Community Engagement Is Most Effective through Our Weakness - Partnership in Puerto Rico

• Hunger Corp practices asset-based community development (ABCD), which means asking what assets a community already has instead of defining the communities by their needs.
• Community engagement best displays the power of the gospel when we own our brokenness and depend on the strength of Jesus Christ.
• God wants to reconcile every square inch of the universe into a right relationship with him, so the question for us is: “What is God calling me to restore back to him?”

Hunger Corp Website and Instagram

Puerto Rico Partnership Webpage

And we're used to ask people what are their needs, because maybe it's the most evident thing for us. But we knew right away that will carry with us our sin and our saviors complex. And even though we will have good intentions, we will need to repent from the good actions that will have done with the wrong intentions, right?

Well, welcome back to the Grace Church Members Podcast. My name is Scott. I am your host today and a happy summer. Everyone in the studio. I have a couple of special guests. I'm going to start with Joey, his wife Joanna.

Their three kids have been a part of Grace for 22345 years. I've been here 29 and my wife 27 and our kids the whole life. So we could just, this could just be a Joey Espinoza family podcast. There's so many things you guys have been involved in that you could talk about.

But specifically our topic today is our work in Puerto Rico. You're currently serving as an advocate for what we're doing there, helping pull teams together and equip them and even lead some. So tell us a little bit more about that and then I'm going to let you introduce our guest. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah.

So my first trip to Puerto Rico was in 2018, which is about 8 months after Hurricane Maria. It was Grace's first team and love being there that wasn't with Hunger Corps, with another organization, but I've been back four more times with serving with Hunger Core. So after Grace's first trip to Puerto Rico, we were looking for a long term partner, which is key for all of our overseas and local missions as well. And within a year or so, we met Steven Feliciano and we were really just blown away when we heard his story, his humility, his passion, his, his love of Jesus more than anything.

And we got into some discussions and realize this could be someone that we can partner with over the years as a church. And it's been a pleasure. So I've been able to go back four times and serve with hunger core and lead a few of those trips as well too.

And so I, I really enjoyed it. It always, I was telling Steven, it feels always feels like home when I go back there. And part of that is, is the brotherhood that we have, but also seeing the work that they're doing, just like minded. They want to see people come to know Jesus.

And so it's been a joy to serve with them. So yes, Steven Feliciano has been here for a few days and enjoying the time that's been with him and his family, and I'll turn it over to him to introduce what he's doing. Welcome, Steven. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. We're happy.

My family, Eileen, my wife Noah, who's four years old, and Adela, who's nine months. They're enjoying time free from me.

And it's a pleasure to be here. We feel like Grace is truly family. And it's been, it's been an honor to walk with you for the last six years. Six years. Yeah, we're happy to be here for, I don't know, our fifth time. I think so.

That's fantastic. And so tell us a little bit about yourself. Did you grow up in? Puerto Rico, Sure. I'm born and raised Puerto Rican. I have a brother or two siblings born and raised in Manatee, Puerto Rico.

That's in the North Coast of Puerto Rico. Average Puerto Rican that work in a pharmaceutical for 35 years in the 90s in order to make it you, you'll work in a pharmaceutical. And my mom was a social worker in the public education department of Puerto Rico, grew in church. And then I guess I figure out that I wanted to be an engineer because I saw my dad working with a lot of engineers. My brother, he made the same conclusion. He went, he's two years older, went to the West side of the island.

He hated it. He came to the states to become a treaty animator and then went back to Puerto Rico with student loans and the idea of doing standard comedy shows. That was the first bad joke to my dad, All right. And then I went to the same university to and again to be an engineer with this idea of success. And it was there that I met a homeless couple that were drug addicts, took him to my home, gave him clothes, food, and I met Jesus through them and doing life with them. And six months later, he gets killed and he died on his wife's arm.

I block from my apartment. And that changed my life, went back to my hometown. And he said to my brother, you're reaching people in the theaters, you're doing comedy. And they want to join us to do something that is meaningful. And I'm doing life with people that they don't need money, They need relationships, good news and time, and they need the good news of Jesus Christ. I think I don't know why I'm taking a business class because I want to be an engineer, right?

And we can do a nonprofit to bridge the gap between people in the theaters and people in the streets. And that night we founded Hungry. Core Wow. And what year was that? It was 2012 two thousand and May 25th of 2012, OK.

