La Mesa Ministry and Calendar/Ministerio y calendario de La Mesa
Whats happening this Fall with La Mesa?
The upcoming cycle of La Mesa ESL classes will run from September 8th through December 15th, for 15 weeks of classes. Classes will be on Sundays from 6-7:30pm and include a free dinner afterwards for students and volunteers. We are currently seeking additional volunteers to help with food and to assist with and facilitate classes (we can provide some training). We are also seeking meal donations (this would mean providing food for 50-60 people) and/or cash donations to be used towards food. Please reach out to [email protected] if you would like to volunteer and/or donate. We will do special activities on October 27th (Day of the Dead); during Thanksgiving week (date TBA); on December 8th (a mass for the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe); and on December 18th (a celebration of Las Posadas). Everyone in St. Margaret’s community is welcome to join us for these celebrations!
by Leslie Weimer
Our La Mesa ministry, which is intended to teach English and Spanish and forge new friendships and communities, runs from January to April and September to November. Communities are being built, English and Spanish are improving for all, and the love of Christ is evident in each gathering. Many of our ESL students began the classes with some trepidation and reservations, but now they’re becoming more confident, developing new friendships, and learning English. Several members of La Mesa have started coming to St Margaret’s church services on a regular basis. The students are doing so well that we’ve decided to continue the classes on Sundays between the regular sessions. The summer classes will be mostly conversational, informal, and tailored to their requests or needs. We do not have the budget for dinners so we will offer the classes from 4- 5:30 PM on Sundays and we will provide snacks. If anyone would like to donate snacks it would be appreciated. The students are excited about continuing their learning during the summer and participating in a few special activities. Gracias.
WHAT IS LA MESA?
St. Margaret’s has multiple ministries under the umbrella of “La Mesa,” which means The Table. La Mesa includes two ten-week cycles of English and Spanish classes each year, which give students the opportunity to learn each language and then practice over a shared meal, at the table. La Mesa also includes several bilingual masses throughout the year in which the rector leads much of the mass and the Eucharist in Spanish while lay persons read Scripture and the prayers of the people alternating in both languages. The sermon is pre-recorded in Spanish by clergy from around the Episcopal Church and a brief translation is given in English after the recording is played during the mass. In the summer and holiday seasons, La Mesa hosts conversation circles that allow students to continue to engage in language and cultural activities and special celebrations such as the feast of the Virgin de Guadalupe, Las Posadas, and Tres Reyes.
We now offer:
Level 1: beginners in English
Level 2: students who can understand some English but need a lot of speaking practice and higher level of grammar
Level 3: advanced conversation for English learners and Spanish learners
Every Sunday at 6pm / todos los domingos a las 6pm
Watch a video about the La Mesa Ministry at St. Margaret’s
NEEDS
As our La Mesa ministry grows, we have some needs:
1) $20 donations to cover the cost of books for some of our students – some can pay for their books and some are unable to. We do our best to keep the cost of our classes to “free” so that finances are not an obstacle for anyone to learning English and forming relationships in the community. We never want a student to feel pressured to pay for a book or for a class.
2) some meal supplements – right now we pay a local Hispanic caterer $300/week to cover dinner for 30-40 people but more and more people are showing up. We would love to continue to invest in this local business at $300/week (which is what we have currently budgeted for) but also add some food donations to our meals in the form of a pot of red beans and rice; jambalaya; lasagna; spaghetti; etc. (a pot or pan of food we can add to our meal for the week that can go a long ways). Would you be willing to cook one of these dishes one week? Most of the meal is already covered…we are just looking to add a surplus dish to ensure we always have enough to cover unexpected new arrivals.
Financial donations can be made to St. Margaret’s – put “La Mesa books” in the message box.
https://www.saintmargarets.com/support-st-margarets
History
In February 2022 at our annual retreat, we cast a vision for a ministry that would invite our Hispanic siblings into fellowship with us at St. Margaret’s. Our initial thoughts were that this should be something to do with language and cultural exchange, and that food should be involved. Thus, La Mesa (which translates to “The Table”) was born. Over the past year we have quietly been laying the foundation for this ministry, which publicly kicked off with our first round of classes on January 15th, 2023.
Some of this foundational work included:
*5 people received training via the Episcopal Latino Ministry Competency Course during 2022 and 2023!
*Multiple meetings with Elmer Romero, from Houston, to learn more about teaching language classes and think about curriculum development.
*Multiple meetings with our larger leadership team to decide on the format for the classes and handle details such as advertising, food, childcare, etc.
*Using the Beer and Hymns event as our first fundraiser to have some seed money.
*Ultimately raising $12,000 (praise God for people’s generosity!) for our first full year of ministry (2023).
*Planning and carrying out cultural exchange activities for our church family including the altar for the Day of the Dead and bilingual masses and feasts for Our Lady of Guadalupe and Las Posadas. More than 40 people attended each of our bilingual masses in December, and a group of 20+ put together the altar, which remained up for a couple of weeks in October/November.
We began meeting and learning English and Spanish on January 8th.
*We meet at St. Margaret’s on Sundays from 6-8pm for 15-week sessions. Each week of class includes around 30-40 participants total (a mix of native English and Spanish speakers seeking to learn the other language).
*We continue to seek people who can help prepare meals for La Mesa (plan to feed 30-40 people). We also need childcare volunteers to help watch children during the classes. We are also looking for language teachers – those with experience teaching ESL / Spanish – interested in volunteering and assisting with ongoing curriculum development.
For more information please contact our co-leaders: Danielle Miembre via email by clicking HERE or Handy Acosta by clicking HERE
To donate towards the La Mesa Ministry, please click HERE and make a donation. Please put La Mesa Ministry in the “Message” line.