By Jennifer Colosimo

Daniel Sostaita, senior pastor at Iglesia Cristiana sin Fronteras (ICSF) in Winston-Salem, N.C., loves telling the story of a man named Edgar, who came by himself to Sostaita’s church a few years ago from Colombia, having left his family in South America. He was lonely, but he was focused on one purpose: to work and send money back home.  

He began attending services at Iglesia Cristiana and, after a little while, he started to get to know the people within the unique congregation. He enjoyed the opportunity to worship and make acquaintances. Then, a funny thing happened.  

Edgar began to make real friends, people began to really know him and before he knew it, a fellow church member offered him a steady job. Edgar pushed himself to know his new trade, and he learned it well. He began to understand himself through the Lord and was inspired to serve in different areas of the ministry at his new church—a place that was starting to feel like home, a place that was making life on this side of the border not so lonely. 

“This is what we do at our church,” said Sostaita about the culture at ICSF. “I came to this country, too, a long time ago and faced many trials; and many of the people at our church have also made that same journey. We know that we are called to create a welcoming place for others and so that’s just how we operate.” 

Alongside his congregation, Sostaita does that by creating a welcoming environment for anyone who walks through their doors, but specifically men and women who’ve crossed the border for the first time. Sometimes they’re alone, like Edgar, and other times whole families are looking for a place to come. Their experience extends beyond sermons and singing as ICSF has built a place where those individuals can feel seen and cared for. 

Part of that is the work they’ve put into making connections in the local community. Iglesia Cristiana sin Fronteras works with several resources to help new community members get documentation and IDs, enroll in schools, collect the physical things they might need, like clothes, food and shelter, and connect them to healthcare and similar interest groups. They host a mobile healthcare clinic once a week through the Atrium Wake Forest Medical Center with the same doctor, offering these families a deeper sense of belonging.  

“We continue to make a difference because the good news must be complete, not half,” he said. “We don’t want to offer bits and pieces of faith. We want to show love and help these families grow in their faith by taking care of them as people. That happens by creating a place where they feel like they belong and by meeting more than just their spiritual needs.” 

Sostaita believes that hospitality, putting oneself in another’s shoes, feeling the pain and need of another is exactly what Jesus teaches us in John 13:34-35. So for him, it’s not a specific drive or passion—obviously, he is passionate about it—it’s intrinsic. It’s his nature, the nature that God gave him and that he will use to answer God’s call. And he’s leading a church filled with people who share the same drive. 

A few months after Edgar had settled into his new job, he decided to bring his wife, two small children and his mother-in-law from Colombia to join him. It was not easy. They were detained for more than two months in a shelter on the border. Then, they were accidentally rerouted to Chicago. Luckily, Sostaita’s oldest daughter had contacts there and two people arrived at the airport and managed, after 12 hours, to get them back on a plane to North Carolina.  

Once they were there, ICSF could really get to work.  

“We got vaccines for the children, fed them, got them enrolled at school, sought out healthcare for Edgar’s mother-in-law and treated her here at the mobile clinic,” said Sostaita. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch our congregation in action. There’s no question— it’s just what we do. These are our people, fellow brothers and sisters of God.”  

Today, Edgar is a professional in remodeling and directs the video ministry and sound at the church. In a little more than a year, this family has refocused their lives to serve the Lord. Edgar is just one example in a church that’s growing every week. 

Sostaita credits that ability to grow to the relationships he’s made through CBF. When he met CBF’s Linda Jones, no one else was willing to hear his vision; she was—and she fell in love with it.  

“She helped me plant my church and connected me with resources and with other Latino pastors,” he said. “Many years have passed since then, and we continue to be in touch as we do the work of the Lord. CBF is a great family, where transparency, cordiality, love of neighbor, commitment to social justice and human rights help us fulfill the mandate of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 

Today, he works with Santiago Reales (CBF North Carolina) who directs the Latino Pastors Network, Ruben Ortiz (CBF Latino Network) and Elket Rodriguez (CBF field personnel) to stay connected to local resources and support that make him able to create that “home away from home” for his members. 

“You know, a lot of our members are here for a while, but a lot of others are only here while they’re working,” he said. “That doesn’t matter to us. When you are here, you’re a part of our family. That’s what we want them to feel like, and that’s what we’ve been able to do with the connections we’ve made. We will take care of them while they’re here; we will love them as part of our family whether it’s for a few months, a few years or longer.  

“Our church has made a profound transformation, although we are not finished,” said Sostaita. “My vision was always to unite the resources available in our community among the different organizations, the government, hospitals, etc. and put them in the hands of the neediest, the forgotten and the marginalized. That work is never finished.” 

This article originally appeared in CBF’s spring 2024 fellowship! magazine. Read more at cbf.net/fellowship-magazine