Finding a Church Home and Gospel Freedom at RPC

This testimony of God’s faithfulness was shared by longtime RPC members Vicente and Gloria Jaime in Sunday morning worship on Redeemer’s 19^th anniversary in February.

Gloria: Hello, we are Gloria and Vicente Jamie, and we are going to share little bit of what God has been doing in our lives here at Redeemer.

My family and I came to this church 10 years ago. The first Sunday we came something unexpected and very meaningful happened. A lady approached me and told me something in English, which I did not understand. However, she was so kind that I said “yes”. Then my daughter told me, “You just accepted an invitation to have lunch at this lady’s house.”

That first Sunday we had lunch at the house of Terry George and we had a beautiful time. That was one the things that had a great impact on me and made me think that we really had come to a place where God would teach us many things, among them a Gospel based on grace, a place where God would shape our lives and our faith and would greatly bless us through service. 

I am not saying the road was easy. In the beginning we felt very limited and insecure. We wondered if we could ever integrate to a church that was so different, with a different language and a different culture. But the grace of God, which we received through gestures like the one from sister Terry George and many more, covered our insecurities and fears through the love that the congregation gave us.

Vicente: Another way Redeemer showed its love was through the buying of the translation equipment that we now use every Sunday. As she said, my wife didn’t feel comfortable in English, because we had always been in a Spanish-speaking church before. But we felt so attracted to the church that we looked, unsuccessfully, for ways to solve this issue.

One day, Pastor Victor Martinez came to us with wonderful news: the church would buy translation equipment so not only my wife, but any other Spanish speaker could come and join us in worship. Wow! That was a great surprise. It was one the most tangible ways Redeemer showed us its love.

God had plans for us. It did not take a long time before we decided that we really wanted to stay here. Though we were so insecure and felt so out of place at the beginning, little by little we started to be part of Redeemer ministries. We were part of every missional program we could and in 2020 I had the privilege of being elected to serve as a deacon.

Through the years we have felt a joy, a peace and a freedom that we have not experienced before. It took me a couple of years to start understanding two words that we repeatedly say here: Gospel freedom. Gospel freedom is what has allowed me to think in and ponder the high calling of the Christian life, including its holiness and its commitment, without dread. And Gospel freedom is also what prevents me from taking refuge in a cheap notion of grace as a permission to live a fruitless life.

Gloria: Ten years later, God keeps using us (and the translation equipment). It has taken patience and persistence, but God has been gathering little by little a community of Spanish speakers here in Redeemer. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for our church in this area of ministry.

For now we want to encourage you, the church, to keep doing what you have been doing so well: to show Christ to our city, our community and to every person that comes here, regardless of ethnic origin, culture, language, socioeconomic status and any other barrier that gets in the way of extending his Kingdom. Dios los bendiga – God bless you.