11May 2015

Out of breath and overwhelmed, Hec-tor Pineda fell to his

knees on the side of Rimer Pond Road in Blythewood. A marathon runner with a six figure salary as a nationally ranked finance manager for Harley Davidson, he had been unable to shake the niggling vision from the night before. He de-cided to go for a run to clear his head. His sleep had been fitful as he dreamed of a silent Jesus who gestured randomly. His hands were in the posture of having just counted to four.

As he ran, the Lord revealed the vision’s meaning in Hector’s heart: I died, and it was for you. It had nothing to do with the number four and everything to do with an invitation to Come, follow me, from the Man whose

thumbs were visible through nail-pierced palms. When Hector was again able to stand, he ran home to tell his wife—a three-month-old Christian—and has not stopped running hard for Christ ever since.

Today, eight years later, Hector and his wife, Laurie, minister to an internationally eclectic com-munity on a stretch of Decker Boulevard dubbed The Interna-tional Corridor. On an otherwise ordinary Tuesday in April 2014, they opened the doors to the Northeast Market and Coffee House in the old Taco Bell build-ing. Although it seemed like an inopportune time to open—in the middle of the month and in the middle of the week—Laurie felt sure it was the right time. She learned later that it was the

Jewish Passover—a perfect fit for their goals—“to be in relationship with and in community with the people here, many of whom are Jewish.”

As evangelists, the Pinedas want to share the love of Christ in an authentic, “as you are going” kind of way. The front of their build-ing is all glass, and they call it the fish bowl. “Let’s just walk out this Christian life and let them (pass-ersby) see it.” Laurie explains. “They see us stop and pray for everything in here.”

The Pinedas wanted to be good neighbors, so they invited the police and sheriff’s department to stop by for free coffee. That overture developed into Sunday morning chapel services and a Tuesday afternoon Bible study for

Community

By Dawn González

Dawn Gonzalez is a writer, Bible teacher, speaker, and pastor’s wife. She co-founded Columbia World Outreach Church in Columbia with her husband Mike. She contributes to various magazines and websites with features online at TheHigh-Calling.org, incourage.me and LacedWithGrace.com. Dawn blogs at DawnGonzalez.com.

Hector & Laurie Pineda:

So that’s what evangelism looks like

Harrison Pineda, (student at Hope Chris-tian Academy at First Baptist Church) with JT from Catch the Fire Ministries

Catch the Fire Conference

Worship team at Friday evening gathering

CommunityMay 2015

the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. “They come in in uniform, get coffee, and get prayed for,” says Laurie, who was recently sworn in as a Sheriffs’ Department chaplain. “It’s nice for them if they are just a bit down or struggling a little. They know they will find encourage-ment here.”

Laurie began attending nearby homeowners association meet-ings. Hector is always looking for ways to serve his neighbors. Both actions have afforded them chances to share their faith. “If you just develop relationships enough, you earn the right to speak into people,” says Hector.

Hector and Laurie capitalized on an initial invitation to a northeast Columbia pastors’ alliance and now have deepening connections with 28 churches in the area. Many pastors haven’t known what to think of the unconven-tional couple, but over time have embraced this evangelism minis-try that wants to work with local churches, not compete against them. “Being evangelists,” Laurie

says, “we wanted to reach out to people, but we didn’t want to plant a church.”

Because the Pinedas often minis-ter to those who’ve been wound-ed by the church or have become Christians and are in need of a church, the relationships they’ve built with local pastors allow them to introduce people in need of discipleship to the church. “We lead people into the kingdom and into–or back into–the church.” It took pastors a while to under-stand the Pinedas’ ministry, but now, says Laurie, “they’re starting to ‘get’ who we are. They’re see-ing people, hearing stories, and watching what’s happening.”

Several churches in the area want to partner with them financially. This is a good development be-cause the ministry, although once funded by a for-profit vintage and antique market with leased space for vendors to sell their wares, now runs entirely on donations and faith. They closed the busi-ness side of the Northeast Market and Coffee House in January. Eventually they took the prices

off the menu as well.

“It was never about the coffee anyway,” Laurie says, “it was always about ministry.” After she learned of Jon Bon Jovie’s successful restaurant run com-pletely on donations rather than competitive pricing, the Pinedas decided to do the same with a big God and a small coffee shop.

The first day of no prices and no suggested donations, a lady donated $14 for one cup of cof-fee. They’ve had donations of as much as $100 for a single cup of self-serve java. Generosity like this enables the Pinedas, who have since given up successful careers in mortgage lending and Harley Davidson record-setting sales, to give love away to their neighbors one cup of coffee at a time. “We give away a lot,” Lau-rie says. “It’s sowing and reaping.”

In response to their otherwise unexplained kindness, they’ve seen a 72-year-old self-pro-claimed atheist who retired from a career in academia acknowl-edge Jesus as Lord and commit

Hosting a breakfast for the Richland Country council on human trafficking

Prophetic Art Training meeting taught by Brenda Dukes

Hosting the NE Pastors Luncheon

Sign for the FREE CHRISTMAS LUNCH

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13May 2015Community

to following him. They’ve men-tored three teenage sisters, taught them to sew, and introduced them to Jesus through movies and con-versations. They’ve fed Christmas lunch to anyone who wanted to come in. More than 200 did in 2014, and Hector and Laurie de-cided right there over Christmas dinner that it would be an annual event.

They have embraced the home-less, the wealthy, the sex-trafficked, and the prostitutes. They’ve welcomed Asians, Europeans, Africans, Muslims, Hindus, and Hebrews. They’ve reached out to law enforcers and lawbreakers.

Hector and Laurie partner with local churches, food banks, His House, and Christ Central Ministries to help connect needy people to necessary resources. Up until March, they had been teaching Dave Ramsay’s Financial Peace University on Wednesday

evenings, leading Bible studies, and educating communities about what local sex-trafficking looks like. Their open-ended Friday night worship services differed from one week to the next. They continued to use the Bible, prayer, relationships, neighborliness, cof-fee, and sewing machines to reach out to their community.

Now the Pinedas are dealing with a new challenge—reloca-tion. Early this year their landlord informed them he needed to put the building on the market. “Be-cause the market is slow, he didn’t expect it to sell quickly,” Laurie says. In less than a month, the landlord had an interested buyer.

What does this mean for the ministry? “We’re staying in the area,” Laurie says. At the time of this writing (early April), they were exploring the option of leas-ing the old Red Lobster building on Decker Boulevard, across the street from their original location.

Hoping to partner with Sandhills Community Church, the Pine-das would have expanded space in which to minister during the week, and the church would have a location in which to hold Sunday services for a prospective church plant.

In the eight years since Hector and Laurie Pineda became Chris-tians, they’ve always felt God would take them to the nations. They’ve gone to Liberia, Ukraine, and Costa Rica to learn inter-national evangelism in a global arena. Then God brought them home to set down ministry roots right here in their hometown. Hector calls it “doing internation-al ministry domestically.”

Laurie calls it “being ordinary Amoses. We know who we love, who the Lord is, and who we want to serve. The Lord will do the rest.” ROC

Saturday sidewalk sale

Community volunteers helping Girl Scouts learn to sew

A typical Friday evening gathering

Hector sharing THE GOOD NEWS on a Friday Night Gathering

Summer sewing program for girls in the community