“Every time the pressure gets too hard or school gets overwhelming, I just grab a few tracts, go knocking on doors, and look for opportunities to share the Word. I use it as my little therapy session . . . It’s the most rewarding thing; if you find even one or two people with open ears, you get to witness to them. The whole experience is just beautiful.”

Those are the words of Rodrigo Concha, director of Hispanic outreach in southeast Minnesota and 2009 graduate of Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn. For the past three years, Concha—a second career, preseminary student originally from Chile—has been meeting one-on-one with Hispanic families in the region and introducing them to the gospel. He is also working with four largely Anglo congregations to help them reach out to their Spanish-speaking neighbors.

Before Concha came on board, St. John, Glencoe; St. Peter, St. Peter; St. Paul, St. James; and St. John, Sleepy Eye, had been working with their local chapter of WELS Kingdom Workers to get a summer vicar to help with Hispanic outreach in the region. Although the canvassing and vacation Bible school seemed to be working well, Concha thought something was missing.

“I saw the need to have more than just doing vacation Bible school and then goodbye until next summer; I thought the work was getting lost in the middle,” says Concha. “And I started getting into peoples’ ears. I told them that they should have somebody [working the rest of the year], never thinking that somebody was going to be me.”

Concha was asked to be the director on a part-time basis. With WELS Kingdom Workers providing funding for his position, he is now able to spend 20 hours each week visiting Hispanic families in the four towns and doing friendship evangelism.

“I help with their earthly needs,” says Concha. “If they need a consultation to a doctor or need to talk about their children having problems in school, I will do anything that will help them.”

After he helps with their earthly needs, Concha says he introduces why he does it. “A lot of times I get the question, ‘Okay, what do I owe you?’ And I say, ‘Nothing. Salvation from Christ is free, so everything I do for you is free.’ And that brings up the question, ‘What’s all this about free salvation?’ It works well to start the conversation.”

Concha says many people are interested in learning more, and he ends up doing Bible studies and devotions with them. He has even been able to refer families to the local pastors for baptisms, marriages, and funerals.