LENOIR CITY, Tenn. — Manuel immigrated to the United States, more specifically to East Tennessee, when he was 18 years old. Aged out of the American school system, Lenoir City Schools wouldn’t be able to take him in … but an outreach minister named Alfonso Marquez Sr. would.
In less than six weeks, Marquez helped Manuel obtain a GED, and got him prepared to enroll in agriculture-based college courses in Georgia. Two years and one associate’s degree later, he was enrolled in the University of Tennessee — pursuing mathematics.
After graduation, he began teaching at Central High School and is currently a real estate agent operating throughout the Greater Knoxville Area.
OPERATION MERCY MINISTRIES
There are dozens of stories like Manuel’s that have come out of Operation Mercy Ministries (OMMI) through the years, where Marquez Sr. has spent more than two decades ministering to immigrants in need of assistance and growing that outreach into the Loudon County and East Tennessee communities at large.
The hope is that his sons, Alfonso Jr. and Abraham, who have just been named Chairman of OMMI’s board and Director of Operations, respectively, will expand upon their father’s growing-yet-ever-intimate mission.
“In 1999, where Roane State Community College is now, was a complex of apartments,” Alfonso Marquez Sr. recalled. “Mostly Hispanics lived there, and churches around [the area] would try to help but the language barrier created a need to outreach the Hispanic community.
“Pastor Leonard Turner from Union Cumberland Presbyterian Church started praying to send Hispanic preachers. I was driving an 18-wheeler at the time and met him at a truck stop on Watt Road. He showed me around, and I thought ‘Let’s pray about it.’”
A few prayers and a couple thousand miles later, Marquez Sr. got his answer in the form of a letter from Pastor Turner waiting in his mailbox when he had made it back to his then home in Laredo, Texas. Turner wanted Marquez to head up a new ministry for the Latin American community in East Tennessee, which was then called “Knoxville Hispanic Ministry,” and was officially conceived in January of 2000, when Marquez completed his round trip back to Lenoir City and began work on what would become a lifetime effort.
“The old man’s been here since the beginning of many programs in Loudon County,” said Abraham Marquez, referring to his father. “We take a lot of pride in that.”
‘THE VALLEY OF THE BLIND’
But, in the spirit of his truck-driving past, Marquez didn’t stay stationary for very long once he was settled.
Shortly after his introduction to Loudon County, he began to bounce around different outreach programs that put an emphasis on under-served demographics — like immigrants trying to adjust and adapt to their new homes and other marginalized groups that had seemingly fallen through the system’s cracks.
As Marquez Sr. puts it, “I use a lot of caps, I do a lot of stuff,” including but not limited to his efforts with Habitat for Humanity, teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and GED classes, as well as routine mission work in Central America starting in 2009 on behalf of OMMI and various churches in the area.
As one of the sole bridges between the area’s immigrant community and the rest of its general population, the preacher quickly became a vital part of the community for both demographics.
“We have a phrase in Mexico that says ‘It’s in the valley of the blind that the one eye is the king,’” Marquez Sr. said.
Marquez Sr. now has two other sets of eyes helping him lead in the form of his children, who were just 10 and two years old when Knoxville Hispanic Ministry first got its feet on the ground.
The hope is that his sons will expand upon their father’s growing mission while still striving for that intimacy that defined their fathers early years.
A FAR-REACHING ‘ESCUELA’
The group has been assisted by a number of churches throughout the years, now using First Presbyterian on Martel Road as a gathering place and a makeshift classroom, known affectionately as “escuela” by its students that come from the local school systems or beyond to take ESL and GED courses, as well as get acclimated with the citizenship application process through mock tests and interviews — all at low costs or free of charge.
Given the current state of immigration colliding with the group’s new, bigger emphasis on visibility, the two brothers now steering the ship are anticipating a busy next few years ahead of them.
But the effects of OMMI are better seen through anecdotes and personal testimony than statistics and success rates. Alfonso Marquez Sr. says that while his first generation of pupils went on to be day laborers, the second and third generations are pursuing professions in academics and business.
It mirrors the journey of this father and sons trio, who began outreach through more ministry-driven work and are now looking to become a more legitimate outlet for immigrants and underprivileged individuals across the region.
Alfonso Sr., now 64, is mulling over his retirement itinerary and preparing to transition his duties to that next cohort. For Abraham and Alfonso Jr., who have spent their entire adult lives learning from their father, the work is just getting started.
“I never saw myself being a part of this board, or anything like that,” Alfonso Jr. said. “But it’s good to give something to the community … something that’s bigger than yourself.”
“Our mission is not business, it’s ministry,” Alfonso Sr. added. “We are Christians, and we are trying to share the Gospel through serving people and in many different ways.
“It doesn’t mean only Hispanics, it can mean anyone around [the area].”
To learn more about OMMI, you can find them on Facebook by searching “Operation Mercy Ministries” or on Instagram @operationmercyministries.
To inquire about programming, email amarquez@operationmercyministries.com.
