ISAAC offers citizenship and English classes, sees salvation

Eight months after Lucy Floyd, director of the Immigration Service and Aid Center, submitted the paperwork for the ministry’s state accreditation, she began asking the Lord what to do while she waited.

Floyd attended a community event called El Paso Para Todos, where she met Claudia Jimenez, community outreach coordinator with the Office of El Paso County. Jimenez told her about conversational English and citizenship classes the county offers to parents in the school district.

“[Jimenez and I] met a couple of weeks after that [to discuss the classes], and I thought, ‘This is something I could do,’” Floyd said. “I checked with my surrounding schools before I started [my own classes] because I didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes, and none of the schools were doing it.

When Floyd met with Jimenez, she said, “You could definitely join in.”

Getting started

So, “I canvassed our neighborhood here in the northeast to drop off fliers at businesses,” Floyd explained.

Floyd began offering a citizenship class at the El Paso Baptist Association on Aug. 5, with eight weekly participants, and began offering conversational English classes on Aug. 16, with about four weekly participants.

“God will send those that need [to attend the classes]. So, if it’s just for one or two or three, we’re going to do it. We’ve committed to do it for the entire school year, and we’ll see where God leads [from there],” Floyd said.

Floyd said participants not only need to answer the questions on the naturalization test, but they need to read and write the test in English. She said the class studies about eight questions per week by practicing writing the questions and answers on index cards provided by ISAAC.

Each week, they add the previous week’s material to the new material and, at the end of each class, take a short test on what they’ve learned so far. Floyd said participants who have already submitted their naturalization paperwork have an opportunity to do a mock interview before their scheduled naturalization interview.

Floyd said it’s encouraging to see classmates encouraging one another as they progress through the class.

“[Class is] fun because they are quizzing each other and they encourage one another. I think that when they get affirmation from their own classmates [it means] more than you think,” Floyd said.

Accepting Christ at citizenship class

Floyd said God has brought ladies to the classes who are open, humble, and spiritually hungry. She said she takes any opportunity the Lord gives her to share the gospel with the participants.

“[These ladies] just want to know that somebody cares and that somebody sees them and values them,” Floyd said. “I ask the Lord: ‘Who needs encouragement? Who needs a kind word? Who needs prayer? Who do you have for me here?’ So, I pray that the Lord leads me to whomever I need to have a conversation with.”

One of those participants was Maria. She shared with Floyd she had lost her son and became bitter, to the point it was stealing her joy. Floyd met with Maria after class, where she shared the gospel and read Scripture with her 10 days after the start of English classes. Floyd extended an invitation for Maria to respond to Christ, and she prayed to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior.

“The very next week she said, ‘I want to tell you that I feel so happy and so light-hearted, and I see things differently.’ And I told her, ‘Now that you are a child of God, you [should] start to read your Bible,’ and I explained how you read your Bible,” Floyd said.

Maria said, since accepting Christ, she has felt his peace and knows she has purpose.

“I feel rejuvenated, like I am a new person. I know that he is going to see me through [my grief],” Maria said. “I feel supported by Lucy. She reminds me that I am not alone.”

Floyd said she sees Maria’s desire to grow each time she sees her in class.

“I see her wanting to become a better person. She comes to every class. She’s very faithful,” Floyd noted.

“I cheer her on because … she’s not only a new believer, but she wants to do this citizenship class and get her naturalization so that she can start having those old patterns wash away,” Floyd said.

Developing ISAAC around the state

Floyd said once she is accredited through the U.S. Department of Justice, ISAAC will be able to create and offer the minimum-40-hour basic immigration law course. Only DOJ-recognized nonprofit organizations can offer this training.

She said her big goal for ISAAC is to help churches and other nonprofit organizations develop ISAAC in their areas.

“[I’m looking forward] to us being able to direct [the immigrant community] to other [resources], that if I can’t help them, [this person] will be able to,” she said, noting she is hoping “for ISAAC to start popping up all over Texas, that we would have ISAAC in different areas around the state,” Floyd said.

Floyd noted, while ISAAC is not yet available to help people with their immigration paperwork, the organization will continue to conduct citizenship and English classes until they receive accreditation.

ISAAC focuses on equipping churches and other organizations to engage the immigrant community along a continuum of ministry options. To learn more about ISAAC and how your church can get involved, visit txb.org/isaac.

With additional reporting by Baptist Standard Editor Eric Black. For more information about immigration law training, contact Lucy Floyd at [email protected] or (469) 218-4307.