Vida Nueva celebrating 10th anniversary in DeKalb

Hanging on the walls at Vida Nueva Christian Church in DeKalb are flags from South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica and so on.

For each flag on the wall, Pastor Rodrigo Azofeifa said a member of his church can trace their origins back to that particular country.

“We have people from all over Latin America and South Korea,” Azofeifa said. “Each flag means that at least one person came from that country and attends this church.”

Though Vida Nueva – located at 316 N. Sixth St. in DeKalb – is known primarily as a Hispanic church, Azofeifa said he could not define the church by one particular race or ethnicity.

“We cannot just define ourselves as a Hispanic church, because we are like our community,” said the native of Costa Rica, emphasizing the word community. “Our community is made up of different cultures.”

Vida Nueva, which is Protestant and part of The Wesleyan Church, will host its 10th anniversary Sunday with a special celebration open to the public starting at 3 p.m. A reservation for the event is preferred, Azofeifa said, not because there is a limit to how many people can attend, but he said he wants to make sure there is enough food for everyone.

“We don’t want anyone to have empty hands,” he said.

The event features a special guest speaker, Illinois district superintendent for the Wesleyan Church, Ray Barnwell, a live performance by Mariachi Jerusalen and will end with a traditional Mexican meal.

“We are trying to break the stereotype that the Hispanic people are the low-income people, the uneducated people and that they are trouble makers,” Azofeifa said. “We want [the community] to know us and know that we are family people and are hard workers.”

The church was founded in 1999 by two men who saw a need for a primarily Spanish-speaking church because the population in the area was starting to grow at a steady rate, Azofeifa said.

Ray Anderson, who was a pastor at DeKalb Wesleyan, contacted Ben Moncivaiz, a missionary from Mexico and asked if he would come and help plant a church in DeKalb to meet the needs of the Hispanic community.

Although the two men got together in 1999, the first service was not held until November of 2000, Azofeifa said.

“Moncivaiz moved to Moline to start another church in 2002 and that is when I came,” he said.

When Azofeifa came to the church, the congregation did not have a regular building and although the church is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the community, it only has been in its current location for five years. Before that the church was using any space that was available.

“When I first came to work for the church, we didn’t have a building,” he said. “We used other churches in the area.

“But we saw the need to buy a building because our people are very social and they need a place to be social,” he said.

The church bought a building on North Sixth Street that was a formerly a dry-cleaning business and also a shelter for Hope Haven, Azofeifa said. The building cost about $150,000 and the church it is still working to pay it off.

The purchase of the building was only the start of the work that had to be done. Azofeifa said the building needed to be remodeled and total cost of the renovations were about $125,000.

“We were so fortunate that many churches around the county helped us to fix up the building,” he said. “That was one thing that we did not have to pay for.”

As the church continues to grow and the congregation increases – currently there are about 70 regular members, but many more come on a non-regular basis – Azofeifa said he hopes they can open up new churches in neighboring communities.

“For now, I think we will add additional services,” he said.

The church also is working to start a youth Bible study. Azofeifa said he thinks it is really important to get children involved in church, not just to worship, but because it provides a place for kids to interact.

“The big challenge is that we want to make a bridge between the Spanish culture and American culture,” he said. “We want to break every wall and we want to work together with other churches.”

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If you go

What: Vida Nueva Christian Church's 10th anniversary

Where: Vida Nueva Christian Church, 316 N. Sixth St. in DeKalb

When: 3 p.m. Sunday

Information: Call Pastor Rodrigo Azofeifa at 815-762-5190