Societies often scapegoat immigrants for their own failings. Felipe and Sarah Yañez, who work with immigrants in Malaga, provide a useful corrective.
La Cena Tipica – "a taste of heaven"(Photo: © Manuel Romero/CMS)La Cena Tipica: 40 people of 17 nationalities, who speak 8 languages between them, meet in a third-floor church-events room in central Malaga, Spain.
Organised by El Centro Biblico – La Puerta (meaning the Biblical Centre – the Door), the ‘Typical Meal’s’ aim is to celebrate cultural variation by enjoying food and company from different countries.
This gathering of Christians – and a few enquirers – is a regular event held by a local church. Every Sunday now seems a bit like a taste of heaven.
The church has grown out of a project working to support immigrants in practical ways (such as teaching computer, cookery, handicrafts and language skills as well as providing clothes and furniture) and now has two weekly home groups, regular church ‘away days’, services and other church events.
In Spain, as in probably most countries, the immigrant community is often portrayed negatively, especially those who have arrived or stayed illegally for economic reasons.
They are often discriminated against by society – represented as responsible for social unrest, for unemployment, for dirty streets, for increased crime, and so on.
However, as independent journalist Sorious Samura said in his report, shown on BBC’s
Newsnight recently, they are not all drug addicts and criminals; they “just want to work”.
For more information about Sorious Samura's Newsnight report, check out this link. On spending time with some who have moved to Spain – including many young women, who have often left elderly parents or young children and spouses behind, one sees what a blessing this migration of people can be.
In a country in which both partners in the majority of couples need to work to pay the rent or mortgage and which has very few state-run nurseries, there is a need for people willing to provide childcare at low cost.
Where the social care system is often unable to provide enough ‘home care’ for the elderly or disabled, there is a great need for people to ‘live in’ and look after those who need help.
One questions if this is really exploitation, when there are a multitude of people more than willing to do this work so that their children might be able to attend school in their home country, or their mother can pay for a new sofa and curtains?
Being able to work in a more prosperous country can effectively benefit the lives of those living in poverty and hardship in the developing world.
One woman from Equador revealed how hard it was for her to leave her country, but shared her desire to earn enough money for a car so her son can drive to the nearest town to attend university. Without a car, his chances of future work are extremely limited. However, she can’t wait to return home once the money is raised.
Another woman wants to learn Spanish for a couple of years to improve her job prospects in her home country.
Ben, an immigrant worker from the DRC, preaches to other members of 'La Puerta' Church(Photo: © Waldo Yañez/CMS)CMany churches in Spain have grown as a result of immigration and, as Christians, we cannot ignore the tremendous opportunities there are for sharing Christ with those that come to the West.
The seeds that are sown, even in someone who is only met once or twice, are God’s to nurture and grow by his Spirit.
This task is more precious still when those seeds might be sown in someone from a ‘closed’ country, or, better still, taken back into ‘closed’ countries to grow and spread.
Our challenge is to declare our message loudly and clearly to distinguish it from the siren call of other voices promoting consumerism or less worthwhile messages in our society?
A Christian fellowship is rich in community that has enough different languages represented within it that nearly everyone coming through the doors can have a church service translated into a language they understand; where Bibles are always available in different languages to ensure all can engage with the Word of God; where the worship is varied and includes a truly international range of styles of music, song or meditation; where people are freely able to pray out loud, from the depths of their hearts, in their own languages – never mind the richness of national cuisines shared in communion with each other.
Doesn’t that sound like a taste of heaven?
Sarah, Samuel, Aaron and Felipe Yaňez(Photo: © CMS)"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'” (Revelation 7.9)
Felipe and Sarah Yaňez work in refugee and youth ministry in Malaga. They are jointly sent by CMS and SAMS.
They previously served as mission partners in Birmingham. They moved to Malaga in 2007.