So you and your brother, you guys founded. Yeah. Hunger core. Yeah, Yeah. Tell us before we get into Hunger Core, let's let's talk a little bit about the island. Sure, most people have never been.

They may know someone who's been. They may know someone who's native. But just pretend like we don't know anything. Tell us a little bit about the culture, the life of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico la Isla encanto encant encantement Puerto Rico is a small island, 100 miles by 35 miles. Small island full of color, loud people.

We are, you know, Latinos, we're loud people. If you're going to hear like 2 main music styles is either salsa or reggaeton. I don't like reggaeton that much, right?

Small island divided in 78 municipalities, 78 cities. So we were part, we were Spain's territory before being in US territory. So you're going to see our 78 municipalities having small downtowns and these downtowns will have a square Plaza with the Catholic Church in one side on the City Hall and the other 1-2 authorities back then, right? And then it was where all the city life will happen, right in these downtowns.

So still is that way. We have more than 200 beaches. They're amazing. And you have in the center of the mountains so you can see a lot of green greenery. And then you can find we have the second longest sea of lane in the world. Yeah, till Dubai.

I mean, there's right, it has to be Dubai. And then we have population that is been, I think it's around 3 million people are going to be less than that. And yeah, we're and we're your citizens. We use dollars. We have Costco, Chick-fil-A and Walmart, but we have our own culture. We speak Spanish and and then we're allowed and we eat lots of carbs.

So it's a mix of it's, we're Latin American country, but yeah, you're going to see some similarities. So we've got mountains and beaches, we've got good music and good food and friendly people. Yeah. Tell me, tell us about the economic condition of a lot of these municipalities. Yeah, Puerto Rico. I think like many other places, you can have kind of an idea of what a place is, but if you go and, and go deep enough, where are you do the the due diligence?

I'm going to find that there's some deeper issues that want people expect. So even though we have like beautiful music and when that music fades away, there's a reality in our island. It's in the Caribbean.

So it's basically is been hit by natural disasters almost every year. So last big disaster was in 2017 here at Camarillo. So that brought a new reality to our island. We had the hurricane followed by another storm to expire to Hurricane Madea.

So we're recovering when an island that is recovering. So there's a lot of things that are needed like economic development, educational development. So even though our island is is beautiful, schools have been closed. It's hard. I think someone one study said that is a representing Puerto Rico is the hardest city to do business in compared to all US nation.

So a lot of things that needs to be done. We're the country with more churches per square mile in the world. So most of those Catholic, Catholic churches. There's a big mix between Catholic and Pentecostal churches, small Pentecostal churches in the mountains and in lots of neighborhoods, and then Catholic churches in the center of the downtowns and being more the culture, being Catholic. And then you have like a growing population of Pentecostal churches in the 90s. OK, yeah.

So you found Hunger Core 2012. 2012. 2012, so that's 13 years ago now. I'm sure it's it's taken some different pathways to get to the point now where so if someone goes on a trip, let's say they fall 2025, spring 2026, what are they going to see Hunger Core emphasizing when they go join you guys in Puerto Rico. So yeah, you're right, we've changed the time. First five years we were basically mobilizing Puerto Rican volunteers to some parts of Latin America to serve. We saw God's Providence, Hurricane Maria as a moment to pivot as a ministry and focus just in Puerto Rico.

Just in Puerto Rico. Yeah. And we chose to work with local churches and embrace an asset based community development approach. It's basically seeing the communities through the lenses of their resources and other needs.

So. Say that again. So an asset based. Community. Community development approach. Yeah, it's an ABCD. It's we don't have to reinvent the wheel, right?

We're used to go to communities and when I say we ministries, nonprofits, churches, right? And we're used to ask people what are their needs because maybe it's the most evident thing for us. But we knew right away that we'll carry with us our sin and our saviors complex. And even though we will have good intentions, we will need to repent from the good actions that will have done with the wrong intentions, right?

So I remember us starting to meet one of the communities and my pastor saying, Steven, I just need you to remember that is going to be not through our victories or but to our failures that we're going to showcase the gospel because it's going to be through our willingness to repent in front of the community that we're going to have the opportunity to talk about the story that is rarer than ours, right, the gospel. So we chose to embrace that model. We can make a lot of mistakes. We have stories of where when we didn't do it and how we affected the community and how we needed to repent and then start all over again.

