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My dad pastored the E.Belmont COG over 13 years. I met my wife there. It was located at 315 Church St. The building was remodeled in the mid 1950's to add bathrooms. A nice building, a growing church.The congregation raised funds bought land a half mile away and built a nice reasonably priced metal building.The old church was purchased by a Spanish COG congregation. This group TRANSFORMED the old building into a fantastic edifice. I met the pastor once when I was working across the street. Very nice young man.I started meeting some Hispanic folk at breakfast while at McDonalds. We became friends. I learned they attended the Spanish church on church street. I have since met more of the congregation. Several times sending an offering and congratulations to the appearance of the church.These are fantastic, hard working people. I do not know if they are here legally or illegally. They definitely love the Lord and yes if they are not here on a work permit, they are illegal. Do I want to know? I don't know. I do know the congregation there is much larger than the present East Belmont Church of God. For that reason, and the fact they are family oriented Christians, I do respect them. Would I report them if I knew they were llegal, NO! Would I help them it they were faced with deportation? If I could, probably. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

Here where I live in SW Florida there are literally tens of thousands of Hispanic folks. I have no idea about their legal/illegal status. What I do know is that if it were not for them this region could not survive. The ones I've been around are extremely hard working people as well.Personally,I see them as no different than me. In my short time here I have seen and heard a lot of negativity about them,which honestly surprises me.One thing I have noticed though is that while the evening news is filled with a continuous flow of stories of murder and other violent crimes,the majority are committed by people other than Hispanics. Nothing scientific about that, just a casual observation.My 2Â “Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”

I guess all is not roses here in the Hispanic community. in the neighboring town of GAstonia they arrested the first member of M13 or MS13, anyway the huge Hispanic gang. He is illegal and had 4K of cocaine on him. I am pretty ignorant and don't know it that is a lot or not, but I was sorta set back because the man was on the list of wanted gang members here illegal.But as far as I can see, the biggest majority of our Hispanic community is law abiding, not sure about being taxpayers, I hope they are, because they should be. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

When my son worked at a local grocery store in high school he made many Brown friends. They would come over and play cards, watch movies... sometimes we would do some target shooting or shoot fireworks. They were and are some of the nicest folks I have ever met.

We have 2 sister Hispanic churches that lean on us from time to time for advice, strength and help. Last year we held a 3 day meeting with 12 Hispanic churches supporting the meeting. The Host Hispanic church is the church that we blessed with 13 acres of land and a 2,000 square foot building at no charge because the banks would not let them borrow any money. They have grown into an average of 150 per Sunday and winning souls. We support each other in meetings and they are an awesome people. We have helped a bunch of them get on track with their paperwork to become citizens and gotten some out of trouble. These people are a special group. We never go wrong by doing right. We have a family here in our church that is able to help them get their legals in order. The police chief has even called us when they have had a situation with any of the members to find out what can be done for their help. The rabble rousers are noted and those that are for real are evident. It's been a blessing to help them. Just hearing them worship is an awesome thing. We even do drive thru prayer together and it works

Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/