Starting this Sunday, Rev. David Stains of the Evans Memorial
United Methodist Church will be offering worship services in
Spanish at the Hill Memorial United Methodist Church.

The effort to provide worship services in Spanish comes from the
cooperative work of the cluster of local Methodist churches, Stains
told The Era Friday, for two main reasons.

Stains said church leaders have noticed a Spanish-speaking
population cropping up in the Bradford area, and although they are
unsure exactly how many individuals will benefit from the Spanish
services, they are interested in reaching out to those who
will.

The other reason, Stains said, is that he has years of mission
service experience in Spanish-speaking and Third World countries,
and speaks Spanish himself. As such, he will conduct the services,
he said.

Stains said other ministers noticed Spanish-speaking residents
coming to other churches in the area, and the Methodist cluster
decided it would be prudent to offer worship in Spanish since
Stains could provide that service.

He will offer the Spanish worship services at 8 a.m. Sunday at
Hill Memorial on Kennedy Street, and then travel back to Evans
Memorial to conduct English services at his normal time – Sunday
school at 9:30 a.m. and worship at 10:45 a.m.

It’s part of the “Christian persuasion,” Stains said, to “try to
include everyone,” even if it was not specifically requested.

“We’re making an offer here, and we’ll see if they take us up on
it,” he added.

Stains said he already offers Spanish worship in several area
prisons, and has a “pretty full ministry in that regard.” Combined
with his regular ministering at Evans Memorial, he keeps pretty
busy and said he doubts he will be able to offer the Spanish
services at more than one church at this time.

When asked if he was at all concerned that the Spanish worship
might be ill-received amid all the national publicity and
controversy around illegal immigrants and related issues, Stains
replied,

“I would hope not. I would hope that people will understand this
is an attempt to include everyone we can in gospel service. Border
security is a legislative concern; it’s not what we are dealing
with here. This is simply an offer of Christian ministry.

“That’s the way it is with Christians,” Stains said. “We offer
everything we can.”