And it's harder, it's less flashy, but it was built on a model. A commitment that we chose to do is committing to underserved communities for a minimum of five years, seeing them through the lenses of the resources and try to do a relational mission and not a transactional. So asset based community development, ABCD, not as flashy, harder, yeah, but it really it plays to the sustainability, which I know is a central tenet of your mission. It's probably slower. Way slower, yeah.

But you're emphasizing the relationships. Tell us a little bit more about how, what does that look like with homes, with schools, with businesses? Because right now you've have you guys centered in to one specific town or city. Yeah we're in one city OK and enjoy his lead teams and we've been open with everyone and share things that we have learned. I can I think the best way to explain it is through you know some cases that we have done. Yeah first family that we were going to help in we we chose to commit to a committee called out Amiga and Grace was part of this since the beginning.

We stood with there for five years and Puerto Ricans. We invite ourselves to homes. We just ask for coffee and we're I have bread, right? We have coffee.

So and then first we're strangers, then two weeks later we're best friends, right? So we went to La Amiga and for like 3 months and some churches commit alongside hunger to walk with this community. So we started with a family, single mom for kids. She started with the foundation and some walls. And I remember we read 1 Helping Herds and we, you know, toxic charity and many, you know, we thought, I thought I was like super equipped to do it. And we, I remember saying it's going to be a quick win.

We're going to build trust with the community, with partners, with, with our staff, because we were used to do it in other parts of the world, but not in Puerto Rico. So we finished the house in four months. We, I remember saying we're not going to add to the house because adding to the house is like saying to her, you didn't dream big enough, right?

So we're all about dignity. So when we finished the house, I thought I was cheap Gaines and I was like, you know, giving the house away. We had music, it was someone with a hunger shirt giving the keys. It was not me. I thought I was humble. The whole community was there.

We had food, everything. So we gave the house away. New fridge, new stove, I mean new everything. We were proud about the work that we did with volunteers and for the next 6 years the house was empty.

And if you ask me, I'll be honest, I think it was because of ice in what when I was saying is it was going to be a quick win. What I was really saying I think it was that I want to build a name for hunger myself and I didn't want I was not care about people's story. So since that day we say that service without relationship is just a transaction and transactions they don't transform people. Relationships do transform people and actually the gospel is a relational story is not a transactional 1.

So we chose then to do another approach. We'll stop all of our service weeks like you guys do with us Thursday and do a barbecue. And people were like, we want to finish that bathroom, right? It's just like 2 hours more. And you had like guys a little bit mad like cooking barbecue and like chicken and burgers and they were like it. It felt like we were losing our time, but we were building relationships.

Some months later, we met Rafa, who was a guy in his 70s, depressed, no haircut, always in his wheelchair in his entrance door. So Eileen and I, my wife and I, we went there and we said, we want to know your story. 2 hours sharing his story. And then we said, you're going to be next. We're going to do it with you, not for you. What resources do you have? And he was like, ah, he was, he's grumpy.

I just received $300 a month. I don't have resources. And it was an opportunity for us to say our faith informs everything that we do. And we believe that you have resources. You were created with skills and talents and relationships. You're not alone.

So we did this awkward silence. And then Rafa stands up. I didn't know he could walk. And he goes to his bedroom and he brings a wood pallet table and a wood pallet chair. And he says, I can do this furniture. I used to work in a furniture, a furniture factory.

So in two weeks we put a 20 footer container with tools, went to visit him, he had a haircut. His living room was a chop workshop and he comes from his bedroom with two designs of two tables of two chairs that we finance his whole house with the furniture that we sold. No. Maybe some windows, but we haven't seen the wheelchair in five years. And. Then he kept doing furniture pieces even though when we finished the house, one day I pass by and he stops me and he says like, look what I bought with the money that I made.

And he goes to his bedroom and brings me a big Bible with this letters this big, right? And he's like, I'm in my process, but I'm reading it everything. So I will learn that there's two things we don't have to help God, right? We just have to be obedient there. And then it will make a difference if we look people as Jesus, look at them through the lenses of their resources. And those are like 2 cases that we've learned the hard way with one and the other one will steal.

Like enjoy sharing their. Story Yeah, no, that's, that's a good, that's a good comparison or good contrast. So, Joey, when you have gone on the trips and you kind of enter into this story that hunger cores created, what's been your experience? Have you been able to see the relational side of things? Yeah, yeah, for sure. First of all, just even being with the Hunger Core team.

