Risking everything to choose life

LOUISVILLE — On last January’s coldest Sunday — with single-digit windchills and temperatures in the low teens — “M.” and her family sat huddled together near a back pew of Beechmont Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

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They had walked.

But their 1½-mile walk to worship that morning was nothing compared with the dangerous passage they had just endured.

Because “M.” and her children had been threatened with violence in their native country by drug cartels demanding money, she decided to risk everything to seek asylum and start a new life in the United States with her husband and family.

Traveling by foot through six countries, “M.” and her four children had to cross the treacherous Darién Gap — a swampy jungle that connects Panama and Colombia — before eventually reaching Louisville.

“They came to church with all their kids and were warmly welcomed,” said the Rev. Debbie Braaksma, parish associate at Beechmont. “They stayed for our potluck and told us their story.”

“M.” spoke of crossing the jungle without any food or supplies for her frightened family, urging them to keep going — even across a raging river where many had already died — while she carried her disabled, teenaged son on her back.

Beechmont member Sylvette Rivera Pabon came to know “M.” and her two youngest children, “J.” and “D.,” now 13 and 10 years old, when they later enrolled in La Escuelita Learning Hub (ehs – kweh – litah), the congregation’s after-school program, which Rivera directs.

Originally launched by the church and the Presbyterian Hispanic Latino Ministry of Preston Highway, a worshiping community of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, in January 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, today La Escuelita serves some 30 children and youth from refugee and new immigrant families — like “M.’s” — offering them trauma-informed care, including homework help, enrichment activities, ESL assistance and family case management support.

Addressing the needs of just such vulnerable children is what the Pentecost Offering — one of the PC(USA)’s four Special Offerings — is all about. Not only do gifts to the Pentecost Offering benefit children at risk through the “Educate a Child, Transform the World” national initiative, but the Offering also encourages, develops and supports the church’s young people through the Young Adult Volunteer program and the Presbyterian Youth Triennium.

Forty percent of the Pentecost Offering is retained by individual congregations like Beechmont for local ministries such as La Escuelita Learning Hub, while the remaining 60% is used to support children at risk, youth and young adults through ministries of the Interim Unified Agency.

Although the Pentecost Offering may be taken anytime, most congregations receive it on Pentecost Sunday, which this year falls on June 8.

Rivera, a native of Puerto Rico, moved with her husband to Louisville five years ago when he was called to serve at the national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). A certified teacher with more than 20 years of experience, she was attending Beechmont and working as a preschool teacher when she heard that La Escuelita was seeking a full-time director.

“I read everything about La Escuelita, and I felt a different rhythm in my heart,” explained Rivera, who had to overcome her initial reservations due to what she perceived as her limited English proficiency. “But then I thought, ‘I should do this. Let me submit my application!’ And I was right to do so!”

Because Rivera also has experience as a youth counselor, an adult adviser at the Presbyterian Youth Triennium — a PC(USA) gathering for youth held every three years — and as a deacon at her former home congregation in Puerto Rico, she understands her role as director of La Escuelita more holistically.

“I get involved in case management,” said Rivera, who is often called upon to provide transportation, counseling and a variety of other services for the parents of the children in her care. “All the moms feel that if they need something, they can call me or text me. Sometimes when they need to ask me for something, they are afraid. But they still ask because they know I can help.”

The Rev. Dr. Alonzo T. Johnson, coordinator for the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, said that Rivera’s and La Escuelita’s work — which embodies the goals of the PC(USA)’s Educate a Child Initiative under his oversight — is vital to its surrounding communities.

“I have seen the work of nurture, care, compassion and wholeness being fostered by La Escuelita,” Johnson said. “The program’s emphasis on educational access helps to tackle systemic poverty, while their work in counseling, promoting literacy, encouraging artistic expression and promoting overall health is critical in grounding young people and their families with the support needed to live lives of self-determination and wholeness. La Escuelita also understands the importance of promoting diversity, peace and non-violence.”

Since that cold January day, “M.” has become very engaged in both the Presbyterian Hispanic Latino Ministry of Preston Highway and the church, where she has served as a volunteer at Beechmont’s Vacation Bible School and ensures that her children attend Sunday school every week.

“J.” and “D.” also received scholarships last year to Cedar Ridge Camp, a mission and ministry of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, where they attended summer camp and the Tween Retreat.

Braaksma said that La Escuelita Learning Hub and the camp experience were especially transformational for “D.”

“At first, he was crying a lot, but since then, what I can see is that he is more communicative, he’s working better with his peers and he is happy,” she said. “Instead of being sad, now he says, ‘OK, let’s go and play.’ When you bring kids together in a loving setting, change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen.”

And the Pentecost Offering helps to make such positive and lasting change possible.

“I encourage all Presbyterians to give generously to the Pentecost Offering because you can make a considerable difference in the lives of youth at risk,” Johnson said. “Giving to the Pentecost Offering is also a spiritual practice, one which demands us to use our resources to take up the work of bringing Good News to the poor as well as welcoming, loving and affirming all children as Jesus does and calls us to do.”

Support the Educate a Child, Transform the World initiative by giving to the Pentecost Offering.