Can you imagine what it would be like to attend a weekend conducted completely in Spanish? Well, according to Izzette Torres, newly elected President of Tres Dias Con Dios, there is very much of a Latin flavor, and it is fun, even for the team members from Tres Dias of Southeast Tennessee who volunteer with them with very little knowledge of Spanish!

Tres Dias Con Dios covers a large area, which includes many Spanish-speaking Pescadores from the greater Chattanooga area, with some coming from Nashville but also many from Northern Alabama and Northern Georgia. Additionally, they have been blessed to have team members and Pescadores from a wide variety of states including Ohio, Florida, Texas, and North Virginia plus from several nations including Peru, Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela.

They conduct men’s and women’s weekends in the Spring and Fall. The weekends have a maximum of 36 candidates, with up to 76 team members. This past spring was the first post-COVID weekend. The women had 37 attend. Due to a communication error, they were one over the maximum, but the Lord knows who should be there and they were able to accommodate the extra person. The men’s Spring weekend had 30 candidates. During the weekends, the essentials are followed along with some extras including a Saturday night Serenade during dinner where Pescadores from the community come and sing and share a forgiveness prayer. Rollos are given in a conference room. The team uses 3 monitors to display PowerPoint-type presentations so everyone can note key points of the rollo as it is given. The participants demonstrate their understanding of the rollos by choosing one of four ways: a skit related to the rollos, drawing posters, writing a poem, or singing a song. Each weekend has three to four Spiritual Directors. The community has ten to twelve spiritual directors that rotate serving on weekends.

The pre-weekend phase consists of some combined team meetings on Saturdays with both men and women discussing common aspects of the weekend; including worship time and essentials training before they separate to conduct their own planning meetings.  The Secretariat reaches out to the community via email “blasts” and newsletters giving links to help candidates register for the weekend. The application is online for sponsors to assist candidates. The weekend closings are open only to pastors and community members.

The community holds 3 Secuelas per year, with Pescadores and guests coming as far as two to three hours away.

The Secretariat consists of 18 elected officers/members. Secretariat meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month. They are working on making the meetings more accessible to community members via Zoom. The Secretariat is sometimes conducted in a combination of Spanish and English (through translators) which Izzette terms as “Spanglish” or if there are no English speakers present, it’s all in Spanish.  

The community was in contact with some Venezuelan Pescadores and was hoping to be able to start a community there, but because of the political unrest that did not occur. They also had some visitors from Peru and had begun the process of starting a community there, but they ended up merging with an existing community. Several of their Peruvian Pescador friends still come on vacation to serve on their weekends.

Thank you to community president Izzette Torres for the interview and willingness to share her wonderful community with us!

By: Cheryl Lake