So Steven and and the staff at Hunger Core, you know, just is always, again, it feels like going home when I'm there and the relationship we have there. But then getting to know the homeowners, that's always a treat, whether it's Adris sharing her story or working with Megali. I mean, Megali's the, that was where who we worked with a couple weeks ago and she's down in the trench laying blocks, putting on mortar, everything like that.

So this is the homeowner. This is the homeowner. Yeah, yeah. It's actually a for, for her father right next door. But she lives right next door that she is down building the home with us.

And so it doesn't feel like we're going to do on our own to do for her. We're doing with her. And that's the same way we feel about Hunger Core as well, too, that we're, they're, they're, they're doing the work that God has called him to do. And we get to serve with them and alongside them. And, but it's always put for me personally, like I would say because I, yeah, I like certainty. I like control.

I like how things are the same. And every time I've gone to Puerto Rico, God shows me or does something different. And it's a great reminder for me that I'm not in control. And that's a good thing that God's at work in Puerto Rico, in Greenville, all over the world. And it's a pleasure to be a part of that.

But I would say, and, and then even that is, well, I think of an example like like Julio and he's one of the field leaders. So one of the great things about serving in Puerto Rico's, like me, you don't have to have skills. You don't have to have any kind of home building skills because they have team leaders there, field leaders who can teach you everything you need to know.

And so I can go but, but Julio, not only is he good, but he what he does, but he does it because he loves God. And so he explains that he might come behind you and, and correct your work or teach you how to do it better, but it's not, it's not to make you feel bad. What Julio says is God gave me his best when he sent Jesus.

And so when I work on a home, I want to give the homeowner the best because God gave me the best. And it's a great reminder for me because that's not true for me in Puerto Rico. That's true for everything I do in Greenville, you know, whether it's at my job or serving on Sunday mornings with my family, with my money, with everything we do that OK, if God gave me his best, I need to give my best as well.

So it's a it's a great reminder that I got even just a few weeks ago in Puerto Rico. Yeah. It says a lot about the culture that you've created. Joey, let's put a little more color on the trip. How many people are we talking about? Yeah, our teams are usually between 15 and 25, you know, so we aim for, you know, 18 or 20 is a good sized team, but we can do a little more.

I know Hunger Corps is equipped to do bigger teams than that. So we wouldn't have a problem with that. It's it's a week long, so we typically leave on Saturday to we fly to Greenville on Saturday and come back on the next Friday with their.

So we have the weekend first. So we we worship on Sunday morning when you know, the next day and have some free time and then we get to work on Monday morning. Four days of work. Yeah, four days or or 3 1/2 and then we we have fun or build some relationships. You know, that's different for each team. Sometimes we do work a little longer.

Last year was special. We actually went with the home owner, with Adris and and her sons and went to a coffee shop and had coffee and desserts with them. And that was just a treat. That was just to be able to hang out with them and fellowship that doesn't feel like we're accomplishing.

But the relationship that we built with her was. Great. Engage the homeowners are that's that's such a such a telling part of the ministry. Steven, tell us a little bit more.

So we've talked a lot about homes. What role does home ownership play in changing cycles of generational poverty? Some that I think we might take for granted here in the States.

Yeah, sure. It's been progressive on our side to learn how to do it right now what we again, we have to be consistent of having the right approach. And it's not only trying to implement an ABCD, but it's a biblical one, right?

So what we ask people is to that we're going to walk alongside them. We consider ourselves as when we go to the community as students, not as teachers. So there's there's an author that I like that he says that people they need, they don't need heroes, they need peers.

So we go as peers. So that means you're going to invest either in sweat equity or another kind of investment. We we'll leave. That's dignifying.

So it's a case by case, but we have cases like Camilo and Josie, who they're they were healthy and they couple that could do something and invest. I don't know, social workers, they go through an evolution and we get to an agreement that they're going to be invest X amount of hours of work or a mix of they wanted like really beautiful windows. We do the the basic ones now. We were like, sure, that's kind of empowerment, right? You want to feel good about your home.

So we're we're not covering that cost, right. And until you you bring those windows, we're going to be either stopping the project. It's up to you.

