Misión Pan de la Vida (Mission Bread of Life) is a worshiping community of day laborers that meets in the Home Depot parking lot in Passaic, N.J. The community grew out of a ministry at St. John Lutheran Church, and Ignaki Unzaga, pastor, leads the group in worship once every month.
The worship services are led in Spanish, and
Unzaga always invites the men to take part by reading a lesson or helping serve communion. “At first I’d go as the pastor and preach and lead
everything, but I wanted to make the service more theirs than ours,” Unzaga said. “Now we ask for volunteers to help. Imagine how hard it is to get a reader out of a parking lot when most of them didn’t go past elementary school. But the Holy Spirit always provides and these men do it for the glory of God.” Holding worship in a parking lot brings an array
of variables that can’t be controlled—whether it be interruptions when a van approaches to pick up some workers or store security asks the group to move. “To be part of such a church (St. John) and then
go to a parking lot and claim that as the house of the Lord is powerful and beautiful, especially in the dead of winter,” Unzaga said. “To share the cup of salvation with our immigrant neighbors in the snow is just a humbling and beautiful sight.” Unzaga said Misión Pan de la Vida helped
reawaken the spirits of the people at St. John and deepen community relationships. “When I started
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Photos: Courtesy of Misión Pan de la Vida (Mission Bread of Life)
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