"I come from a dysfunctional family where there was a lot of neglect," said Delores Garza, a community developer for Monte Sinai Iglesia Metodista Unida in San Antonio, Texas. "There were a lot of churches in our neighborhood and plain no one bothered to look in on us. We were hungry a lot of times and no one ever looked in on us. My experience is that the churches could've done so much more if they had reached out. That was my biggest problem coming to a church for spiritual counseling. They didn't reach out to non- members. Someone might've counseled my mother and that might've made a difference in my brother's and sisters' lives."

Ms. Garza is making a difference in the lives of women, children, and youth because she knows the importance of knocking on doors, looking in on families, and encouraging others to seek spiritual counseling. For the past two years Ms. Garza has been an organizer for the Community Developers Program, established by the General Conference more than 30 years ago to empower the powerless, address social inequities, and mobilize for change.

Like all community developers, Ms. Garza knows very well the neighborhood she serves. She's lived there for 26 years. She works as a teacher in this stressed school district and is a single mother of five, living in a two-bedroom dwelling. Ms. Garza discovered the Community Developers Program at Monte Sinai church when she visited Rev. Finees Flores for spiritual counseling. "I was experiencing some behavioral problems with my youngest. Rather than give up on him, I started taking spiritual counseling. Rev. Flores saw me through me a very difficult time. Even with all my good intentions, the system hadn't been there for my son." Ms. Garza said that when she speaks to the congregation at Monte Sinai, she asks them, "How can you say you understand hunger when you've never been hungry? There's always someone out there who is hungrier than you. If you've found the Lord, I don't care how many times they slam the door in your face, you just keep knocking. The children have no choice about what family they're born into. When I was a child, through no fault of our own, my family suffered. Some families are very receptive if you just knock on their door."

April 9, 1999

To learn more about The United Methodist Church Community Developers Program, call (212) 870-3821 or e-mail rlawson@gbgm-umc.org. To read more on the web about the Community Developers project in San Antonio, please see the article "Empowering a Neighborhood."

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