Feature 2
GOD’S
Y Z A R C GIFT
– How an 80-Member Church Stepped into Something Bigger Than They Ever Expected –
The Midwest City Spanish Seventhday Adventist Church has only 80 church members, but they’ve recently begun holding services in Oklahoma Conference’s largest church building. Why does a church of this size need a 767-seat sanctuary and approximately two dozen rooms? No one knows for sure, but based on the miracles the church has experienced over the last year, members feel confident that God has a big plan for their little church. The new building is certainly big enough for plenty of baptisms. The journey that led to the unexpected purchase of such a large building didn’t begin with a strategic plan or a committee vote—it began with a crowded parking lot. – PARKING LOT CONFRONTATION – “Hermana,” the deacon approached Yoyma Pedroso with a tone more severe than loving. “You’re not supposed to park there.” Though coming from a man Pedroso had known since she was 9-years-old, the words stung. Rather than take his sharp tone personally, Pedroso started
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RECORD MAGAZINE
worrying what might happen if this scenario had happened to a firsttime visitor rather than a confident young woman who had grown up in the church. What would have happened if that visitor, like her, had arrived at 11:07 a.m. and had faced the same dilemma as Pedroso? With the church’s parking lot full, Pedroso had only three choices: illegal street parking, parking in a handicapped space or skipping church altogether. Pedroso had driven an hour to meet the new pastor being introduced that morning. “Well, Papi, go ahead and park there,” she said, directing her husband toward one of the church’s two handicapped parking spaces. This was the mistake that the deacon, now that the church service was over, had chided Pedroso for. “I got so angry at Satan,” Pedroso says. “I didn’t get mad at my brother.” Instead Pedroso gave the deacon a hug. “I understand you,” she said, “I totally understand.”
Now that she had repaired the relationship with her brother in Christ, it was time to act—before another visitor might be turned away. Pulling out her phone, she opened a listing she had already saved: a church property for sale. With a plan in her mind, she headed back toward the foyer, passing framed prints echoing the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you. … Plans to give you hope and a future.” She crossed the sanctuary—past wooden pews with worn orange cushions in the back half of the church and rows of slate-blue upholstered chairs in the front half—then slipped through a door to the right of the church’s level platform. It led her through a multi-use classroom, a crowded kitchen and into a narrow fellowship hall where four folding tables stood end to end. Near the end of the first table, Pedroso found Guerrero eating and