Men's Breakfast Report, February 2014

The Men’s Breakfast Group met Saturday, February 8th with Mireya Martinez, pastor of the First United Methodist Church, as featured guest. 
Mireya was raised in Corpus Christi, by a Baptist mother and an atheist father.  In the Hispanic neighborhood in which she lived, most of the people on one side of the main street went to the Catholic church and those on the other side went to the Baptist church.  Since they lived on the Catholic side her mother sent her to the Catholic church on Sundays.  One day Mireya said that she needed a special white dress to participate in the ceremonies.  He mother immediately started sending her to the Baptist church.  She majored in music in college and taught school for several years, but always remained interested in religion.  She prayed about how to serve the Lord and applied to divinity school.  Her prayers were answered when she was awarded a scholarship to Perkins Divinity School that paid her way through.  She joined the Methodist Church and has served as pastor for smaller congregations.  First United Methodist Church of Freeport is her first full time Pastorate.  She is single and has never been married. 

The Methodist church has about seventy people attending on Sundays.  The church is almost entirely white Anglo. Most members are old but there is a significant contingent of young adults with children.  This is an encouraging situation for the continuation of the church.  Mireya is hoping to get more Hispanic involvement since she speaks Spanish and much of Freeport is Hispanic. 

 
The daycare business/ministry at the church is no longer in operation.  However, they do have active youth programs for members and the community.  The church is attempting to start a fifth quarter program which has been successful in other communities.  The fifth quarter programs opens up the fellowship hall after home football games to students in the community.  Food, games and entertainment are provided to the students.  The purpose is to provide students with a healthy outlet after the football game so that they do not get into trouble after the game. 
The men had an interesting discussion and a good breakfast.  The next meeting will be Saturday, March 8th.