REV. EDWIN ZARATE, Associate Pastor

    

OMEGA RAMOS, Children’s Ministry Coordinator

     Omega officially received the title Children’s Ministry Coordinator in June 2004, although she has been taking leadership in the children’s ministry since 2003.  She is a commissioned Deaconess in the North Central Philippines Annual Conference as well as with the General Board of Global Ministries’ Deaconess Program.  She is bringing with her extensive knowledge, experience and passion in children’s ministry having served as a kindergarten teacher and deaconess at Echague United Methodist Church, and kindergarten teacher & Bible/music teacher at Eveland Junior College both in the Philippines.  She was the conference youth worker at NCPAC until her appointment in the Bishop W. T. Handy Young Adult Missioners Program with the General Board of Global Ministries, tasked with starting a Filipino congregation in Irving, TX.  She encourages everyone to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  (Proverbs 22:6).

edzart72@yahoo.com

children@umphressroadumc.org

REV. LEVY E. LAGUARDIA, Pastor

     Rev. Laguardia came to First Filipino American United Methodist Church in 1986 before it merged with Centenary UMC in 1991, which eventually became Umphress Road United Methodist Church. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Philippine Christian University in 1976, Bachelor of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary (Philippines) in 1980, and Master of Divinity at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in 1987. He was ordained at the Philippines Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church in 1981. Before coming to the US, he served several churches in the Philippines including First UMC, Naga City and Malabon North UMC. He served as a community organizer and participated in several grassroots ministries. He served in the Regional and National Boards of the Institute of Religion and Culture (IRC) and other ecumenical bodies and programs.

 

     While in the North Texas Conference, he directed a Conference Youth Seminar on National and International Issues in Washington D.C. and New York; served as a member of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, Community Development Task Force, Shalom Review Team and Project Pentecost Task Force.  He is currently serving as a member of the Conference  Core Leadership Team and of the Committee on Episcopacy.  He serves as a member of Metro District Committee on Ordained Ministry and Superintendency.  He is also one of the commissioner of “Paglago” – a national plan for Filipino American Ministry of the National Federation of Filipino-American United Methodists. He is a member of the Pentecost Language Churches Caucus—a fellowship of pastors and church workers serving language churches  and fellowships in the North Texas Conference.  He is the chairperson of the Southeast Dallas Cooperative Parish/Shalom Zone and serves as member of the local and regional Task Force of “Justice for Our Neighbors” - a parish ministry of immigrants.  He loves to serve in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural settings and values diversity as a wonderful gift for ministry.

info@umphressroadumc.org

JANICE ZARATE, Choir Director

    

hi_janice72@yahoo.com

TERRY MCCOY, Pianist