Transcription

Narrator: Rev. J. Pablo Obregon (PO)

Interviewer: Ruth Trevino (RT)

PO: And after finishing that school in California, I kept thinking I was going back to Peru. That was kind of my goal - to go back to Peru. And the more I stayed in the States, I noticed the need for Latino ministers also in this country. And so my last year was hard because I was wrestling on going back or staying here. I was involved in a couple of churches in downtown Los Angeles while I was going to school. Finally, I made my decision to go to seminary here in the States. And I chose to come to a seminary called Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

RT: Was it surprising for you - the need for Spanish speaking ministers in the U.S.? Was that something you had foreseen?

PO: No, it really wasn’t. I mean, coming to the United States really wasn’t at first for me a place where I would do a lot of interaction with Latinos. Because I was going to a, what you call a traditional school, not necessarily a place where you were going to be speaking Spanish and in a Spanish neighborhood and so forth. But once I got here, one of the teachers invited me to go to this church in downtown Los Angeles. They were almost closing the doors because all of their English speaking people were moving out of the inner city, of downtown. But the pastor they had there was very passionate about reaching out to the neighbors. And in the neighborhood of that church, ninety percent of the people in the neighborhood came from El Salvador. They were refugees that moved from El Salvador. And he started to have Spanish services.

RT: Did he speak Spanish?

PO: He spoke very little. So that is why he was so happy that I was attending the bible school as well as attending his congregation. Again, growing up in a pastor’s home, you get trained. I mean, it is not formal training, but it was easy for me to stand up and be the leader and lead worship and sometimes even preach. It just happened so naturally. Yeah, I kind of started to realize that there is such a big need for Spanish speaking ministers.

A little funny – not funny, but a spiritual moment for me was, when I went to get my visa in Peru to come to the States. I remember the morning. Most of the people in front of me standing in line to get their visa were coming with tears in their eyes, because they were just denying everybody that morning. When I got my turn, I stood in front of the counselor and he asked the question, “So, why are you going to the States?” After he read my letter of invitation from the school, and I said, “I want to become a pastor.” And he just looked at me and with the biggest smile on his face, he said, “We need more pastors.” And he is an American fellow telling that to me. I go back to that story over, and say, “Did he mean in Peru or did he mean the United States?” Because there is definitely still a large need of Spanish speaking pastors here.