Juan Conde Pena’s Life 4

Juan Conde Pena’s Life  4
Presentado por; Iris de La Rosa Vélez, 2014

 

 

At this juncture, I went to work for the lord, he does not discriminate

In spite of all the aggravations I went through during the seventeen years I worked for that company, there were three things that kept me goingː my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, my wife, and my three wonderful children. Since I was attending church, I decided to direct all my efforts to do the Lord’s work. With that in mind, I began my studies in a Bible Institute, and I spent more time evangelizing. When my pastor noticed my dedication in the Lord’s work, he selected me as his assistant pastor. By that time, I had already served in the Sunday biblical school as a teacher and as superintendent. The position of Assistant Pastor required a well-trained minister; therefore, after I finished the required three years in Biblical Studies, I registered in a program at Adelphi University to obtain my Bachelor of Science Degree. This program was sponsored by the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Church to help ministers who belonged to a minority group.

They helped us obtain our degree through The Adelphi University located in Garden City, NY. In addition, they offered to pay for a master’s degree program with the New Brunswick Seminary. At the same time, they asked me to preach the Word to a small group in Newburgh, New York. Although, they were going to pay me $100.00 to preach on the Sunday services, I did not accept because they instructed me to refrain from teaching about the spiritual gifts. I believe with all my heart that the spiritual gifts are still applicable to the church in this present age. I base my belief on the Bible, in I Corinthians Chapters 12 and 14.

After obtaining my Bachelor of Science Degree from the Adelphi University, I registered for the master’s degree with the New Brunswick Seminary.  The master’s degree program encompassed a total of 92 credits and included a practical knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages. Although I wanted to acquire all the hnowledge available to me to serve the Lord better, I stayed in the master’s degree program for only one year because I was very tired. I had been working and at the same time attending school continuously for 14 years. At this juncture, I felt the lord calling me to return to Puerto Rico. My wife and the two younger children agreed to stay in New York while I built the house in Puerto Rico. Fortunately, my oldest daughter from high school and was working. My wife was also working, so I made my decision to move to Puerto Rico when my two oldest children were already faring for themselves.

 

I returned to Puerto Rico

I moved in with my mother, who was living alone because by that time my father had passed away. My first concern became finding a church in Puerto Rico that was affiliated with The Assembly of Christian Churches. During the first month there, I wrote to the main office of The Assembly of Christian Churches in New York for instructions about attending their nearest church in the island, but they did not reply. Consequently. I joined a group of Christians that were preaching in my neighborhood. This group belonged to an organization named The Universal Church of Jesus Christ. One of their pastors and a group from this church were evangelizing in my community. Since they came from a distant community, they needed someone to represent their church in my community. After listening to my preaching they chose me to lead the group.

 

The lord called me to serve as pastor in my first church

In the beginning, I felt very thrilled to pastor a church, but as time passed I became disappointed because there were so many things happening to me at once. First, I could not find a job. Second, the church that I was pastoring did not grow. Third, my wife and my youngest daughter (who by that time had come from New York) could not get used to the new environment. There were many hardships we had to conquer in order to get adjusted to the new way of life. Fortunately, I was still collecting my unemployment insurance checks, and some members of my church were helping us financially.

Relatives and neighbors rallied around me to build our house

My second concern was to build my own house. Since I did not have enough money, my brother, Lupe, suggested selling the lot he had given me and using the money to purchase construction materials. He also gave me the lot he had prepared in my father’s land. Since he had already leveled the land, it became easier for me to start the construction. The biggest obstacle I confronted was carrying the construction materials from the main road to the building site. Every time it rained, the downward current dug deep ditches in the road. Consequently, it became difficult for the trucks to bring the materials to the building site. Whenever this happened, I had to transport cement blocks, gravel, sand, 8’ by 4’ panels, and 3’ by 5’ lumber, etc. by either carrying them on my shoulders or on an old wheelbarrow.

Since I never before worked in carpentry, I solicited the help of my relatives and friends. This wonderful people agreed to work with me until the house was built. Among the relatives, I’m deeply grateful to my brother ‘’Paco’’ and my cousin ‘’Goyo’’. They were experienced carpenters who worked for weeks without getting paid. I’m also grateful to my nephew, Reynolds, who was a knowledgeable mason, electrician, and plumber. Several times in the evening, my brother, Paco, would say to me that he was not going to help me anymore. But when mornings came, he would change his mind and continued helping me. I always attributed this change of mind to my nightly prayers. In addition to the aforementioned relatives, some friends were always willing to lend me a hand.

