A Hot Meal, a Warm Welcome, and a New Beginning

Linda “Qween” Davis has always worshiped God. “I’m always praying to God, asking him to help me and take care of me,” she said, “but I have a long way to go.”

Her first encounter with the Highland Park Community Assistance Network (HPCAN) came when she and her husband, who died a year ago, attended one of the Tuesday night community meals. He suggested they go out for a hot dinner.

“And I’m like, where?” Qween remembered, “and he said, ‘At the church.’”

She remembers the warm welcome that came with the hot meal, especially from Kathy Lopez.

Later, Qween became part of the Monday ceramics class, where she met Angelina Guajardo, program director for Divine Women, a support ministry for women. At Guajardo’s invitation, Qween participated in the group for a while.

Eventually, she began volunteering in the kitchen for the Tuesday meals, the same ministry through which she first encountered HPCAN. “I’ve always liked to cook, and I like to help people as much as I can,” she said. “I try not to miss. I’m there helping in the community, serving the food and everything.”

Daniel Arredondo, Minister of Outreach, calls her a great worker. “She’s a valued member of our kitchen team,” he said. “Her heart is growing.”

Coworker Bobann Moore agreed. “When we’re in that kitchen, she will do anything, anything at all to help,” Moore said.

Vernon Liverett remarked on Qween’s cheerful attitude and the way she relates to guests. “Qween has a good relationship with the people that come through the line,” Liverett said. “She makes them comfortable. She makes it feel relaxed and kids around with them. And then just makes the whole interaction very positive.”

“When I’m up there serving the food and stuff, I’m always telling them, ‘Welcome. Have a happy Tuesday. Don’t forget to thank the good Lord for this day,’” Queen said. “I know half of the people that come and eat at the church.”

Among the Tuesday night volunteers, Qween has found more than a place to serve. She has found community. “We’re always laughing and joking and playing around with each other,” she said. “And whenever something’s wrong with me or I’m sick or something, they always check up on me.”

That kind of care stood out to her. It was not what she had experienced in churches as a teenager. “That’s what made me give up on churches until I found this one here,” she said.

Arredondo has seen growth in her life. “She’s come a long way,” he said. “She was very unreceptive at first, but over time, she’s learned to take the Word of God and let it discipline her and purify her and conform her.”

Qween eventually started attending worship and Bible study. The Bible study is led by Liverett and Kay Richardson, who coordinates the Tuesday night meals. Qween appreciates the way the teaching is easy to understand and the opportunity to ask questions. “With Miss Kay, I’m learning stuff that I never knew about,” she said. “And she makes it so simple.”

Recently, Qween was baptized and committed herself to a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. For her, baptism marked an opportunity “to let go of all my sins and move forward with the help of the good Lord to do better.”

From Chaos to Living Water

Water is a big deal in San Antonio. The local news focuses on our rain chances and the water level in the Edwards Aquifer. It’s a big deal in the Bible, too. From Genesis to Revelation, water flows both as a physical necessity and a theological thread—an image of creation, judgment, deliverance, renewal, and life itself.

The Bible begins with water. In Genesis 1:2, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Before land was formed, before vegetation or living creatures appeared, there was water—formless, deep, and mysterious. God brought order to these waters. It is both life-giving and, when unrestrained, capable of overwhelming destruction, as later seen in the flood narrative of Genesis 6–9.

Water’s dual nature—life-giving and destructive—sets the stage for its role in redemption. We see it displayed in the parting of the Red Sea. The Hebrews are trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea. What appears as certain death becomes the means of salvation. God parts the waters, creating a path of deliverance for His people while the same waters collapse upon the pursuing Egyptians. Water becomes both judgment and salvation. For Israel, it is a passage into freedom; for Egypt, it is an instrument of destruction. 

The New Testament deepens this imagery. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul describes Israel’s passage through the sea as being “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” A transition into a new identity. This concept finds fuller expression in baptism, as described in Romans 6:4, believers are “buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that…we too might walk in newness of life.” Through water, the believer symbolically dies to the old life and rises to new life in Christ. Baptism is a reenactment of deliverance, a visible sign of an inward transformation.

The birth of Jesus involved the breaking of water—the amniotic fluid that signals the arrival of new life. The One who created the waters of Genesis was Himself born through the waters of childbirth. Creation and incarnation meet. The Creator steps into creation, embracing its physical realities to redeem them. 

In John 4, Jesus offers a Samaritan woman water that will become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Unlike physical water, which temporarily satisfies thirst, this living water represents the enduring, life-giving presence of God through the Holy Spirit. Later, in John 7:37–38, Jesus proclaims, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Water becomes a source of continual spiritual vitality.

The theme reaches its climax in Revelation 22:1: “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” This final image brings the biblical narrative full circle. The waters that once covered the formless earth now flow in perfect clarity and purpose, nourishing the tree of life and sustaining the renewed creation. The invitation that follows— “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17)—echoes the offer of living water made by Jesus.

What the Bible presents theologically, San Antonio experiences physically: a world where water is both a gift of God and a reminder of human dependence. The city was founded where water could be found. Yet, as in Genesis, the waters must be managed and respected. When rainfall declines, the illusion of abundance disappears. Water is not guaranteed—it is given.

