María continues to recuperate before returning to Palomas

By Elket Rodríguez

María, right

The heart and soul of Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant shelter in the north-central Mexican village of Palomas is nearing recovery.

María Elena Lao Rodríguez underwent high-risk surgery that spared her life in mid-August. But María, who experienced severe abdominal pain and bleeding while serving other migrants in Palomas, is expected to return to normal by the end of the month. 

"I'm doing well, thanks to God," she said. “I still can't lift heavy stuff, but everything else is normal. I hope they will discharge me by the end of this month."

María is vital to Pastor Rosalío Sosa’s ministry to migrants in the Palomas shelter, about 100 miles into the desert, west of El Paso / Juarez. María is a trained nurse who was two months shy of earning her M.D. degree when she and her daughter and grandson fled to escape torture and violence in Cuba.

Her expertise is of particular relevance to Rosalío’s ministry at a time when the number of migrants seeking medical assistance at the Palomas shelter is increasing. “María could help a lot in the Palomas shelter,” he said.

Rosalío operates Red de Albergues para Migrante—the Migrant Shelter Network—a collection of 14 shelters in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, most of them in Ciudad Juarez. Fellowship Southwest provides monthly operational funds, helps pay for renovations, purchases appliances and provides other support for the network.

U.S. border patrol continues to expel migrants at a record pace across the region. Many of them pass through the Palomas shelter. The village doesn’t have hospitals to tend to them. To prevent María from over-extending herself, she is recuperating in the network’s Mexico 68 shelter in Ciudad Juarez.

FSW provides ongoing support to Rosalío’s ministry and to other pastors who serve immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border. We also helped pay for María’s surgery this summer. If you would like to help them be the presence of Christ for immigrants, click here.

Elket Rodríguez is an immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest. Elket is from Puerto Rico, and María is from Cuba. They are not related.