 The thing that I have always loved about the Methodist Church is that they are really the family that I chose. Some of my strongest memories are being in my home church in Lindsay, Oklahoma, and hearing the entire church singing together. And I usually wasn't sitting with my parents during those times. I was sitting in between Mr. Mark and Ms. Judy, or I was sitting between, you know, any number of families because my parents were always up front. They were in the choir, or they were helping to lead worship in some way, so I always had other families to sit with that were still my family. It was just a different kind of family. I was always able to come with like questions and to experience things on my own pace and my own speed and it was a very loving and peaceful place. For me, I think at its best, the United Methodism really creates a space that aligns to like the Wesleyan values of being present to people, being aware of the social issues around us, and how we can walk alongside one another. And so for me at its best, the Church has been able to do that. What I love about the United Methodist Church, the Church that God has called me to serve, is the people. The people that I am in ministry with, the people that make up this beautiful body of Christ that is wonderful and complicated and can be messy sometimes, but also just an incredible joy to be a part of. The people that have loved me and support me and shown me grace. The people that help me grow in my own faith and teach me. And the people that are examples of what it means to stand up and speak out for justice for what is good and for what is right in this world and for what God is yearning for because there are moments in life where people will experience deep pain and hurt and feel hopeless, but for the body of Christ to be able to come and meet them where they are at and to reach out to them and to say, I see you and I hear you. You are worthy and loved and you are a child of God. I think it's just a really beautiful thing to witness and be a part of. I think it's important that we remember that we remember what Wesley said, that there's no holiness but social holiness. Throughout the years, part of our identity and our tradition and heritage has been serving those places called the least of these. For instance, throughout the centuries, we've served the working poor. We've served the homeless. We've served the immigrants. We've served all those individuals that have been marginalized or ignored by the rest of society. So it's part of our heritage and tradition to continue showing these people God's love and grace in the world. I particularly love how spirited it is, how full of energy and life it is. And I hope we find our feet soon. I love the theology of grace. So having grown up in the Pentecostal tradition, that wasn't something that we readily heard of or was readily accessible to us. And so when I came into the United Methodist Church for the first time and attended one for the first time, grace just grabbed me. I think the first thing that comes to mind is our theological heritage of that pervenant grace, of that grace that comes before we even know that we need grace. And I think that's such a hopeful thing to hold on to right now, is that even when we mess up, even when we don't know that we need it, God is constantly moving toward us. And all we need to do is realize that that grace is there for us and that grace will help us move forward. My hope is just the simple fact that if the church was dependent on human beings, she would have died a long time ago. And the fact is that we are not alone in this process, but that we get to depend on the Holy Spirit instead. And so my hope for the church is that we see this as a challenge that we get to work through, not by ourselves and not as a group of people, but as people who are completely dependent on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and that we can get creative in the process. I think my hope is that in this kind of delicate time that we're in, that we can find a way forward in terms of aligning ourselves to recognize how we're called to be within community with one another, within a spiritual relationship with one another, and with those around us. And I think as a church, we're just struggling to get there. So my desire is that we can continue to be a part of the conversation and be open to every person. My hope for the United Methodist Church is that we can continue to find ways to love God and our neighbor more fully, that we can set aside all of our fears and our anxieties and allow the Holy Spirit to really come and fill our hearts so that we can truly be who God created us to be out in the world. We need reconciliation and healing at all levels of the church. I believe God is still calling us to serve individuals and to realize our common goals and visions as they relate to our mission of making disciples of Christ. My hope is that we turn ourselves around to ground ourselves on the love that connects us and that saves us. That we settle out the details and spend our energy serving. My hope for the United Methodist Church is that we may continue to be one and work together to faithfully serve God together. The United Methodist Church has been part of who I am and part of who I am becoming. It's really just helped formed my person. And yet I know that there are a lot of changes coming and I hope that we can remember that even though I had this great upbringing, I had these formative experiences that God doesn't promise to bring us back to these really great things. God promises to do a new thing and something that we can't even understand or perceive but that will be what is going to usher in God's kingdom. And so I hope that our church can remember that while it might be scary or uncertain that God is bringing in something new, something better, something more life-giving, something that will bring in the kingdom of God. I'm making lots of new spaces with young adults really intentionally trying to welcome them back into the church, those people that went off to college and felt like they didn't really have a space in the United Methodist Church and opening up places for them. But I think one of the most important things is also making sure that the spaces we've had for a really long time are welcoming and making sure that we're not using secret churchy words that people don't understand but that we make all of our existing spaces whether they be Sunday school classes or whether they be worship services or whether they be Bible studies so that those spaces that are new can be welcoming but I think it's just as important to start making those spaces that have been with us for a long time very welcoming and intentional. So for me, I've been charged with helping support the young adults and we created this group called YAL, which is Young Adult Learning Lunches and just this year what we're trying to do is take our desires for social justice issues, watch like a documentary of calling it stream and serve and then we watch a documentary about any particular issue like housing development and then we try to serve with other people in our local area so we're going to bonton farms and trying to create partnerships with other people so it's not just having a conversation but really being active in our discipleship with my work with Missionalism, it's amazing I get to work with emerging church leaders from all over the country most are Methodists, some are not and just think about what does it mean to be the church outside of the church and how do we even support churches that are trying to do different things I have a real deep passion and call to be in ministry with youth and so in their busy schedules and all the different things that they do I'm really looking forward to finding ways to create new spaces that I'm able to connect with them and that they're able to connect with the church that they're able to know that their voices and their presence matters now that they are the church now and so I'm excited for the ways that the Holy Spirit is going to move in my ministry to allow them that space and that opportunity so as a deacon in the United Methodist Church I'm very blessed to have several opportunities to serve individuals in assisted living centers in the area very often I see these individuals as being isolated and rejected and ignored by the larger community and this is tragic because these individuals still have deep faith issues and challenges and questions that we need to be there for them and to help them remember that despite their season in life they're the beloved children of God we may be the only people that they ever come in contact with that will remind them of God's love so that's important as we go forward I've got one thing going right now that I'm really really excited about and it's a program that already existed but needed to be turned around and it's taking really rich gospel stories and sharing those with children over and over again to the point where they're starting to tell those stories those manipulatives to tell the stories and then most recently we put them in the bus and we took them out and they told the stories and so I'm excited about where that's going to go I'm just excited about creating spaces for fellow Latina women the generation that's coming behind me they're feeling called to ministry and those women that we currently have in the church that are feeling called to serve in our local churches so I work with children and youth in both in the local church and through the conference office and I'm hoping that in my work with those groups that our children and youth will bring Christ into new spaces and will share that love of Christ in places where people haven't heard it or maybe they need to hear it in a new way