By Elket Rodríguez

God always has a plan, Pastor Carlos Navarro and Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville believe. And the Nov. 15 dedication of the church’s brand-new immigrant respite shelter proves their point.

The shelter—funded almost exclusively by Fellowship Southwest—prepares IBWB to respond to refugee surges on the U.S.-Mexico border, Navarro said.

"I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but this border will remain active …, because people no longer have an alternative" but to seek asylum in the United States, he said.

Just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in Matamoros, Mexico, immigrants have languished for months. 

The Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy has forced them to wait on the south side of the border as they wind their way through the U.S. asylum system. That process has been shut down since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Anticipating policy changes from a new U.S. administration and medical changes from coronavirus vaccines, observers anticipate U.S. asylum courts will begin processing cases in the relatively near future.

Beyond that, experts watching the “Northern Triangle” of Central America—El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—believe destruction wrought by recent hurricanes Eta and Iota will cause many more people from these countries and Nicaragua to flee their homelands for safety in the United States.

“They no longer have a choice,” Navarro said. “The situation is desperate.”

With the newly dedicated respite center, IBWB is better positioned to address the needs of refugees when the U.S. and Mexican governments reopen their borders to nonessential traffic. “We have to be prepared to help them,” Navarro said. “I have 32 volunteers at church ready to serve them.”

The respite center provides a haven for asylum seekers in-between their long waits in camps and shelters in northeastern Mexico and the moment they board a bus or plane to wait out the final stage of their legal journey with a sponsor in the United States. After months of living in cramped quarters, they come to the church to take a shower, receive a fresh set of clothes, enjoy a hot meal, get a goodie bag for their long trip, and feel the warm embrace of Christian hospitality and compassion.

IBWB launched the ministry 20 months ago, when it opened the respite center on its campus. Back then, the facilities strained under the traffic of tens, sometimes hundreds, of asylum seekers passing through the church’s doors. Still, IBWB served 5,345 immigrants, and 2,786 made professions of faith in Christ, Navarro said.   

Fellowship Southwest has been IBWB’s main partner in planning and building the new respite center. Last year during the Christmas season, Fellowship Southwest received almost all the money needed to construct the facility, which includes dorm rooms for females and males, complete with showers and bunk beds, plus a central room for eating meals and relaxing. 

“Last year, all I wanted for Christmas was to build that building,” recalled Marv Knox, Fellowship Southwest’s coordinator. “And God—not Santa—provided. Thanks to generous donors, IBWB dedicated its new respite center debt-free. This project has been the greatest single blessing in our young ministry.”

Fellowship Southwest will continue to assist IBWB’s ministry to asylum seekers. And when not in use by refugees, the center will be Fellowship Southwest’s base of operations in the Rio Grande Valley—and a home-away-from-home for mission teams.

To support Fellowship Southwest’s ongoing Immigrant Relief Ministry all along the border, click here.

Elket Rodríguez is the immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest.