November 2022
CORRECTION: Albany Park is the corrected neighborhood.
Tabor Lutheran Church has been making new connections in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. Albany Park is one of 77 community areas in Chicago. Located on the city’s West Side, it is the third largest community area by population and the second largest geographically.
Rev. Walter Ramirez has been developing new relationships in the neighborhood. Recently, a relationship with the local elementary school has helped him connect with some of the Texas migrants from Columbia. He and his wife, Nivia, have worked tirelessly to help these families get the items they need from clothing to furniture. He has assisted them with getting needed documents and facilitated job interviews with local businesses. Rev. Ramirez shares the love of Jesus with these families who have been displaced, and he is connecting them with the church family at Tabor.
Rev. Ramirez was installed at Tabor Lutheran Church as their SMP Associate Pastor on June 5, 2022. Their first Spanish service was scheduled for September 11, 2022, but services had to be canceled due to a rainstorm that flooded the summer worship space in the fellowship hall. Once resumed, Spanish services have averaged 30 people in worship which is simply amazing for a city church. Pastor Ramirez has started a new member class for some of the individuals who have expressed interest. To have this many people attend and be interested in
membership in such a short amount of time is confirmation that Tabor is meeting a need in their neighborhood. God has blessed Tabor with the ability to offer spiritual care and instruction in Spanish through Rev. Ramirez.
They also had a wonderful time at their Hispanic Heritage Celebration. They were able to meet new neighbors and heard from new and old friends about how much they appreciate the hospitality and love that they feel from the Tabor family. “We are so grateful that God continually allows us to live out their axiom, ‘Blessed to be a blessing,’” says Heather Robarge, Community Outreach. We have an amazing God who does so much more than we can think or imagine as God leads us in Albany Park, Chicago!
WITNESS: Encouraging personal witnessing, congregational engagement with their community, support of our NID partnerships and missions and sharing in a world mission field together