-by David Hoovler

The basement of Clark Chapel isn't much of a sanctuary. The low ceiling threatens to squash the small group gathered beneath it. The fluorescent lights leave the occasional shadow lurking in the corner, and flicker ominously shortly into the service. But they stay on, and the atmosphere remains easygoing and upbeat.

The service had no organ, no choir, no offering. A band of two guitars, a keyboard, and a drum set played songs of praise, and the speaker was the only one in the room wearing a tie. He spoke about being children of God, about the authority of that status, and told stories about a policeman, a Brazilian missionary, and his own son.

At least I think so. You see, yo no hablo mucho español, and the service, like all of the Sunday-night services held there since last October, was entirely in Spanish. It was somewhat frustrating for your author, a refreshing pleasure for the missionaries and Spanish students in the room, but, it is hoped, a true blessing to the local Hispanic people who sat near the back of the congregation.

They represent what, to Pastor David Grout, is "an easy-to-overlook population" in central Kentucky, a population to whom he has dedicated much of his life. To that end, he has been glad to be a part of expanding Hispanic ministries across Kentucky, including the Spanish service in his own church.

David Grout's bronze skin, dark hair, and neat moustache hint at a Spanish background, and slight artifacts of inflection in his voice can be traced to the fact that he was raised in southern Texas, just a few miles from the Mexican border. His parents, like his grandparents before, were involved in the United Methodist Church as pastors to Hispanic congregations, and as a youth, he often participated in mission trips to Latin America and Spain. "It would be almost unnatural," he says, reflecting on his childhood, "for me to be totally removed from [Spanish-speaking ministry]."

Four years after graduating from Asbury College in 1980, marrying, and accepting a job as a music minister in Ohio, Grout took steps to return himself to Hispanic ministry by returning to Wilmore to attend Asbury Theological Seminary. He was ordained as a United Methodist minister, and pastored several Hispanic churches in Texas in the seven years following his graduation. In 1995, he returned to Kentucky to accept a call to the Wilmore United Methodist Church.

Almost from the start of his ministry in Kentucky, Grout took on the little-known need of ministering to the growing Hispanic population. These are a people that, according to him, are "not an invisible population, but an easy-to-overlook population."

Grout was thrilled to see factors come together for beginning a Spanish-speaking ministry in his own congregation. The spark came in the form of current, bilingual members of the church who, according to Grout, had "a Spanish preference, not a Spanish need." These former missionaries to Latin America or Spain, international and foreign-language students from the seminary and college, and people who were raised in a Spanish-speaking environment began meeting in late October, 1998, for a Spanish service during the existing Sunday evening worship time.

Currently, the hour-long service is attended by a growing number of people, from 18 to as many as 30, who are, saving the odd gringo writer, united by a language. Recently, from one-quarter to nearly a third of the worshippers have been people from the community for whom Spanish is their primary, or only, language.

The ministry is clearly a dream brought to reality for Grout, who heartily expresses his excitement over its success: "It's exciting when you are thinking about something, praying about something, knowing that it has to be done, but also knowing there's a timing issue, and suddenly everything is right there in front of you. Then you have the decision, 'Am I going to do this? I’ve been praying for this and now here it is; am I going to do it?' And we did. It's been a neat thing."