Virgilio Vazquez-Garza
District Superintendent

Radiating God's love, the Southwest Texas Conference empowers ministries to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Virgilio’s article for June 2009 “Witness”

Acacia and I grew up in the same Methodist Church in Monterrey, Mexico: La Trinidad. When we were in High School, we became “novios,” which could be loosely translated as “dating.” It was a wonderful time for both of us, as we moved from High School to college. She was at medical school and I was at civil engineering. We were talking a few days ago about those days, long gone. How we attended Church on Sunday morning; I would sit with the choir at the front and she would sit with her mother; the afternoon youth meetings; and then, going to drink a soda at a drug store. Going to drink a soda meant that we were using our bus money for the soda and we would have to walk to her home and I would walk to my home from her home. It meant long walks.  As we were talking, we realized that it never occurred to us to use the money we had set aside for God to buy our sodas or for a bus ride. We would place our offering in the plate on Sunday morning, and again during the youth gathering in the afternoon (yes, we had an offering for missions in our youth gatherings). Where did we learn that? It was the culture of our homes. It was the culture of our congregation. What a great legacy that was passed to us by our family and our church. We did not give from our abundance, but from what we had.