1981 - History of La Primera Iglesia Bautista de Mascotte
Having retired after 36 years of missionary service e in Zaire, Africa, Eldo Epp studied Spanish, not knowing just why, but believing that God was going to use the knowledge of that language for His glory. In the fall of 1981, Eldo and his wife Verna were burdened for the Mexicans living in the area where they were retired. Meanwhile, Hillcrest Baptist Church in Mascotte had been praying for someone who could speak Spanish to give the Gospel to the parents of the children that were being bussed in for Sunday School. A telephone call to Pastor Don Hayes brought them together. Immediately, house to house visita- tions was begun. Eldo was taking Spanish classes at Lee Adult Center that were being taught by Felix Ramirez. As Eldo's health no longer allowed him to give messages in addition to house to house visita- tion, they prayed for a Spanish speaking pas- tor to begin services in Spanish. God brought them into contact with Rev. Guillermo Pich. He had a missionary heart and was working in the Language Missions division of the Florida Baptist Convention. In addition to his work in two other missions, he agreed to come to us and have meetings on Saturday evenings. This was ideal as most of the people worked on Sunday picking oranges. Starting at "O" the numbers grew to 25 - 30 - 40 and for special services to 100. Eldo and Verna visited all day Saturday and occasionally Pastor Pich was able to come early from Lakeland and visit for 1 - 2 hours also. Six months later, in April 1982, God called Eldo home very suddenly. Verna had begun Learning Spanish on the job by talking it. Now three other missionaries, also living at A.IM. Retirement Center outside of Minneola, though not Spanish speaking, volunteered to help in any way that they could. Margaret Clapper and Ray and Sara Stauffacher paired up with those speaking Spanish (including Maria Warburton from Costl Rica) and honed in on Visitation. Ray played the piano for services. After six months, October, 1992, Rev. Pich moved on to open other new missions. It was a struggle to get speakers for Saturday evening meetings. An agreement was reached for Felix Ramirez to come as pastor of the Spanish mission. The Florida Baptist Convention, Lake County Association, with Hillcrest Baptist Church all assumed responsibility for a modest remuneration. Felix is also employed by the Lake County School System. The attendance crept up again until we had an average of 50 - 60 adults in the peak orange picking season. The Lord gave fruit in the work of which Clemente Morales is an outstanding exam- ple After Clemente and his wife Nicolasa accepted Christ as their Savior and were baptized, he grew spir- itually by leaps and bounds. He read God's word every available moment, tes- tifying to family and friends. He asked Verna to come to their home and teach them, which she did, using the new believ- ers' "Follow Me" (Sigue me in Spanish). Clemente began tithing and refused to work on Sundays. He was very bur- dened for his unsaved family in Mexico. Six months after his conversion he left his job and returned with his family to Mexico. In spite of persecution, he began services in his home while carrying on intense visitation from house to house. A Baptist missionary in the area ministered to Clemente and helped him with services. In answer to prayer, Clemente was able to go to Bible School, - he had no formal education and was completely self taught in all that he knew. He graduated from Bible School in 1987 and begun a church in his hometown of Dolores Hidalgo. There are several churches now preaching the Word and souls are being saved. Returning to our story in Mascotte. In 1985 was the culmi- nating big freeze, which practically finished off all the citrus trees in the area. The vast majority of the migrants did not return to our area the following season. A few came back to locate permanently, working in nurseries and other available jobs. This number has increased bit by bit until there was a nucleus of people with whom to work. Each year orange groves were being replaced with thousands of trees so that the Lord willing this area should once again be the Citrus belt of Florida. In 1986, the Spanish meetings switched from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. There had been an adult Sunday School class previously on Sunday morning while the children and youth attended English classes. In 1988 Sunday evening services were started. Hillcrest Baptist Church had the vision of reaching the Spanish speaking people in the community for Christ. Through the years, they cooperated with the Spanish work and supported it monetarily. This included a place for wor- ship services, Sunday School, social gatherings and also giv- ing out clothing and food to those needing it. Felix Ramirez has served as pastor for 17 years, since September 1983. He and his devoted wife, Maria, have worked faithfully with a vision that has not dimmed. He can ministered the Word of God so well to the Christians. Cruz Ruiz, a pillar in the church, committed her life to Christ in 1984. When the door of the church open, Cruz is there. She is active in visitation, co-teaches Sunday School, and was the Treasurer of the church until this year. She, Margaret Clapper, and Lucia Loveland with Verna Epp con- tinued house to house visitation in the community from week to week. Carlos and Sara Rivera have shown real spiritual growth after accepting Christ and being baptize in 1986-87. They witness to others. Sara assists Carlos with Evangelism and bus ministry. Carlos drives a van to pick up the children for Sunday School and is an associate pastor. January 8, 1989, La Primiera Iglesia Bautista de Mascotte constituted with a roster of 25 members. They expected a marked growth as their testimony of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will be evident to the entire community and there iS a greater awareness of the existence of the First Spanish Baptist Church of Mascotte - a church ready to meet their Spiritual needs. In the fall of 1989 we became an incorporated church locat- ed at 857 West Meyers Blvd. in Mascotte, Florida. Feliciano Felix Ramirez was (and still is) our pastor. Under his direc- tion and leadership, we have grown to over 50 members. We have worship and praise services on Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday. We also have prayer meet- ing every Monday night and these are held at different con- gregation members' houses. In addition, we have disciple- ship for ages 4 to adult on Sunday evenings along with Sunday School teacher's training class and choir practice on Saturday night. We are very active in the Lake County Baptist Association and the Regional Confraternidad. We have seen many lives grow and change because of God's influence through our church. We continue to reach out to those in need in our community. We helped start a Spanish Mission at Clermont Baptist Church in Clermont, Florida, as the minister is going through seminary with our encourage- ment and financial support. Even though strong winds and rains almost completely destroyed our church roof in July 1998, we did not close our doors or our lives to God. We met at another local Baptist Church for awhile, two civic centers, then in an elementary school and now in a rented module on our church property. We have been holding many of our class- es outside, whenever possible, due to the limited amount of, space in a double wide. We have also been preparing the most of the damaged church building our- selves for rebuilding and enlarging. We are moving ahead on this project and the Lord moved the Florida Baptist Association to loan us money. For the past two years we have worked diligently on our new building. Besides our own congregation we have had much financial and prayerful assistant from several churches and other Christians who have supported us. We have done most of the work ourselves but have hired out the big jobs for companies to do. We have met many obstacles along the way, such as the remaining walls that were left after the first storm wre blown down during another storm. Also, during inspection, it was in the plans, and the inspector recom- mended that the walls be torn down. Among other things, there were more additional costs then had been anticipated in which our loans did not cover. The Lord has been faithful as always and brought groups of people or individuals to fill in the gap and we continued as planned with our building. We now have the outside completely done and are nearing completion of the inside. We hope to have the sanctuary completed soon and dedicate it to the Lord and have our first service there in a short time. Through all the work and dedication of fellow believers and our congregation we can rest in the Lord knowing that this was His plan for us and that we wre all strengthened and drew closer to Him as we felt His presence when we word ed towards out goal. This is a building that we can be very proud of and can hand down to our children who will also take great pride in knowing that their parents worked per- sistently through good times and bad to provide a place for the community to come worship and serve. This is a landmark in the history of Mascotte, especially for the Hispanic families, a church that we planned together with God and saw through to completion. Due to the dedication and commitment of Eldo and Verna Epp, this sanctuary will be named after them.[Contributors: ]