It took approximately a year to finish the construction. When I ran out of money, I waited impatiently for my next unemployment check to arrive in order to continue the construction. The lack of money on time caused the delay in finishing the job. Oftentimes, I worked without eating lunch, because I wanted to have the house built as soon as possible. During those days, I managed to diminish my hunger by eating one or two grapefruits. There were plenty and they were juicy, and delicious. Of course, I lost of weight. When I met with my wife at the airport, she thought that I was sick. In reality, I had never felt better in my life. My next job was to construct two sidewalks from my house to the main road. I leveled the land to make it ready to pour the cement. We used over 90 bags of cement, about four meters of gravel and the same amount of sand to make the mixture. I was grateful to get my cousin, Goyo, and his sons to help me do this job. God bless them. Afterwards, I maintained a clean driveway by cutting the grass on both sides twice a month.

Once I finished the construction, I planted a garden. In this garden, I planted string beans, yucca roots, sweet potatoes, ñames and yautia. I also planted the following fruit treesː guavas, mangoes, avocados, hobos, and coffee. Later I planted bananas, plantains, and three coconut palm trees. I was encouraged to continue planting things because I had bountiful crops the first time. Additionally, I needed meat and poultry products to balance the diet. For this purpose, my brother, Lupe, gave me two pigs and some hens. Soon after that, the hens were producing eggs and meat for the family. Since my goal was to produce what we ate. I also bought a cow for milk. Although I enjoyed drinking the cow’s milk, my wife and daughter never got used to drinking crude milk. For them, I had to buy the regular milk from the supermarket.

 

I burned wood to make coal and…

I also endeavored to produce coal from wood. First, I chopped the wood into 4 feet pieces, and I leveled the land; second, I placed the pieces of wood in layers in a crisscross fashion; and third, I covered the wood and covered the opening. These ‘’hogueras’’ would burn for at least 24 hours. Others would burn for days. The size of them and the type of wood determine the time it takes for the process to be completed. In order to get the most coal, one must keep a constant watch over it day and night.  One cannot allow opening to develop because the wood to burn up without producing coal. In Puerto Rico, people who live in the mountains produce wooden coal commercially.

 

Finally I became self-sufficient

By the end of the fourth years, I was producing most of the foods we consumed in the house. I felt so proud when I picked, dried, peeled, and roasted the first coffee beans. After roasting them, I used a glass bottle to gind them because I did not have a coffee grinder. I just ground enough coffee beans for a few cups of coffee. I still remember how I relished drinking that first cup of my own grown coffee. That was real coffee!

On June 19, 1978, my oldest daughter, Maggie, gave birth to her daughter, Janeen. We were very happy to have our first granddaughter. Since Maggie needed to continue working, my youngest daughter, Adela, returned to New York to help her care for the baby. She was very happy to be back in the Bronx, New York, where she was raised. A short time later she met and married a wonderful young man.

I started working for the Department of Education in Puerto Rico

After living in Puerto Rico for four years, I realized that in order to obtain employment there I had to join a political party. I joined the New Progressive Party, which had won the previous election. It was through the mayor’s office that I obtained employment with the Department of Education. My position entailed the followingː First; I helped the School Superintendent prepare the annual budget for the office personnel’s salaries and for the educational and office’s supplies. Second, I visited the teachers in the district to evaluate their educational needs. Third, I submitted the respective proposals to the school and office supplies’ companies. Fourth, I bought the supplies from those that quoted the lowest prices. Finally, I helped the salesmen deliver the educational supplies to the teachers in the Juncos’ district.

I acquired the necessary experience as an English teacher as I worked on that job

I worked in that position for two years until I applied for a teaching position. Since I had studied in the United States, they offered me a position as an English teacher in a secondary school. Although I did not know the teaching methodology, I was hired in that position anyway. A year later, the Department of education offered the course, teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) to the English Teachers through the University of Puerto Rico. I took those courses and I became a certified Secondary English Teacher. Since I started working full time and ministering to the church at night, it became impossible to take care of the farm animals, or to plant my garden. I decided then, to sell the cattle and to give away the chicken and the hens. The people from my church and from my neighborhood took advantage of my offer and took them away.

