NEW ORLEANS – Thirty-four Florida Baptist Hispanic pastors and volunteers joined with Hispanic Baptists from throughout the nation to share the gospel in New Orleans June 9-11.
Their efforts were a part of Crossover, an evangelistic outreach initiative designed to saturate the host city of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting with the gospel in the days leading up to the SBC gathering.
Pastor Eloy Rodriguez of Idlewild en Español in Tampa took a group of 34 pastors and volunteers from Florida for the event. The group went door to door evangelizing, feeding and praying with families in communities throughout New Orleans in partnership with local Hispanic churches. The group was divided into several teams that worked a total of six projects in partnership with 13 local churches: La Viña Kenner, La Viña Westwego, Emanuel, Jesucristo para las Naciones, Maranatha, El Buen Pastor, Horeb, Horeb Chalmette, Lugar Seguro, Getsemani, Cristo Redentor, Buenas Nueva and El Camino.
Rodriguez, who also serves as president of the National Hispanic Baptist Network, has been participating in Crossover for 23 years and is faithful to take a group from Florida each year.
During this year’s event, the group served 2,500 meals, shared the gospel with more than 1,000 people and prayed with 100 people who made professions of faith.
Edda Ramos, one of the Florida Baptist missionaries, said that her favorite moment was when she spoke with a little girl who made a profession of faith. Ramos also shared that as the missionaries spoke Spanish, community residents opened their doors and were willing to engage in conversation.
The Florida pastors were Roberto Yera, University Baptist Church in Orlando; Angel Bermudez, Iglesia Bautista Dios es Bueno in Daytona Beach; Rafael Sanchez, Iglesia Bethel in Tampa; Carlos Diaz, Comunidad Cristiana in Tampa and JR Pagan, Iglesia Bautista of Naples.
