OTTUMWA — When immigrants travel to the United States, they often leave behind family, friends and their possessions. Sometimes the only things they can take with them are the values and the beliefs they hold dear.

Although the Catholic Church may be home to the largest number of Latinos in Ottumwa, many of those immigrants are part of other denominations including Baptists, Pentecostals, Missionary, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Pastor Noé Hernández, of Iglesia Belén, explained it best when he said that religion in Latin countries was more culture than faith.

“I went to church on Sundays because that is what people were supposed to do in my small town on Sundays,” he said.

At the age of 14, he moved to the United States and felt bombarded by the different religions and started to wonder what God wanted from him.

“Religion was not just saying I’m Catholic; it was something people practiced,” he said.

He enrolled in Crown College after he graduated high school.

“The big difference when I started going to church was that we used the Bible, we actually read it,” he said.

His mother had a nice, big Bible back home, but nobody was supposed to touch it because it was sacred.

Now 27, Hernández is pastor of a congregation of about 60 people and belongs to a missionary group. He was brought here through the Northgate Alliance Church after the congregation learned of the growing population of Hispanics in Ottumwa.

Northgate Alliance Church wanted to help, but the language barrier was a challenge.

“I was invited here to help people in their language,” he said.

Most people who have migrated to the United States are non-practicing Christians because they are still adapting to their new life.

This is true for Jorge Ramírez, 36, who worked a night shift at a job involving cleaning chemicals.

“I would get off work and spend the day sleeping. I couldn’t even open my eyes because of the chemicals. Now I’m used to it. I feel more relaxed and I’ve started going to church with Noé,” said Ramírez.