Oliver and I spent the weekend in Atlanta at a NAMB conference geared at the Hispanic Church. I went expecting to sit through more meetings on how to evangelize to the immigrant community, what materials to use, what other churches were doing...Who am I kidding? I really had little expectation, I was just happy to have a little vacay without the blessings (Thanks Maga and Papa!!)
I was blessed with a revelation.
Now, while I speak the language and almost all of my friends do as well, I still feel different. I'm not an immigrant, I don't know what it was like to grow up with want, to move to a new country with a new language and expect to thrive. My husband does.
There is a whole new generation growing up like me. Maybe they speak language. Maybe they (perhaps not I, though someone did ask if I was Puerto Rican) look the part. They don't know the want though, the desperation that had their parents seek a better life. They are, for all intents and purposes, American.
They are the Second Generation. They are my children.
I know the importance of my children learning the language of their father. The difficulty of trying to learn it in school. He sees the importance of learning english and bettering themselves. Most First Generation Parents don't see how important it is to raise their children to learn spanish. They send them to school, where they worry about whether they will be able to keep up and excel, not knowing the language. They may send them to stay with family one summer, so they get an idea of what their parents grew up with, but they push them to speak english. The children do learn English and they learn it well. So well that they no longer use Spanish. They answer their parent's questions in English. Then they grow up, get married (maybe to an american who has no Hispanic connection) and have children.
The Third Generation. My grandchildren.
Who grow up not speaking any spanish except a word here or there to talk with their abuelos. Who know nothing of their grandparents' country.
Who are lost at sea in their grandparents' church.
This information was a revelation. I never really understood how alienated Second and Third Generation Hispanics feel. How my children may one day feel. It's our God-Given responsibility to teach them to serve God. But these children don't really understand the Bible lesson. They may speak the language, but they were never taught to read it. So we begin doing Sunday School in English.
Then they grow up. They go to the main service and are lost.
What do we do now?
Oh, you speak English, find an English-speaking church to go to? Reject them? It's given us as a church much food for thought. In the next 10-15 years, this will be the problem our church faces. Right now our concern is will our children worship, but soon the question will be, Where will our children worship? Will we accomodate them, or remain stubborn, clinging to tradition? I suppose, on some level, it's a question every church faces, even English-speaking ones, but it's one that truly effects immigrant churches. I don't just speak of spanish-speaking, but I know of several other churches, Korean, Filipino, Brazilian...
We are a country of immigrants. It's a valid question.
I was blessed with a revelation.
Now, while I speak the language and almost all of my friends do as well, I still feel different. I'm not an immigrant, I don't know what it was like to grow up with want, to move to a new country with a new language and expect to thrive. My husband does.
There is a whole new generation growing up like me. Maybe they speak language. Maybe they (perhaps not I, though someone did ask if I was Puerto Rican) look the part. They don't know the want though, the desperation that had their parents seek a better life. They are, for all intents and purposes, American.
They are the Second Generation. They are my children.
I know the importance of my children learning the language of their father. The difficulty of trying to learn it in school. He sees the importance of learning english and bettering themselves. Most First Generation Parents don't see how important it is to raise their children to learn spanish. They send them to school, where they worry about whether they will be able to keep up and excel, not knowing the language. They may send them to stay with family one summer, so they get an idea of what their parents grew up with, but they push them to speak english. The children do learn English and they learn it well. So well that they no longer use Spanish. They answer their parent's questions in English. Then they grow up, get married (maybe to an american who has no Hispanic connection) and have children.
The Third Generation. My grandchildren.
Who grow up not speaking any spanish except a word here or there to talk with their abuelos. Who know nothing of their grandparents' country.
Who are lost at sea in their grandparents' church.
This information was a revelation. I never really understood how alienated Second and Third Generation Hispanics feel. How my children may one day feel. It's our God-Given responsibility to teach them to serve God. But these children don't really understand the Bible lesson. They may speak the language, but they were never taught to read it. So we begin doing Sunday School in English.
Then they grow up. They go to the main service and are lost.
What do we do now?
Oh, you speak English, find an English-speaking church to go to? Reject them? It's given us as a church much food for thought. In the next 10-15 years, this will be the problem our church faces. Right now our concern is will our children worship, but soon the question will be, Where will our children worship? Will we accomodate them, or remain stubborn, clinging to tradition? I suppose, on some level, it's a question every church faces, even English-speaking ones, but it's one that truly effects immigrant churches. I don't just speak of spanish-speaking, but I know of several other churches, Korean, Filipino, Brazilian...
We are a country of immigrants. It's a valid question.
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