Windermere Baptist Conference Center gave construction workers a special lunch break on April 29, honoring them with a cookout and presenting each with a Bible.
Workers are busily completing the initial phase of the Wilderness Creek project, which is scheduled to open this summer with a 1,500-seat auditorium and nine additional sleeping and meeting lodges.
Windermere employees presented more than 50 Bibles as a thank-you gift to workers, who represented 11 different companies.
Hispanic Bibles were presented to some of the workers by Orel Garcia Pineda, who works with the Lamine Baptist Association Hispanic ministry based at Osage Hills Baptist Church.
"We have been looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with these workers who don't speak English," Windermere president Frank Shock said. "I am so grateful that Pastor Orel was available to help us minister to these men."
Pineda is active in Hispanic ministry across the area. He serves as a translator in the Parents as Teachers program for the Camden County R-III School District. He is also active in prison ministry at the Morgan County Jail in Versailles. He has been instrumental in the development of the Lake Area Center for the Education, Health and Culturalization of the Latino Community, sponsoring a health fair as well as hosting a conference for the National Association for Mental Illness (NAMI). He leads a Bible study.
After visiting with some of the workers, Pineda scheduled a Bible study for Tuesday evening on the Windermere campus. Workers from other companies have been invited to studies and fellowships by several on-campus employees.
"It's our desire that no one leaves Windermere without the opportunity to make life-changing decisions," Shock said.
