Good music and good intentions will unite this Friday at the Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church.  

Sixteen13 Ministry will put on a gospel concert to fundraise for their mission to assist vulnerable families in the community. Vic and Linda Wolfe and the Glencross Quartet will lend their voices to the cause.  

Harold Espinosa, the president of Sixteen13 Ministry, says that the ministry offers a variety of supports to families in the community.  

“[W]e have... close to 200 families that we work with, and our intention is to walk with them, get to know their names, pray with them, [and] invite them to the churches that the volunteers go to.” 

Right now, Sixteen13 assists many families that are new to the area.  

“[W]e walk with many different ethnic groups... that come to Winkler. Believe it or not, Winkler is becoming a huge mixture of culture and individuals from around the world. It's phenomenal. We help them with groceries, we help families that need furniture... We also have a laptop program. If a child who can’t afford a laptop...bake[s] a cake or [cooks] a meal for another family, then [we’ll] give them a laptop.”  

Beyond material help, Espinosa says that Sixteen13 also provides emotional and mental supports to families. 

"[The volunteers] are trained to pray with people, to talk, [to] spend quality time with the individual, and not just once in a blue moon. We have families that call us weekly”. 

The families who work with Sixteen13 also give back to others through the ministry. Espinosa says that it’s “amazing how the people who are receiving are also serving”.  

Fundamentally, Sixteen13’s activities promote togetherness and reciprocity in the community by supporting families in need as well as other local organizations that provide help.   

“We are blessed [in] Winkler and in Morden to have lots of different organizations like Children’s Camps International, like the Bunker. We can go on and on [about] different places that are doing ministry...What we're trying to do is be unified [and] work together with a common goal to share the gospel.” 

The gospel fundraiser will take place June 14th at 6:30PM at the Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church. There will be a table set up to receive whatever donation one wishes to give and a concert. Espinosa guarantees that the show will feature performers who “sing from their heart the good old gospel songs”.  

Espinosa says that the funds will help Sixteen13 continue with their outreach, and that he is already grateful for the community support that the ministry has received.  

“Thank you for the blessing that you already have been for a long time, supporting us as a ministry, praying for us. There's lots of people praying, lots of people encouraging us. I just want to say, ‘thank you’. We want to make sure that God is glorified, God is honored, and we're going to do our very best with you as a community to shape this world for Jesus.” 

Listen to the full interview with Harold Espinosa and Connie Bailey below.