CHURCH BUILDING MISSION ALSO LEADS TO LOVE, MARRIAGE By Jane Kimel Chris Smith, a lifelong resident of Pleasant Garden, started going on mission trips to Lares, Puerto Rico, in January 2007.
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The purpose of the mission trips — by Pleasant Garden United Methodist Church and others — was to help people in the mountain town of Lares build a Methodist church, which is on schedule to be completed within a year.
As the mission team worked on the church, they became acquainted with members of the surrounding community.
The Alicea Soto family was one of the warm, friendly families they met while building the church. A dark-eyed daughter, Jaidy Alicea Soto, caught Chris’ eye, and a friendship began to develop between them as they hammered, built walls and put on a roof.
In the summer of 2008, members of the El Renuevo Methodist Church in Lares came to Pleasant Garden and the surrounding areas to share their faith and customs. Chris and Jaidy began dating that summer.
The next January, the mission team returned to Lares and it became apparent to the Smith and Alicea Soto families that the inevitable was about to happen.
One day before the mission team was to return to North Carolina, Chris got up his nerve and asked Mr. Alicea for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
The next Christmas, Jaidy and her family came to Pleasant Garden to visit the Smiths. After a Christmas program at the church, Chris invited Jaidy to view a tree filled with chrismons made by church members.
Chris showed her a chrismon with a basket that held something sparkling. As Jaidy stepped up to take a closer look, Chris got down on one knee and proposed. After she accepted his proposal, the heart-shaped diamond from the basket ended up on Jaidy’s finger.
Wedding plans ensued, and in the summer of 2009, Chris’ aunt Carolyn Smith, parents Marilyn and Larry Smith and other family members and friends flew to Puerto Rico, not for a mission trip but for a wedding.
The ceremony was a blend of Spanish and American customs and traditions. The couple was married in the Methodist church in Lares that the mission team had worked to build.
After the nuptials, the Smith family, along with the newlyweds, returned home to Pleasant Garden. Chris and Jaidy took up residence in the home of his Smith grandmother and grandfather.
Jaidy, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in Puerto Rico, works with Guilford County Child Development and helps bilingual families with their studies and adjustment to school.
Jaidy has shared some of her family traditions with her new church family. The church has sung some hymns in Spanish. Jaidy and her sister, Jaima, have used tambourines and maracas and interpretive dance to tell various stories. Jaidy also leads a dance ministry for girls and women.
Last year, Chris was called to the ministry and now attends Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury. His studies will be completed in two more years.
Chris recently gave a sermon to the congregation and showed much promise as a minister.
When you decide to go on a mission trip, take it from Chris, you never know what treasure you will bring home. As he says, “God works in amazing ways.”
