As González adapts, God shines hope into darkness

Fellowship Southwest called in reinforcements to support Pastor Eleuterio González’s rapidly growing ministry to refugees encamped in Matamoros, Mexico. 

His responsibilities for protecting and feeding immigrants seeking asylum in the United States has multiplied as the number of refugees amassed in the Mexican city—just across the border from Brownsville, Texas—have escalated the past few months. 

Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas and director of FSW’s Immigrant Relief Ministry; Rosalío Sosa, coordinator of Red de Albergues para Migrantes (Migrant Shelter Network) in the region near Juarez, Mexico; and Elket Rodríguez, immigrant and refugees advocacy and missions specialist of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Fellowship Southwest, accompanied González in a mission tour around Matamoros. 

They conferred with Enrique Maciel, a representative of the Instituto Tamaulipeco para Migrantes (Tamaulipas Institute for Migrants), seeking to strengthen the FSW immigrant ministry’s relationship with the local government in order to improve service to the refugees. Maciel explained how the city is organizing its assistance program for immigrants.

“It was a very illustrative meeting,” Sosa reported. “Now, we understand the nature of the misery in Matamoros.” 

Matamoros is the most challenging of the seven Mexican border cities where the U.S. government’s Migrant Protection Protocols—also known as “Remain in Mexico”—are being implemented. A year and a half after MPP became policy, Matamoros is the only city where immigrants still live in the open in patched field tents, on the banks of the Rio Grande in unsanitary conditions.

Two weeks ago, many immigrants in Matamoros endured the full force of Hurricane Hanna inside their makeshift tents. In addition to waiting out the wind, they faced the threat of being inundated by the Rio Grande. The storm compounded the misery of COVID-19 in a place where social distancing is impossible and where sanitary services are not available.  

In the midst of this human tragedy, Gonzalez’s ministry continues to expand. He feeds and protects more than 1,600 immigrants living in the Alberca Chavez shelter, as well as others his church, Iglesia Valle de Beraca, serves in the camp.  

With the help of Fellowship Southwest and Hearts4Kids, González and his church feed, comfort and protect many immigrants. 

During their visit, the FSW team inspected the huge immigrant camp, plus the shelter operated by González. 

The love and respect the migrants and the authorities have for González was evident, Zapata reported.

Many of the immigrant families he serves have become his collaborators in the ministry. He disciples some of them spiritually, and they are showing the fruits of the Holy Spirit—and González’s labors.

“It was a delight to witness their joy.” Rodríguez noted. “They were living under a tarp, and still they were happy and quoting many verses of Scripture.” 

The group also visited Iglesia Valle de Beraca, where many young immigrants were working to serve other immigrants in need. They are participating in an intense discipleship program, and they commit part of their time to assist others in need. 

For a whole day, the Zapata, Sosa and Rodríguez enjoyed observing how the seeds González planted in the midst of misery have borne fruit.

“I witnessed the indifference, the evil and the result of wrongly implemented policies,” Rodríguez said of overall immigrant conditions on the border. “But I also was able to observe how in a field of thorns the seeds of love, kindness, respect and affection can germinate.”

“Pastor González's ministry is an incubator of love, peace and redemption in the shadows of Matamoros,” he said. “God is using him as a beacon of hope in the dark.”

To support Eleuterio González and Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry, click here.