DHLC has supported the San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church, our sister congregation in Tucson, for many years. Pastor Mateo Chavez has even taught Spanish classes for the congregation interested in participating and learning more about the language. The Education Committee is helping the youth of San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church as they prepare to attend the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans in July. To defray of the cost of the six youth and three adults attending, the Education Committee, on behalf of the youth of San Juan Bautista, took orders for handmade beef or spinach tamales in early April. The San Juan Bautista Lutheran youth raised over $3,000 for their trip with the tamales sold to members of DHLC.
The board of the DHLC Foundation voted to grant $4,000 from the Overson Leadership Fund to help fund the San Juan Bautista youth trip to the ELCA Youth Gathering this summer for their six youths and their chaperones. The purpose of the Overson Leadership Fund is to advance the education of future leaders in the church. In the past, the fund has assisted college students involved in Lutheran Campus Ministry at U of A to take mission trips. Church trips are often transformational in a person’s faith journey. So, between the sale of tamales and the grant from the church's foundation, The San Juan youth have over $7,000 towards the estimated cost of the trip to the youth gathering.