My wife and I returned to New York to attend my son’s wedding

Meanwhile, my son Junior was taking courses in electronic at C.I.T in New York City where he graduated fifth I.T.T., a telecommunications company, recruited him upon graduation. This company hired him to replace a sixty seven-year-old man who was about to retire. It paid him a good salary; and after saving money for a year, he got married. My wife and I purchased the plane tickets to be at his wedding. It was a wonderful event where the entire family was reunited after being separated for about four years. Unfortunately, after staying with them for two weeks, we again returned to Puerto Rico. However, my wife returned to New York a year later, on April 1982, when my youngest daughter, Adela, Gave birth to her daughter. She stayed in New York for forty-five days to help with her baby, named Eileen.

I tried to survive without my wife’s help

During my wife’s absence, I realized how much I depended on her. I missed her company, her love and care, and last but not least, I missed her cooking. I have to admit that I have never learned to cook. Although some of the girls in my office gave me cooking instructions, I have never learned to cook a complete meal. During my wife’s absence, I only ate rice with fried eggs only because that’s what I had learned to cook. Consequently, every evening as I drove the van to pick up the brethren for the church service, I would feel something like a ball in my stomach moving up and down. Thanks God that my wife returned from New York and things became normal.

I became a certified Secondary English Teacher

Meanwhile, I continued pasturing the church, working for the Department of Education, and attending classes two nights during the week, and half a day on Saturdays. It took me one and a half years to complete the TESOL courses. After completing them, I felt more relaxed in the schoolroom because I had learned to present my lessons effectively. I continued teaching in the Juncos’ district until 1988 when the Popular Democratic Party won that election. They had already registered me with the New Progressive Party (their opponents); therefore, when my turn came up for a teaching position, they skipped my name and assigned it to someone else. When I went to clarify this matter with the people in the main office, they assigned me to one of the worst schools know on the Gurabo’s district. I started teaching in a hot room near the fence that surrounded the school building. That fence was supposed to protect the school population from outsiders, but most of the time they left the gates opened, and the boys from the neighrhood came to annoy the girls in my class. It became impossible to teach there because I had to deal constantly with outsiders in addition to the five enormous groups of 35 to 40 students. To make matters worse, most of them did not care to learn English. So for me, teaching English as a second language in the public schools in Puerto Rico became almost impossible.

I left teaching to enroll in the master of divinity program in New York City

After working with the Department of Education for seven years, I decided to quit. I also planned to leave the church and return to New York City to continue my studies toward a Master Degree in Divinity. Therefore, I took a month’s leave of absence from the church, and my wife and I returned to New York City. I did not tell anyone about my intentions. We stayed in the Bronx, NY, with my oldest daughter, Maggie, and her husband Thomas. Immediately thereafter, I started visiting my old friends from my previous church.

Something extraordinary happened one day while we visited a dear sister. She took my wife into the kitchen; and while she prepared dinner, she told her a story. As I was reading the Bible, I overheard the story the sister was telling my wife. She was telling her about a pastor who had left his congregation in Puerto Rico. She was saying ‘’this pastor dreamt every night about how the members in his congregation kept begging him to return because they needed him’’. ‘’Although he continued having those dreams she added; he ignored them, until finally he died unexpectedly’’. That dear sister said that perhaps the Lord sent for him because of his disobedience. That story made me very uncomfortable because I was planning to do the same thing, but I did not change my mind.

As I wrote in the previous paragraph, I wanted to continue studying in the Master of Divinity Program. But something miraculous happened, that even to this date I cannot understand. When I went to register, I walked up and down the same block about five times where the school was located and could not find it. Although I had studied in that school about four years earlier, it miraculously disappeared from my eyes. In my return trip home, I surmised that the Lord was prodding me by these aforementioned signs that I should return to the church in Puerto Rico. After staying in New York City for three weeks, I returned to Puerto Rico to do the Lord’s will.

The Lord has his own ways to submit me to his will

Although I returned to the same church with only 27 members, and most of them were unemployed women, I felt more confidence because I felt certain that I was doing the Lord’s will. In those days, the church was paying me $25.00 to $30.00 weekly, and I did not have any other income. Moreover, my wife was suffering with diabetes, and she needed doctor’s care and medication. Our financial situation was at low ebb. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, we managed to survive during that terrible period. I continued taking care of the church diligentlyː I drove the van, I carried the amplifier and speakers, and I preached almost every night. Additionally, I evangelized in my neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods with the extraordinary help of my wife and the wonderful group of people that I was proud to pastor. In the meantime, I had to learn to drive a standard shift van with   no power steering. I developed muscle from so much steering as I drove into the remotest places in my neighborhood.