So it's a, it's not like one-size-fits-all. But then we have cases like Jensen, who invested more than 1000 hours of Labor in his home. So again, Magali, who is the case and the person that we're the family that we're helping now, her father is 83 years old. He has dementia. One resource that he has is his daughter who is healthy who we believe God wants to work in her life and by inviting her to be part of our staff. She's always on the field because she's investing half of her time is volunteer labor and half of her time we're paying her because we we believe is dignifying.

When teams leave, she help us clean vans and go to the airport and she joins our staff. The whole purpose that we what we do, this is not only because we believe is dignifying is because we want to have a relational equity with with the people that we serve. So the more time that we spend together, not only they're going to see things that maybe they'll desire, but they're going to see also things that are going to let them know that we're broken. And if they see something that is beautiful or desirable, our goal will be not for them to think that we're perfect because we're super broken.

It's that we need God, right? And if you see each other asking for forgiveness, or if you see each other being merciful to 1 and each other, we hope that you get to the conclusion that is not because of our strength, but it's because of the good news of Jesus Christ. But what you're describing is this much bigger holistic picture than just sharing the four spiritual laws or the Roman road or a testimony. I mean, this is not just sharing the gospel in the way that people might think about, you know, what it means to to talk about the hope that they have in Jesus.

Like you're living it right through relationships, but also as you're working hard and and building a home that is going to help change possibly generations of a family help us get over. Sometimes we have this divide between the church work and non church work, or sacred work and non sacred or secular work. How do you understand that? How do you explain that to your teams that are coming in?

So every every Monday night we go and share our vision and I share a way more a longer version of this, but we happen to share with people that we serve. That Bible is a it's a book that you open it and there's a creator creating everything. And at the end of every day he said it was good. And at the end of his creation, he says things were really good. It was like really really enjoy what he created. Closest word is the Shalom.

It was perfect. Then the fall and four relationships were broken with God, running away from God with self feeling ashamed and naked with others, with Aiden saying that woman that you gave me and with creation. And right away comes this greater. There comes a prophecy that someone is going to come. And then the Old Testament is full of stories of nation called Israel. God gave him the law to live in a way that they didn't did.

And let's say you're a farmer and you don't pick the crops in the other part so widows and orphans and foreigners can come and have something to eat. So all of a sudden this Kingdom behaves different than other people. And by the way, this Kingdom has a king that lives in a tent, right? And is not human. And then these people are called to forgive each other. That's on the 7th year.

And then the whole purpose it was for nations that were surrounding Israel to look at them and say I don't get everything that they do. Somehow women, they look happier, they're valued. And if you leave your land rest on the 7th year, you're a fool.

But somehow their crops are good. The whole idea was for people to say, I don't get everything that they do, but if they're like that, I want to know they're king. So somehow this Israel was this group of firefighters that received a call that there's a building in flames and they break the window and they come to save people and they're trapped and they need to be saved. That's you and that's I. And here comes the perfect Israelite. It was not Moses who people thought he was the perfect deliverer, but he fell short.

David who was a perfect king and he fell short. Samson who was a perfect judge and he fell short. It was the one who who the prophecies were speaking about. And he lived the life that unite should live and we didn't live and he suffers that that unite should suffer and we didn't. He dies on the cross and he rose again. And now he's inviting not only Jews, but everyone that puts their faith in him to the reconcile the ministry of of reconciliation. That means to put everything in the right relationship with the father again, because guess what, at the end of the book, he's going to restore everything.

So if you see the Bible, that big story that way, it means that this creator won't rest until he restores everything. That means everything. Some theologians say, right? Every square inch of the universe. God is saying it's mine. It'll make sense that every area, every dynamic of life.

It's something that God wants to put in the right relationship with the Father again, we just ask have to ask ourselves what are you calling me to restore? What are you calling me to put in the right relationship with you And also as a ministry. It became evident that it was three things, a social development, economic development, and educational development in our city.

But it means that if if someone it's an accountant, God is calling that calling that person to put things in the right relationship with the Father. Again, it's just like we as an as a ministry, as a nonprofit, we're choosing to work with local churches and say we're going to do maybe the heavy lifting in terms of hats, hands on work with teens like Christchurch building, getting community equity, showing the community love. We're mentoring small business owners.

But at the end of the day, what we're doing is empowering the local church to shepherd people because we believe that is as as important as to restore a small business and for a small business in our city to thrive as our souls under eternity. So we're not, we're trying not reinvent the wheel, but we're trying is just to be obedient. Yeah, every square inch is being restored, and you're just taking responsibility for whatever God's put in front of you. One municipality at a time, one household at a time, one relationship at a time.

