CENTER FOR CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT

CENTER for

CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT

The Center for Cultural Engagement seeks to bring people to God and community with God’s people by building bridges between people groups, healing brokenness, confronting systemic evils and speaking truth to power.

Mission Projects:

PROJECT: START - A refugee resource center connecting refugees in Dallas with the resources they need to find stability.

HISPANIC EDUCATION INITIATIVE - The goal of the Hispanic Education Initiative is to keep students in school through graduation and then on to college, reclaiming students who left school and helping preschoolers be prepared for Kindergarten.

Lives Impacted:

243,000+

24,102 by community care ministries BIBLES/TRACTS WERE DISTRIBUTED

1,500

PASTORS AND CHURCH LEADERS

trained through Texas Baptists en Español

500+ currently serving ACTIVE CHAPLAINS

18,895,101 through the Texas Baptists Hunger Offering MEALS SERVED IN 2020

Iglesia Bautista Principe de Paz in Austin has actively served its community through a food pantry ministry for the past 20 years. Through a partnership with the Texas Baptists Hunger Offering and the Central Texas Food Bank, the church has opened its pantry every Wednesday to give out food products to those in need.

Rose M. Irizarry, food pantry co-director, shared that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, more people have sought help from their food pantry.

“Before COVID, we were averaging about 80-85 people representing different families from the community. Once the COVID crisis came, we started getting a lot of people that hadn’t regularly come to our food bank. We grew a lot in those months and started averaging 100-120 families. Now, I’d say we’re probably averaging about 145-150 families from the community on a weekly basis,” she said.

The Hunger Offering funds enabled the ministry to adapt to the new conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People couldn’t freely come in or out; we had to keep our distance and even separate ourselves from clients and church volunteers. Through our funds with the Hunger Offering, we were able to buy gloves, sanitizers, masks and other needed supplies to keep everyone safe. As we’ve experienced a lot of growth, the Hunger Offering has been a great blessing to our ministry,” shared Irizarry.

The Hunger Offering is a special offering Texas Baptists has designated for the purpose of easing the needs of hunger and poverty throughout the work of different ministries in Texas and around the world.

“The Hunger Offering has empowered communities with much-needed resources that they wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. Through the Hunger Offering, smaller ministries such as the food pantry at Iglesia Bautista Principe de Paz can continue faithfully serving and meeting their community’s needs,” Katie Fruge, director of the Hunger Offering, explained.