Every year, Hispanic church youth groups across Arizona unite to rejoice in faith, truth and Yuma’s famous monster tacos. Unity Conference, held at Iglesia Cristiana Tiera Fertil in Yuma, is a two-day vibrant event that serves as a home for Hispanic teenagers to come and worship in their own language, Spanglish.
This year’s event was held Aug. 30–31, with 278 people attending. As soon as the groups get out of their vans and stretch their long trip away, they are greeted with a sign, “Bienvenidos a casa,” welcome home. Every single detail Unity invests in caters to an atmosphere where faith and cultural identity unite.
“I love the experience so much,” said Elizama Perez from Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida in Phoenix. “I look forward to it every single year. I feel like, growing up as a pastor’s kid, it was really hard to grow spiritually because I felt alone. But Unity helped me realize I wasn’t alone; many of us are on the same path.”
Experiences
This year, however, Unity offered a special gathering for parents to have their own mini-conference as well. As the worship music shook the main building with the teenagers worshipping Jesus, the parents quietly made their way to their conference, looking for a chair to settle in.
The timid question that echoed in the parents’ faces was undeniable. How do I connect with this new generation? This may be a straightforward answer for many parents, but sometimes answers aren’t so simple.
Fabio Castellano, director of Spanish online education at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, shook parents’ hands, introduced himself and comforted them. He was the guest speaker for the event and welcomed 80 eager parents.
Castellano started the conference with the reality of what teenagers experience as individuals. He shared viral videos that are a norm in today’s young culture but were shocking for adults to watch.
As a people, “these individual and collective experiences shape how we see the world,” Castellano said. “We call this worldview.” He emphasized topics including social media, peer pressure and social influences. These factors mold the way a child grows up, he said.
Then, Castellano zoomed out to a more globalist perspective of those topics. He shared an understanding of how the world has been changing from generation to generation. “But the one thing that never changes is the Word of God,” he said.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Anna Zeledón and originally published by Arizona’s Portraits.
