I remember back in May of 2005, immediately after we purchased our church building in New Columbia, that it would be neat to have a Latino festival and invite the community to savor our culture, diversity, tradition, music, crafts and of course food. My reach was limited to the space of our parking lot and surrounding area in New Columbia. Back then we were way too busy raising a church, remodeling a building, creating ministry opportunities, so the energy was not there to take that endeavor alone. The idea never fell between the cracks; it basically was a matter of time, space, finances... well, a host of issues and events.
In the summer of 2007, we as a church decided to participate in Milton’s Harvest Festival. It was a point of connection with our sister church, Community Mennonite Fellowship of Milton. We were still a bit busy, but felt it was about time to spread out into the community, connect, get to know the folks, the community, and possibly raise some funds for our ministry. We decided to sell tacos! We also organized a group of young people from our church and, together with Community Mennonite, put together a float to sing, dance, and give free water to parade onlookers.
On the first Saturday of the Harvest Festival, I had a speaking engagement in the Lancaster area; but came at around 1 p.m. to the event. I had just returned the night before from a trip to Germany and was jetlagged, tired, pretty much dragging my feet around at our food stand. That’s when Amy Moyer and Tricia Dreese, Standard Journal, came up and spoke to my wife Maggie about possible exposure for Latinos in the area. I really was paying attention to this and I even suggested some of the things that we could do to connect the cultures in the area.
From that street conversation came a meeting with Amy and Tricia. Oh, the meeting exploded into multiple ideas, people to contact, acts to bring, articles to write, columns, Spanish, culture — all of it. I don’t know how long our meeting lasted, but I was walking on cloud nine when I came out of the meeting.
So we set a date: May 10. We set a theme; “Fiesta de Mayo: Connecting our cultures.” We mentioned to other people and one by one the churches and agencies in the community started to come in and say “I want in.” We are not thinking Shalom’s parking lot any more. We are closing a street, and inviting everyone in the community to come and join us at Fiesta de Mayo.
This is not a festival only for Latinos or Hispanics; this is a festival for the community. We are a part of this community and should celebrate together the diversity that this event would bring here. We recognize that the first year we face many challenges. We are committed as a planning group to make this a great first effort.
Please come and celebrate with us and enjoy a time of connection; listen to our music, flavor our food, taste our culture, and connect to make a stronger community.
— Joe Rosa,
pastor of Congregacion Menonita Shalom