The Diocesan Dialogue
Current Issue
March 2008

There are Angels among us

Dr. Ada van Vloten tells the parents of a young boy he is not deaf as the school thought. She describes in Spanish how his ears are full of infection and carefully details how they must give the medicine that will allow Carlos to hear again. She also smiles as Carlos mimics her theatrical acting out of the art of brushing teeth. Each child gets that act as he or she finishes the appointment.

Dr. Ada van Vloten examines a young patient at the Moab Valley Multicultural Center. Dialogue photo.

The smiles, the check-ups, a couple of grimaces from vaccinations and the prescriptions were once simply unavailable to many children and their families. Diocesan and community support makes the medical care possible in the Moab Valley Multicultural Center.

The Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish says such care is deep-rooted in our history in Utah. The Bishop states, "Caring for people—all people at whatever level of their need— has always been part of the Diocese of Utah's mission. This included medical care from our first days here, as offered then and now at St. Mark's Hospital.

"Many of these children have gone years since seeing a doctor," says the Price pediatrician on her two-day a month visit to Moab. Dr. van Vloten is occupying one room of the MVMC. Leticia Bently is conducting family counseling in the next room. Students will take over another room of the converted old Moab City Hall. That room was a practice stage for dancers the night before.

The Rev. Jim and Marcia Tendick couldn't have guessed how their lives would change to be part of this all. Marcia is president of the MVMC. Father Jim is now the priest for Mission de San Francisco, a ministry that just became its own community in the Diocese. They also never realized the director of the MVMC would start Jim and Marcia on the road to make the incredible changes. MVMC Director Leticia Bently, a parishioner at Mission de San Francisco, never realized the amazing changes in her life either.

Leticia was one of many of the seemingly nameless and faceless people of Hispanic heritage in Moab. She had been a teacher in Mexico, but with limited English language skills, she did what she could and that meant cleaning rooms. She knew the hard work and the depression that comes from being in a foreign culture.

Director Leticia Bentley pauses to talk about how the Center provides counseling and other services to those working hard to survive in a new land.

She kept pressing on, even learned English. However, her life came crashing down in 1999 when her cousin Jose was killed as he rode his bicycle between his three restaurant jobs in Moab. The young man who accidently collided with Jose was part of a group hired to lay carpet for an upcoming Diocesan convention being held at the Grand County High School that year.

Experiencing all the roadblocks that come with translation problems, health care, and "second class" status, she said she collapsed in tears in prayer asking for an angel. There was a knock on the door. Wiping tears from her eyes, she says, "God sends us angels."

That visitor shrugs off the angel label, but he did discover it would change his life and shape his new ministry. At the time of the knock on the door, long-time priest, the Rev. Jim Tendick, was enjoying his first years at St. Francis in Moab.

The Episcopal Diocese of Utah had taken up a collection at the convention after learning of the accident involving Jose and the young man laying carpet for the convention. Father Tendick also promised to help Leticia and her family break through some of the roadblocks caused by culture, language, and discrimination. It was a powerful couple of weeks.

Fr. Tendick then conducted a service at the spot Jose was hit. He memorized a Spanish language service from the Book of Common Prayer for the occasion. He listened over and over to an audiotape of the service. Suddenly, Fr. Tendick had become a Spanish speaking priest with a Spanish speaking congregation. It was not just because of his services, it was because Jim and Marcia Tendick and the St. Francis congregation saw the cultural, legal, social justice, and medical needs of the increasing minority population of Moab.

It would be a gentleman's death—a gentleman he never even knew—who would change everything. "I think about Jose all the time," said Fr. Tendick.

Leticia also said she still thinks about Jose "each and every day". The memory has motivated her to a new vocation of service. She learned English and got her certification to become a teacher at Grand County High. She also became a translator and an advocate. Fr. Tendick and the St. Francis community kept alive the memory of Jose by working more and more at social services. While the United Way, a community wide commitment, the city, school district, and dozens of others are enthusiastic supporters of the MVMC, Leticia Bentley says the Episcopal Church community still is the heart that consistently energizes the now independent non-profit organization. She still insists, "There are angels among us."

The advocates realized the incredible needs among the Spanish speaking population. They also knew the resort town had attracted a sizable Native American population trying to support their families— often on low paying service job salaries. The Native American families were facing similar difficulties with language, cultural, and economic barriers.

Jim and Marcia Tendick had extensive experience with Native Americans with their founding of the "Friends of the Hopi" in 1977 in Flagstaff. They now found themselves working with Navajo people in Moab.

This is why one can also hear Native American programs within the same walls as the Spanish speakers at the MVMC. To keep the Multicultural program contemporary, Moab also recently heard "hard rock" music from a center-sponsored rock concert featuring Blackfire, a band made up of Native Americans. Famed Native American musician Keith Secola also performed and mesmerized elementary school students with his cultural instruction.

The Moab Valley Multicultural Center volunteers, staff, and Jim and Marcia Tendick continue to honor Jose, a man whose death would have probably gone largely unnoticed in Moab. Lives have been changed. People have been helped. A week of helping a person through a difficult time has grown into a center with daily activities—not counting the many nightly visits Fr. Jim, Marcia, and Leticia make at hospitals, courts, and medical appointments to help those who would have otherwise been lost in the shadows.

Musician Keith Secola delights Moab elementary school students by teaching them Native American dances.

Marcia Tendick now serves as president of the MVMC. She sees the growth as the answer to a calling. She quotes the history of the MVMC as, "God desires that we participate in acts of mercy because it is with our help that God helps the orphan, the widow, and those who need refuge, food and clothes. In these times, when our communities receive immigrants and refugees every day, it is there that God calls us to respond. If we accept the call, God will give us the strength to undertake the task."

Today, inside the doors and the rooms of the old city hall, advocates are working on helping people understand rental agreements, housing issues, getting documents as basic as a driver's license, immigration papers, and dealing with financial matters.

People are dancing, learning English, and gaining support for addiction. Others are finding out about nutrition in the center's kitchen classroom. Kids are being tutored. Adults are planning for the center's annual health fair. A child gives out a little whimper as she is inoculated for the first time.

Leticia will tell you. "There are angels among us."

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