Feeding the Poor Sparks Expanding Neighborhood Ministry

SANTA BARBARA, CA (June 18, 2002) - Pastor Hugo Otoala used to be a network engineer for the County of Santa Barbara. Now he is helping engineer something of much larger benefit to a neighborhood within the county's boundaries.

Otoala, a church planter at Iglesia del Pacto Evangelico of Goleta, helped start the Santa Barbara Community Development Center in Isla Vista. The center, which began in February, provides more than 3,000 pounds of food per week to people in that area. The center has started a tutoring program, English classes for adults and job training for youth and adults, among other things.

The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), the Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC), and three local Covenant congregations - Community Covenant Church of Goleta, and Montecito Covenant and Ocean Hills Covenant churches in Santa Barbara - have aided the center.

Before starting the center, Otoala obtained consulting services paid for using conference seed money. Two conference administrators, Adam Edgerly and Walter Contreras, also have provided consultation on an ongoing basis.

Contreras, who serves as ECC director of Hispanic church planting, believes this cooperative project serves as a uniquely effective model for ministry.

"The PSWC role has been one of bridging Hugo and others to help him partner with others in order for him to succeed," Contreras said. "Church planting principles and holistic ministry principles must work together so that this project can produce an effective ministry. People are not only receiving social assistance, but are also experiencing the changing power of Christ in all the areas of people's lives.

"This is one of the hardest projects to do, because the people we are reaching are very poor," Contreras continued. "But people hunger for God and have a rich heart to succeed in life. Hugo (Otoala) is a loving man who has a passion for the poor and believes that incarnation ministry to the poor must be done all the time. Hugo has learned to listen to the cry of the poor and I believe he is doing what Jesus will like for all His church to do."

At first, all Hugo Otoala wanted to do was help feed people in his neighborhood. He had helped pastor a church in nearby Lompoc while serving full-time in engineering and was aware of an underserved Hispanic community near Santa Barbara, a city of 100,000 in a county where about one-third of the population is Hispanic. He accepted a position as a Covenant church-planting pastor in July 1999 with the hope that his work in a local congregation could have a positive impact on his community. His church has an average worship attendance of about 80, but the influence of his ministry to the community is much greater.

Otoala began working with 400 families in an apartment complex in Isla Vista and discovered that often three families were living in a typical two-bedroom apartment. They couldn't afford anything else, even with both parents working, because Santa Barbara is one of the most expensive areas in the United States in which to live. "It's impossible (financially) for low-income people to leave that area," he said.

"When they (the ECC) called me to a church plant, I had never thought about it as a full-time job," Otoala said. "But Dennis Wadley (pastor of Community Covenant) had thought about it. I believed that God was calling him to church planting, but I wavered a bit because his job was going well.

"Because of my experience working with Hispanics in Lompoc, I knew about the Hispanic culture - it was very difficult for them," Otoala continued. "There wasn't enough food. They didn't have medical care - kids would be sick for weeks. And language has been a struggle. Not only English, but also educationally in Spanish."

At first, Otoala was most interested in assisting the neighborhood through food distribution. He has already been successful in that effort. The Santa Barbara Food Bank has cooperated with the church and now the church (through the non-profit organization) serves more than 300 families per week, according to Otoala. Catholic Charities, an agency working through the food bank, is also partnering with the church in distributing food. Some funds have been provided through Santa Barbara County's Department of Human Services.

Last November, Otoala and his church initiated a tutoring program at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) Religion Center. The church began worshiping in the auditorium and rented an office to run the tutoring center. While the church was preparing for the tutoring center, HELP offering funds came from the denomination and the church bought a printer and other needed supplies for the program.

The tutoring program, which serves 25 children, has a coordinator, Pam Kettler, a member of Community Covenant. InterVarsity students from UCSB and more than a dozen parishioners from local Covenant churches have donated time to the ministry. The American Lung Association has donated six computers and Westmont College has provided still more. Otoala is hoping to replace his computers with state-of-the-art models for the growing ministry, which will include helping some of the parents of children learn English.

Health needs are being met through a member at Montecito Covenant, a nurse named Carol Cachelin. She has received help from volunteers serving neighborhood clinics and other areas. Blood screening, cancer education sessions and mammograms are also being provided.

Lutheran campus ministry, which also meets in the University Religion Center, has also aided the effort, receiving a $30,000 grant for medical care. Lutheran Campus Ministry and St. Francis Hospital are cooperating with Otoala and a local clinic has agreed to provi de women's health programs on a regular basis.

A retirement center in Isla Vista has provided a piece of property free of charge for various ministries such as kids activities, food distribution and a monthly yard sale. Montecito Covenant and Community Covenant have donated clothes. Another local company donated one trailer to hold clothes and other items and one trailer for food storage. Otoala continues to be awed by God's provision through the community's multifaceted support.

Otoala's church is beginning to make inroads in the county. In Mission Hills, two leaders - an ex-professional soccer player and his wife, a credentialed teacher - are planning to start a soccer ministry and a tutoring program. Meanwhile, a cell church is being organized in another town in central California and another food bank has been started in Lompoc through another church.

"God was teaching me and preparing me and my wife (Liliana) for this ministry," Otoala said. "And He has worked with us to increase our faith in what God will provide. Before, we had been only confident in our own power. Now, we're living by faith.

"It has really surprised me," Otoala continued. "The three other Covenant churches really have worked hard on events like a Christmas present drive (200 presents for 80 families) and a distribution of Easter bags. It has been a dream for me to see this Hispanic ministry become a Hispanic ministry with local Covenant churches. But now other (non-Covenant) churches are helping. People are talking about the ministry and at times I have more help than I need. The way the Lord has helped us is amazing."

To learn more about the Santa Barbara Community Development Center and its ministries, call Otoala at Community Covenant Church at 805-967-2671.

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