Finding furtile soil in rural Indiana

The beginning stages of starting a worker center in an area that is not politically active has certainly been challenging. With the worker center only being opened for three months much of the time we are busy building the capacity of the worker center and spreading the word about it's availability. The churches are the only social institution in the area. I have been busy planting seeds amongst various churches in the Logansport-Delphi-Monticello-Peru-Lafeyette-Kokomo-Frankort area. These rural cities all have small but growing members of Hispanic workers who work in the various meatpacking plants.

But still this area is approximately 80-85% anglo and I need to make sure that we not limiting ourselves to advertising our center to Hispanic workers. I am told there is racial hostility in the region and Indiana is the state with the most surviving members of the KKK. I have found pastors from Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic denominations who have diverse/liberal backgrounds and understand the reasons why many people from Latin America have crossed the border illegally. However some of their congregations are very conservative and change in rural Indiana takes time. Also the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette has reassigned a lot of their pastors in the area so they are in the process of building relationships just like us.

As each week passes I feel I more confident because I have built a relationship with at least one minister who embraces worker values and worker rights that they can minister those aspects to members in their congregation who can value worker rights in abstract concepts. Then there will be a time when those abstract concepts of worker values and dignity will be objective with local advocacy and actions.

Peace,
Ken