People of Refuge

Vision

New City Fellowship of St. Louis seeks to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts of every ethnic group, discipling the nations in the reconciliatory gospel of Jesus Christ, through a clear proclamation of salvation by grace indiangroup through faith alone in Christ, and by doing works of justice and mercy under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Mission

New City Fellowship is committed to being a church where people God has brought to St. Louis from all nations can unite to experience the reconciliatory mexicangirl love of God in Jesus Christ...through a restored relationship with God and with others, above all racial, social and economic divisions... through a multicultural praise of redemption, where the joy of God in us and the joy in Him of us can be experienced...through a relationship of Christian community, where fellowship and love increase the knowledge of God and where there is a commitment to taking care of all basic human needs.

"After this I looked and there was before me a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb....and they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'" Revelation 7:9-10

THE BRIDGE IN ST. LOUIS...A Ministry for Immigrants

Embracing the widow, the orphan, and the alien/sojourner.

refugee: a person who flees from his home or country to seek refuge elsewhere, as in a time of war, political or religious persecution, etc...

immigrant: a person who immigrates...to come into a new country, region, or environment, esp. in order to settle there...

Immigrants from Central and South America, Congo, Bosnia, Zomalia, Cuba, Russia are here in St. Louis and are desperately seeking to adjust to the foreign American culture. We are teaching English to them, the majority of the time in a dynamic of one-on-one tutoring, and assisting them in finding housing and employment. Sharing with them the gospel of the Kingdom of God, his promises, his love for all the nations in Christ.

"When a aliens lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him, the alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. love him as your self, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the lord your God. do not use dishonest standarts when measuring length, weigth or quantity. use honest scales and honest weights, and honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from Egypt. Keep all my decrees and all my laws, and follow them. I am the Lord."Leviticus 19:33-37

The Bridge in The Immigrant Community

"All the believers were together and had everything in common...Everyday they continued to meet together...praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:44-48

God has brought to New City more than thirty hispanic families. Brothers and sisters from, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Puerto Rico, Cuba , Honduras, El Salvador. That is happening with families from Congo as well. More than thirty five congolies are coming to our church, becoming new members, learning together the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of God, recognizing that we are reconciled in Christ, our Savior. Ephesians 1-2.

A. Why should we interact with immigrants?

Once again we consult the Scriptures:

"See I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, " says the Lord Almighty... "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 3:1-5

"Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave something to eat, I was thisty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord when did we see you hungry...thirsty.....stranger,... or needing clothes.. or sick or in prison? ...' The king will reply, 'I tell you the thruth, what ever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " Matthew 25:34-40

B. Who is an immigrant?

"The immigrant is one who has not left everything about the place from which he came, nor has he completely adapted himself to the place in which he arrived. He is neither from here nor there. The soul of an immigrant is like a child who tosses and turns in his bed without being able to sleep: unquiet, alert, always moving, and constantly seeking a place to rest and feel safe.

There are more than 10 million Mexicans who decided to live outside their country because of corruption and lack of opportunities, and more than 2 million Cubans who did not want to be accomplices to the dictatorship of Fidel Castro, and millions of Salvadoreans, Guatamalans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans who fled from Civil War.

There are hundreds of thousands of Colombians who did not want their children to live in violence of narcotraffickers, guerillas, soldiers, and paramilitary groups. Read, Isaiah 59. There are thousands of Venezuelans who did not trust in their populist and authoritarian governments, and thousands of Haitians and Dominicans that tried to flee from poverty in boats. All of them make up part of the 120 million people in the world who come from a country different than that of their birth...The United States is a diverse nation, heterogenous, multicultural, multiethnic, plural, eternally involved in trying to define the essence of the North American. And perhaps that essence is based on being a country fundamentally built by people who came from other countries, by immigrants...There is something that pushes the immigrant to flee from his own country, and there is something that attracts him to another country. The route of immigrants is very clear: they leave from a place where they have lost hope, and they arrive to a place where they perceive there will be better possibilites of survival. Every day 230 thousand people are born in the world, especially in poor countries. And every 12 years, according to the demographer Wolfgang Lutz, the population increases by one billion. Therefore it is logical to think that immigration tends to go from poor countries to richer ones."

Jorge Ramos, The Other Face of America

A Short Summary of Christianity in Latin America

"It is undeniable that millions of Latin Americans are in extreme poverty. It is depressing to see the subhuman conditions in which so many people live in the slums of the gigantic urban centers and in the countryside. Almost five hundred years of social injustice have fertilized the soil for the seed of foreign ideologies that claim to possess the answer for our complex social problems. The dialogue between these ideologies and a particular kind of Christianity has resulted in a theology that endorses a radical, and even violent, social change in the name of the gospel. The theology of the political left is one of the greatest challenges to the evangelical church in Latin America today. On the other hand, there are among us some evengelical leaders who are still discussing whether the church is really supposed to get involved in helping those who are in material or physical need outside the local congregation. They are asking if the mission of the church has to be limited to the oral communication of the gospel, or if it should include 'good works' for the benefit of the unbelievers. This discussion is, of course, unnecessary after a cursory reading of biblical texts like Matthew 5:13-16, Galatians 6:10, and Romans 12:20 More important than arguing about social assistance is to pay serious attention to the fact that to others leaders in some ecclesistical quarters, Christian social responsibility means involvement of the church as church in the radical transformation of the economic and political structures of society." Crisis and Hope. Emilio A Nunez, William Taylor

Declaration of Our Confidence

We have all the confidence of being called sons of God, of having been justified in Christ, of walking in the promise of the Holy Spirit, in the works that our Lord prepared since before the foundation of the world, and in knowing that everything is a result of the mercy of our Father. Therefore we understand that we are saved by his grace and not by works and that our walk with the Lord is an obedience out of love, having been chosen and predestined to be his people from different nations, tribes and languages but one in Christ, reconciled in Him and called to walk in his kingdom, doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with our God.

