The Church Should
Be Present

The year was 1973. It was a Friday. I received a call from the Rev. Chris Hartmire, Executive Director of the National Farm Worker Ministry, based in California. I was Executive Director of Agricultural Missions, Inc., in New York. Both agencies were related to the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Chris said, "I'm calling on behalf of César Chávez, President of the United Farm Workers (UFW). The workers are striking in the Coachella Valley for the right to bargain in good faith with grape growers. The grapes are ripe for harvest. Goons are being called in from Los Angeles to break the strike. They threaten violence on Monday unless the strike is called off. We think the church should be present. Can you be there?"

I could be. I flew to Los Angeles on Sunday, drove to Coachella and checked into a motel. I tried to sleep wondering what tomorrow would bring. I had never seen a strike, much less taken part in one. Morning came. While it was yet dark, I drove to the park in Coachella passing the parking lot where burly truck drivers were being issued ball bats and chains to break the strike, and break Mexican heads if necessary.

In the park, workers were gathering, whole families of them. Having been a missionary in Latin America, I could understand what they were saying to each other. They were afraid. So was I. But, they were also determined to achieve their rightful goal of fair wages and healthy working conditions in the fields. We had coffee, had prayer and were assigned to the various ranches where the strike had been in progress for days.

What I had not expected happened. Among us there in the park were 90 delegates from the United Church of Christ's Ninth Synod Meeting in St. Louis. They had been commissioned the day before to accompany the farm workers on this day. The church had chartered a plane to Ontario, California, to bring them there. For the workers, for all of us, it was like an answer to prayer: pastors in their clerical collars, lay men and women, church executives and officers of the denomination. Standing with farm workers in their struggle for justice.

By daybreak we were at the farm to which we'd been assigned, along with workers, church members and friends marching back and forth. Strike breakers, standing in the edge of the vineyard across the road, hurled angry epithets (not fit to print) at us. Police cars patrolled the space between us. César Chávez and his family were also on the picket line.

There I saw, in the eyes of Hispanic workers, hope, and self-esteem like I had never experienced in my work among landless workers in Latin America. These were organized. Violence was averted, negotiations began and, eventually, contracts were signed.

Back in New York, I reported to the church leaders who made up the Board of Agricultural Missions, Inc., which voted to become a full member of the National Farm Worker Ministry, along with many other Catholic and Protestant church organizations. Being present with farm workers in their struggle for justice has changed the church. It has changed my life. Thanks be to God!