Yeah, and one team at a time. So how are we seeing this Joey affect the folks of Grace Church as they go? Yeah, You know, I think for us it's this is a huge discipleship opportunity. Like I part of the reason that we go and I, I'm, I want people to go, it's just for their own spiritual growth. I've seen that in my life. I would say of being at Grace Church, you know, 29 years mission trips are probably one of the top two things that God has used to help me grow in my relationship with Jesus.

A lot of that for me and it probably for other people at Grace churches because we're not in control and we can't make things happen. We are not going to, we can't send enough teams to Puerto Rico to solve the poverty problem and to build houses that we can't do that. But God is at work. Like that's not actually not the goal, but God uses that just to remind us, OK, we're out of control. We are not the like the word you use, Steve, and we're not the saviors. We can't go do that.

And we have to realize that that we have to. It's a humbling experience and it's a way for us to trust God. So I think that's one of the main reasons. I think another reason is, is obviously God is at work in Puerto Rico and we have the pleasure of being a part of that, that, yeah, God's at work there and we get to join in with that. One of the things, and I, I probably heard it from you or one of your, one of one of the staff of Hunger Core is one of the goals is for all these homeowners to see hundreds of people, hundreds of, of white people mostly are coming from United States because they love God and they want you to love God as well too.

And that's a very tangible way to see that because we may not keep the relationship with that homeowner, but you guys will. And part of their testament, part of the witness to them is that all these people came because they love Jesus. So maybe this Jesus is worth thinking about. Maybe I should like Rapha. Maybe I should get get a Bible and read about this Jesus that all these people believe in. And that's why they came and worked on the House with that.

Yeah, and and some people wrestle with the idea of short term trips and they say, oh, you go for a week and you think you transform a whole community or a family and I get it. But you're doing a short term trip based on a long term commitment. Our staff even though you guys leave on Friday, our staff is there next Monday. Having volunteers were just our staff.

So what maybe what what you don't realize is that having such a small us being such a small ministry, 7 people and staff having group of churches coming like week after week with receive more than maybe 5000 volunteers in the last seven years. It gives us as a ministry a relational capital in the city that just the seven of us we can't. So for for us, not only like spending time with you, it's a joy growing spiritually is a joy you feel and you you expand the scope that we can have as a ministry just by through presents, right, by having a coffee in blooming cup in the coffee shop that we're mentoring, just by building a home. Like I I was, I was last week in the Barber shop this last week to come here.

So I was there and the Barber, we just we moved to the city that we're serving and and he was like, oh, so is there a house? You guys are building a house down there? I was like, yeah, sure. It was AI think it was a grace team that was there. And he was like, what you guys are doing is amazing. And you guys did, you did another one on the street that was out there.

I was, yeah. And he was like, so it's amazing that work that you guys are doing. How do you guys choose people? And and all of a sudden, if it's just the seven of us like people, we don't do it to be seen, right?

But just to be witnesses of what he's doing through his church is amazing. And it, it's we can't do that. And, and again, it's not up to us, right? It's just God, God doing the work.

But it's a short term trip based on a long term commitment in a multi year kind of commitment with the city that makes a difference. And also because not only you guys come as a church, but we're working with local churches than to shepherd the people that were impacted. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and you said it like you don't do it to make hunger course scene. You guys are doing it to make Jesus scene and that only happens because of 5000 people, 700 people a year or whatever it is that come down there and now there's OK, people notice that, people in the town notice that.

They start asking questions. Well, yeah, you have to do it the right way. Yeah. And when you don't do it the right way, you have to. You have to repent. You have to apologize.

And I love that part of your story. Yeah. Good name is good name is better than fine riches. Thanks. Proverb says a little something about that. Yeah.

And, and I think you would say this. And so our family has been on the other end of being the people that receives teams. And it seems like for you and, and, and for your team, like there's an encouragement, like I remember for us when we were serving on mission for several years when people came down and reminded us that we're not alone, that God sees you, right? You, your team of seven, and there's your family, right? And it's, sometimes it's, it's hard and you forget and you just think we're alone and we're tired and we're exhausted.

