LaFe Conference in Texas

Students and staff involved in InterVarsity’s LaFe ministry to Latino students are meeting this week in the Dallas area. The theme of LaFe 10 is Through the Crowd, and the focus is on what it means to be a Latino and a Christian in our culture.

 

During the conference there will be time to celebrate the advances made in ministry growth and outreach since the last conference three years ago.

 

 

El Accesso

 

 

At East Los Angeles College (ELAC), InterVarsity’s El Accesso chapter was recognized by the InterClub Council last spring as the club of the year for student and campus engagement. The chapter doubled in size during the school year, from 16 to 30, and took 22 students to the spring retreat at Campus by the Sea on Catalina Island.

 

 

Ministry on a commuter campus with 20,000 students is challenging, but El Accesso students have been actively sharing their faith. Four campus-wide outreach events took place during the school year, and LaFe staff worker Enrique Melendez reported that the chapter held more than 60 Bible studies in the Gospel of Luke.

 

 

The LaFe Global Project

 

 

The first LaFe Global Project took place last summer as six LaFe students and two staff traveled to Tutltitlan, Mexico, to partner with Compa, the Mexican affiliate of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), and Amextra, a ministry to a garbage dump community. “We joined them in what they were already doing,” reported Andres Herrera, one of the co-leaders. “The idea was to strengthen our relationship with Compa.”

 

 

The Global Project was divided into two parts. During the second half of the project, the students participated in Compa’s national student leadership conference. “Half of the LaFe students in the Global Project were bilingual, the others were not as fluent in Spanish,” said Andres. “Several on the team said part of their reason for volunteering for the project was to connect with their ethnic heritage. At least one of them said that he wanted to see if missions was something that God was calling him to do.” Andres is looking forward to more LaFe Global Project partnerships with Compa, including team ministry in other Latin American countries.

 

 

LaFe Volunteer Program

 

 

In InterVarsity’s New York/New Jersey region, the New York LaFe Volunteer Program is getting underway. “We want to connect with more campuses by capitalizing on volunteer initiative,” said Orlando Crespo, director of LaFe. He believes that with effective training and a strong support network InterVarsity volunteers can dedicate from 10-20 hours on top of their regular jobs, to work with LaFe students on campus. The first internship campus is New York University.

 

 

Another push for volunteers is happening in Texas. Alumni of San Antonio area schools – where InterVarsity has a strong presence – are being invited to volunteer to work on campuses in the Rio Grande Valley area. Two alumni volunteers from Trinity University are working towards volunteering with campus staff member Nick Dombroski at University of Texas – Pan American to plant a chapter at South Texas College in McAllen.

 

 

Through the Crowd

 

 

Holding this triennial conference  this week in Texas is another bold move for LaFe. Conferences in 2004 and 2007 were held in Southern California, where LaFe has the most participation. “We definitely want to keep growing in California, but we also want to impart a vision for LaFe campus ministry to other parts of the country,” Orlando said. “We might lose some numbers by moving to Texas, but our goal is not just to have a huge LaFe conference. We also want to generate growth in many other regions throughout the country."

 

 

The number of students involved in LaFe, InterVarsity’s ministry to Latino students, has nearly doubled over the past ten years. The increase has been steady, but Orlando believes that the two previous LaFe conferences were critical to the surge of growth over the past five years. “The conferences impart a vision to both our staff and our students as to what LaFe can be,” he said.

 

 

The impact of the conference will be felt not only in the growth of LaFe chapters on U.S. campuses, but also by Latino staff and students on other campuses who will catch the vision for following Christ as a Latino on campus and beyond.