In our drought-prone region, this symbolism carries added weight. “Living water” speaks directly into lived experience. Physical water can fail, systems falter, and supplies diminish, but the water Christ offers is not subject to drought. It is not dependent on rainfall or geography. It flows from a different source. The dryness of the land is a reminder that human life is dependent, not self-sustaining. Just as the body thirsts for water, the soul thirsts for something more enduring.

The same God who brought order to the waters, parted the sea, and offered living water remains the source of life today. Life is sustained not by what we control, but by what we receive. The deeper promise remains unchanged: the source of life does not run dry and satisfies the deepest thirst of the human soul. 

After loss and violence, one woman finds her way to Christ

COVID-19 was still months away when Adelina Sanchez accepted an invitation from her friend Maria to visit Family Deaf Church. She immediately felt the warmth of the congregation. But when Maria later moved away, Sanchez stopped coming. “I didn’t quite fit in,” she said.

As a child growing up in poverty, she felt like an outsider even in her own home. “I overheard my mom one time telling my oldest sister, ‘I don’t want you talking to Adelina too much because she’s gonna corrupt your mind,’” Sanchez recalled. “I was always left out.”

Those words settled deep into her heart. As a teenager, she dreamed of finishing school and escaping poverty. “I wanted to graduate and do something for myself,” she said. 

Instead, she became pregnant and her mother insisted she marry. “I didn’t know nothing about taking care of my baby,” she said.

Her husband was a hard drinker and the marriage became abusive. During one violent incident, she said her husband struck her in the head with a brick, requiring eight stitches. “He almost killed me,” she said. 

That was the night she called her mother and came home to San Antonio. But returning to San Antonio did not bring healing. The feeling of isolation followed her into adulthood. “My sisters still wouldn’t talk to me,” Sanchez said. “I have eight sisters and three brothers, and they all treat me the same.” 

She managed to raise two sons, but the hardships continued to mount. In 2020, one of her sons died suddenly from a heart attack at age 43. Her other son had just finished serving fifteen years in prison, was released this August, and was soon arrested again.

In her grief and isolation, she felt her heart turning back toward God. She started attending Robbie White’s Bible study class where she learned about forgiveness and faith. She began volunteering in the thrift store, and she kept coming to worship. Still, social connections remain difficult for her and she hesitates to call the people around her friends. “I have just acquaintances,” she said. 

She has been through so much loss—her oldest son gone, her youngest son cycling in and out of jail, and loneliness waiting for her at home. Her days now revolve around the gym, the thrift store, and church. After a lifetime of rejection, violence, and loss, she keeps coming. She keeps trying. “I’m trying to reach out,” she said, “I've been through a lot.”

I told her, “You are very welcome here… Jesus died for you.”

Adelina accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and was recently baptized at Baptist Temple. In a life marked by rejection and hardship, Adelina has found a place where she is seen—not as a burden, not as an outsider, but as someone God loves, someone worth saving, someone whose story does not end in pain. She is still walking through grief, still learning community, still discovering hope. But she is not walking alone anymore. 

Connecting the past to the present and the future

Easter is a time when the old, old story of Jesus' life, sacrificial death and resurrection is retold and connected to both our current, victorious life and our future hope. It is, therefore, appropriate that the past, present and future were all brought together on Easter Sunday at Baptist Temple.

The service began with the baptism of Ernest, a young man who attended Baptist Temple as a child. He, along with siblings and cousins, would be picked up each Sunday by the church bus ministry. He would attend Sunday school and worship where, he would not only hear the gospel but, also, see it lived out in the actions of the men and women who showed these children so much love.

Ernest had strayed from the faith but, when the Holy Spirit began to speak to his heart, he returned to the place to where he had heard the Word of God. Ernest came to faith because a few years ago faithful Christians maintained and drove the vans, taught the children, gave the needed finances and, most importantly, loved the Lord.

"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)

The result is that on Easter Sunday we baptized a member of the millennial generation who is now a co-laborer in fields that “are white unto the harvest” (John 4:35). The work of the past bore fruit in the present and shows promise for the future.

Towards the end of our worship another act underscored the theme. A special offering was presented from the estate of a beloved saint whose work and giving for the sake of the gospel was part of the reason that our church was able to teach young Ernest the gospel and baptize him when the seed took root.

This generous gift from Nel's estate will go towards building an endowment that will help to ensure that Baptist Temple will continue to be a light in this community where Ernest's children and grandchildren will hear the Word of life. Nel supported her church when she was alive and her gift ensures that she will continue to do so now that she is in the presence of our Lord. She was part of Baptist Temple's past and present and will be a part of the future.

Many Christians' commitment to the gospel is so strong that they have left a gift for their church in their wills. They have ensured that their generosity will extend past their natural life. They not only believe in the gospel but, also, that their church will continue to bring that gospel to future generations.

Furthermore, they know that others before them had sacrificed so that could hear the gospel. Their planned gift is a way to honor those past sacrifices. Remember your church in your will.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3:1