for the Greene County Baptist Association said there are eight ethnic congregations in the association. Their work is supported by Samual Gonzales, who serves as the Ethnic Coordinator for the association.
Gonzales is the pastor of the Nuevo Pacto Church, Springfield. He has previously worked in ethnic church planting with the Missouri Baptist Association. He and his daughter helped pull together the arrangements and transplanted for the attendees at the event.
Pastors and families were there who spoke Spanish, Ukrainian, Chin (spoken by those from Burma or Myanmar) and English. The welcome and announcements were made in English and then translated into Spanish and Ukrainian. Christmas Carol song sheets were printed in the four languages. They would take turns letting each language group sing a verse of the song
Hall said they exchanged gifts and it was a much more relaxed program for the ethnic pastors and families. The children could sit with the adults and enjoy the meal and there were gifts for the kids.
There was a Greene County pastors and wives dinner held on another evening for all the pastors and families in the association. About 100 couples attended that event.
But Hall said the ethnic pastors event was rich in fellowship and the languages did not present a barrier.
“They tend to put a to of emphasis on family (in the ethnic churches) and so this was not such a formal time,” he said.
One funny thing that occurred, Hall said, was when Pastor Gonzales introduced himself to the group along with his daughter who was translating for him, he made the joke that his name was Moses and he was being helped with Aaron (his daughter). But the joke didn’t translate well across the languages and so throughout the evening some were thinking his real name was Moses and his daughter’s name was Aaron.
But they had a good time and enjoyed some good food. The message of Christmas is being proclaimed in several languages across Greene County. No matter the language that message is universal.