RINCÓN DE URIAS

Church Partnerships: Immanuel Lutheran Church | Centralia, WA

Year opened: 2013

Average Attendance: 17-20

Rincon de Urias neighborhood started as a squatter’s village.  The government made it easy for people to acquire land there for very little, if any, money, so there is a lot of poverty.  It is very close to the military hospital, which is only open to members of the armed forces and their families.  When the hospital opened, there was a surge of kids wanting to be soldiers because they saw something beautiful near them and they wanted to be part of it.  Rincon de Urias is one of the most impoverished neighborhood that has a feeding center.  This poverty also leads to other problems, such as the worst health and dental issues, including a lot of respiratory illnesses.  There are many young, single mothers in the area, most of whom do not know how to take care of infants.  Many children are left alone all day while their parent works, which means that neglect is a major issue here.  There are a number of abuelas (grandmothers) in the neighborhood who take care of children (often more than those they are related to) and they get breakfast at the feeding center most mornings with all of their children.

Meet the Feeding Center Family:

Jesus (or Chuy) and Margarita have been running Rincon since the day it opened.  They have four children, Lizbet, Paulina, Eduardo, and Maria del Mar.  Lizbet is married and has a toddler-aged son named Santiago.  Margarita is a homemaker who loves children and is beloved in the neighborhood.  Chuy is a commercial fisherman.  Many teams from the US get to know Chuy because he is also the foreman on the building of new feeding centers and houses that Amistad Familiar puts up.  He is a skilled welder, and does all of the joist welding work on these new buildings.  Chuy came to faith in the Lord while serving time in prison.  Now he spends his days serving the Lord in Rincon de Urias.