TOPPENISH — New Life Hispanic Ministries is challenging Toppenish churches to integrate their congregations. Elias Garcia, the group’s director, is encouraging a bilingual outreach. 
“Everyone else in our country has integrated; the government, schools, and others, but the church is behind on this,” Garcia said. 
Garcia and his family are originally from Venezuela, and have come to our area as a response to a need that he saw. The vision of New Life Ministries began with missionaries from the Yakima Valley traveling to Venezuela and Mexico to assist the church planters who lived there. The missionaries had no experience in church planting in their own area, however the culture they were trying to reach in Venezuela and Mexico also lived in their own backyard, Garcia said. 
“As an organization we do not do the church’s job for them, but we facilitate and encourage them to be relevant to their community,” he said. 
Garcia and New Life encourage churches to represent their community for their pews.
“When people come together across all racial, social, and historical boundaries, then our city will be changed,” he said. 
Garcia believes that when the people of God come together in Toppenish, the issues of gang violence will be addressed and reduced. And that integration encourages a responsibility in our community. He explained the “we” versus “I” mentality.
“The ‘I’ mentality says the gang problem is because their parents didn’t pay enough attention, and the ‘we’ mentality says that I can make a change in someone’s life even if they aren’t my own child,” Garcia said.
Garcia plans to begin a bilingual bible study at Calvary Bible Church, and eventually a bilingual service to bring together different cultures living in the same community. He hopes to find creative ways to integrate the Anglo, Hispanic and Native American people in the Toppenish community.
Eventually, Garcia hopes to see the churches of Toppenish reaching out across boundaries to reach all creeds of people.