And why are we doing this? And then when people keep coming down, it reminds, Hey, God sees what you're doing and he wants to, he wants to remind you, you're not alone in this. And so for our team to go down there and to spend a week with other believers who are doing God's work, like we wanted to be an encouragement to you that hey, we're, we're here because God loves you and we get the fellowship together. And that's just a foretaste of But we'll have an eternity when we'll all speak the same language, or at least understand each other.

That's right. Yeah. And I often say to to Eileen, my wife, that I think my job is to go every Monday to meet teams, share the vision, show where we're going to go as an organization, as a ministry, then go back that Monday night. And once my head hits the pillow, I'm like, are we? Can we? And that's kind of a kind of a week after week, right?

But yesterday I was at at Grace Church at downtown. And a guy comes to me. He might be in his late 60s. And he said, I was two weeks ago there. It was my first time. And he was like, his eyes were teary. And he was like, it transformed my life.

I said to him, thank you. Because hunger is now in a restructuring process, right? It's been a year and a half in the making.

Now we're the board approve our restructuring and we're going to have another year and a half or two years to see the results. I was like, I needed to hear that right, because as you guys do ministry, grace is is a big church and you guys are impacting lots of people. It's our identity come from Christ, right?

But it's just there's a mystery that happens when God's people get together that it, it's hard to explain. And for us, because we're not a local church, hunger court, we work with local churches. Sometimes it can feel isolating because we don't have a, a like a weekly service, right? It's when teams like you guys come. And then there's there's something special also about churches like you guys that have worked with us for six years, not only volunteers coming, it's like volunteers coming for the third, the 4th time.

You're like, we don't deserve right. You're coming to Puerto Rico so many times. So it's, it's a for us, it's a blessing. Yeah. When we started with the question was what's the purpose of this conversation? And I told you guys I would love for us to have a wait list of people to join these trips.

And I do. I do want that. I want them to contact Joey. I want them to contact Samantha Chapman. But here's actually what I want now, more than that, I want people to be able to examine their own resources and their own relationships that they have, what God has given them and see the goodness of God and all of that. And see what is in front of them, The territory that is in front of them, where God is claiming every single inch for his restoration Kingdom and to to be good stewards of that.

And sometimes we need to go on a mission to be able to get clearer on the mission that God has given us in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces. And so sometimes getting on an airplane is what jolts us to see the goodness of God in our own backyard. And so that might be you, probably is you.

But if you don't get to go to Puerto Rico for another six months, don't miss the opportunities that are right in your backyard to just to to be a a gospel influencer with words, with deeds, with your relationships, with your actions, with your humility, and with your confidence that only comes from the Savior that Steven is so eloquently remind us of. What else guys? As we wrap up, anything else we want to add? No, just two things. I just want to say thank you. It's always felt with Grace Church, that is not a transactional thing.

It's always felt like it's, it's relational. That's the reason why we're here this week just to spend time with you guys. And then last thing is we can't mean is that this is kind of the wounded healer story, right? While he's calling and maybe he's putting your heart to go to Puerto Rico or to I know you guys have all their trips right to other places. He's he's he's in the business of restoring one of those four relationships that were broken, but God with self, with others, our creation. The question that you have to ask yourself is that I encourage you to ask yourself is what is it broken and what are you calling me to put in the right relationship with with you again, right.

And then through through Holy Spirit and the work of that he does in his church and through his people. I'm sure that he's going to, he's going to finish that what he started in your life. To that effect, would you pray for our church? Sure. Just close our time and pray that we would be attuned to those four things. Amen.

Yeah, sure God is. It's I just I don't deserve to be here. I don't our family doesn't deserve to be loved and care for us as you've done through through this amazing church. And actually that's that's kind of a whole point. You're constantly doing things for us that we didn't deserve. And that's the story of the gospel.

And I'm just glad that this church, I think, embodies and priests this. I just ask you that you keep listening, Grace. You can keep putting their hearts, their agenda, their congregation, their people, things that are not in the right relationship with you, that you keep using them to impact their city, and that you remind each one of them that you're going to restore everything and you're using broken vessels like us to do it. What an amazing privilege to do it. Me as a Puerto Rican brother in Christ, I'm just, I'm just happy to see how they're sending their people to our island.

I'm just grateful. Just ask you that you keep blessing them as a church, keep them grounded in your word and keep them, keep sending them to Puerto Rico to enjoy, have fun and see more people like Magalis, like Rafa, like Camilo, like Josie being transformed not by us, but by the power of the word name. I pray. Amen.