| Hispanic ministries celebrated by Melissa Lauber UMConnection Staff  Hispanic United Methodists are transformado para transformar transformed to transform the Rev. Yolanda Pupo-Ortiz told worshipers who gathered to celebrate Hispanic ministry within the Baltimore-Washington Conference. The conference Hispanic Ministries Committee held a worship service, dinner and cultural party Oct. 6 at First UMC in Hyattsville that drew more than 150 people, the largest ever gathering for an Hispanic ministries event in the conference, said associate council director, the Rev. Ed DeLong. As part of the worship, the people vowed in Spanish and English to believe for those who do not believe, to love for those who do not love and to dream for those who do not dream until the day when hope becomes a reality. Pupo-Ortiz, an associate general secretary for the denominations Commission on Religion and Race, challenged those present to come before God just as they are and to be ready to grow from glory to glory. We are transformed by God to be instruments of transformation, she said. Our call is to go out and answer the question, Where is God in the midst of this? Bishop Felton Edwin May celebrated communion at the worship service. In recent years the Baltimore-Washington Conference has gone through a transformation in how it does ministry with the Hispanic community. This fall, the Rev. Willie Caraballo-Lopez Jr. was hired as Hispanic ministries coordinator for the conference. An on-going relationship with Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C., is being nurtured and new Hispanic ministries in non-Hispanic churches are being developed. Currently, the conference is committing resources and energies to reaching out to Hispanics at First UMC in Hyattsville and Emory UMC in Washington, D.C. These non-Hispanic congregations are making significant contributions toward meeting the needs of the Hispanic communities in their neighborhoods, said DeLong. At the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, people were present representing First UMC, Emory and Casa del Pueblo UMCs in Washington, D.C. , the Bethesda Hispanic Mission, and Ministerio de Baltimore, as well as ministries from Virginia. Caraballo-Lopez stressed that all Hispanic ministry is multicultural. This was shown during worship which began with a parade of flags representing people from South and Central American countries and the Caribbean. The needs of this diverse Hispanic community are difficult to ignore, Caraballo-Lopez said. You would have to be intentional not to see it. He is enthusiastic about the conferences unfolding response to the need. Im celebrating our witness, he said. Something good is happening. The church will not be the same. | 
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