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Covenant Pastors Attend Hispanic Prayer Breakfast
CHICAGO, IL (June 14, 2006) - Approximately 30 pastors and other leaders of the
Evangelical Covenant Church attended the Hispanic National Prayer Breakfast and
Conference June 6-8 in Washington D.C., where they discussed issues ranging from
church planting to an HIV/AIDS initiative. They also met with Congressional
representatives.
President Bush addressed Thursday's prayer breakfast and focused on
immigration. He again called on Congress to enact a guest worker program as part
of an overall reform package.
"When I was governor of Texas, I reminded people, family values do not stop
at the Rio Grande River," Bush said, according to a transcript released by the
White House. The audience applauded when he added, "There are people who are
coming to our country who are doing jobs Americans are not doing.
"And we need a legal and orderly system," Bush continued. "If we want to
enforce the border, we must have a system that says you don't have to sneak
across our border in order to find work. You don't need to risk your life."
Senators Edward Kennedy and John McCain also attended the breakfast. "That
was a surprise," says Ed Delgado, the Covenant's director of prayer and
evangelism.
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was the featured speaker at Tuesday night's
dinner when conferees focused on the National Hispanic HIV/AIDS Initiative. The
initiative will educate clergy to help them stem the continuing spread of the
disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Hispanics made up roughly
20 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases in 2002, despite comprising only 14 percent of
the population.
Covenanters from eight states attended the conference: California, Illinois,
Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and Indiana. Eight hundred
people attended the conference, according to La Esperanza, the faith-based
Hispanic advocacy organization that sponsored the event.
Covenant leaders included Gary Walter, executive minister of the Department
of Church Growth and Evangelism; Dave Olson, national director of church
planting; Walter Contreras and Wayne Carlson, directors of church planting for
the Pacific Southwest Conference; and Larry Sherman, director of church planting
for the Great Lakes Conference.
Olson gave a presentation on church planting to Hispanic pastors from across
the country. Contreras led the California delegation in meeting with the state's
senators and representatives. The conference "helped our Hispanic leadership and
others to better understand the importance of civic responsibility and
advocacy," Contreras says.
"It was an incredible conference, very inspiring" says Delgado. "There was a
lot to take from it."
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