Peer learning group bolsters border pastors

Pastors along the U.S.-Mexico border are finding strength in numbers and comfort among partners equally committed to serving refugees in Jesus’ name.

Members of Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry—strung from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean—get together through video calls to share their lives, encourage each other and to pray for God’s blessings on their ministries and the immigrants they serve.

Fellowship Southwest’s Border Pastors Peer Learning Group began convening a few weeks ago. And while the concept is new on the border, its roots run deep within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. For years, CBF has promoted and sponsored peer learning groups—gatherings of ministers in similar situations, with similar jobs and usually at similar places in their careers—for encouragement, learning and prayer.

Early this spring, Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas and director of FSW’s Immigrant Relief Ministry, and Marv Knox, FSW’s coordinator, set up a conference call for the pastors to discuss their ministries. 

“That call seemed like a quick-and-easy way for all of us to catch up on what’s happening along the border and to learn more about the needs of immigrants,” Knox reported. “But it turned out to be much more. When they weren’t talking to me, they were speaking Spanish. And even though I couldn’t understand all their words, I knew these guys needed to talk—and loved talking to each other.”

Zapata, whose native language is Spanish, confirmed Knox’s hunch. Soon, they proposed creating a peer learning group for their friends along the border. 

“These pastors serve small churches, often in isolation. And now they also are spending many hours every week ministering to immigrants in northern Mexico,” Zapata said. “Nobody knows what it’s like to be them—except them. They understand each other and need each other. This group strengthens them.”

So, now they gather by videoconference about every-other week. Zapata convenes the group, whose members are:

• Juvenal González, a church starting strategist from San Diego/Tijuana

• Carlos Navarro, pastor of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville in Brownsville, Texas

• Lorenzo Ortiz, director of El Buen Samaritano Migrante in Laredo, Texas

• Rogelio Pérez, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Capernaum in Olmito, Texas

• Israel Rodríguez, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Piedras Negras, Mexico

• Rosalío Sosa, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso

Knox joins them as a resource, along with Sue Smith, area coordinator of CBF Global Missions’ North American Internationals team, who, with her husband, Greg, operates LUCHA Ministries for immigrants in Fredericksburg, Va.; and Elket Rodríguez, immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest.

In addition to the video meetings, the pastors maintain ongoing conversation on the WhatsApp social networking program. They share pictures of their ministries, prayer concerns and victories, important information about policy changes on the border, plus jokes and a steady stream of lighthearted banter.

“This is a great step forward for our pastors,” Zapata said. “They’re already becoming close friends and allies in ministry.” 

Fellowship Southwest provides ongoing support for the pastors’ ministries to refugees along the border. If you would like to help them, you can contribute to Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Fund.