Dynamics

" All the believers were together and had everything in common." Acts 2:44

The Lord has called us to preach the gospel of the kingdom to all nations. The Hispanic and the Congolies community, as part of the nations, and as part of the immigrant community in this country, are loved by God, and for that reason we should walk together (as a people of God) in the different areas of need they confront in their daily lives.

The learning of the English language, a clear understanding of the laws of immigration, knowledge of the requirements for being attended in health centers, translation of documents or interpretation of conversations before authorities, work opportunities, educational services, housing, payment of taxes, legal situations; all of these are dynamics in which we are called to serve the Hispanic community and the immigrant community in general.

Our purpose is to create a relationship of trust in the service of others, showing the love of our Father, his care, his mercy; showing the kingdom of God in motion, all because of the precious work of Christ on the cross, which reconciles us in Him. We are convinced that the primary need is that of being loved. Knowing that we are loved and accepted by God is the center of the gospel. The need to be loved is a reality of everyone and it is our responsibility to manifest it to the people. This is the meaning of the gospel. Love your God with all your mind, with all your heart, and with all your strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." 1Corinthians 13:1

The situation in all of Latin America, Africa, Asia, obviously affects the American way of life. The continuous influx of immigrants from different countries has been and will continue to be changing the face of North America. The mix of cultures and races is rapidly forming an amazing growth of subcultures. They are the coming generations, which are not exclusively North American, but rather a mixture of different ways of thinking, seeing and understanding life itself.

It is not true that the immigrant arrives to adapt himself completely to a new culture, but rather he afftects the culture to which he arrives. This is exactly what is happening with the Hispanics; Africans, Asians, they are really affecting the culture of North America, for good or for bad, but this is the reality. Just walking down the streets of Los Angeles or New York or Miami will give you a point of comparison. Where is God in all this? How do we evangelize to a changing culture, to a number of subcultures mixed with different religious patterns and different understandings of who God is? Paul explains it in Romans: The gospel is power for him who believes.

God has called us to preach one gospel: that of Christ who saved us by his grace. And that should be our only hope, Christ himself, his work on the cross, and all of this by grace, not by works. We cannot be tempted by the times of change that generate different cultures mixing with one another. It is the gospel itself which affects every nation, tribe, race, ethnicity; the gospel of the kingdom of God.

God has put in his people, he has written on their hearts that we should walk in these promises. We are being called here in St. Louis to share the Good News to every group of people. This includes immigrants, since we are a people of blessing for other nations. Mexicans, Colombians, Peruvians, Cubans, Hondurans, Salvadoreans, Nicaraguans, Panamanians, Venezuelans, Brazilians, Congolies, Bosnians, Vietnamies,all of these are part of this society, and it is our mission to make known the Good News of the kingdom. One more time: it is not the movement of migrant peoples that produces real changes in a society, but rather the gospel itself preached to the nations that generates and produces change in them.

Discipleship

Discipleship is walking in life itself with our brothers and sisters. It is there where all of our needs become evident. It is not just a dynamic of teaching a believer or a group of believers, but rather the sharing of all those topics that causes confusion, perhaps Biblical themes or simply the daily walk in this country that is obviously foreign for any immigrant. There is where the gospel is shared, right there the possible solutions are worked out in teams, praying and crying out for mercy in every situation, with the plain confidence that God will be glorified. God loves the sinner, and Jesus Christ is our only rock and confidence, our Savior.

The Law And The Immigrant

One of the most pressing situations for any immigrant is having to face his legal situation in this country. This is part of the care that God has called us to show towards the foreigner, no matter what his language, race, culture, or religion may be.

God calls us to respect and submit to all authority, since all authority has been imposed by Him. The laws of immigration that seek the fulfillment of themselves (the laws) by the immigrants, are just in and of themselves; they seek to protect the citizen. These same laws declare the certain possibility that any immigrant who qualifies within the requirements of the law possesses the same benefits as any American citizen, obviously taking into account that there are various types of status: tourist, student, business, work, or resident.

Our position is that this is a topic of Faith. Where are the eyes of the individual placed? On his own plan for staying in this country or on the plans of God? We have the confidence that God blesses whoever sees his kingdom of righteousness. As a result we always invite the individual to walk with us in these topics, always leading them to view the gospel as the only answer in every situation of conflict or confusion.

We invite the community to look at these topics as a new opportunity to see the grace of God in their lives.

How Can You Help

See Servicio Comunitario en español

See Community Service in English

Contact: (314) 726-2302