Youth group from Georgia experiences missions on the U.S.-Mexico border
With so many needs on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and restrictions from COVID on the decline, participating in a wide range of missions opportunities is now a welcome option for church groups through Fellowship Southwest.
Just this week, and still today, a group of Georgia teenagers is at the U.S.-Mexico border serving alongside our partners. Central Baptist Church and Iglesia Bautista El Buen Pastor in Newnan, Georgia, brought seven youth and three leaders for an immersive experience with border ministry partners through a joint effort between Fellowship Southwest and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The youth minister at Central Baptist, Steve Cothran, says, “Trips like these are impactful not only because youth are welcoming the stranger and feeding the hungry, but also because these experiences produce ‘lightbulb moments’ when our eyes are opened to the needs around us and to our calling as Christians to meet the needs in the lives of all of God’s children.”
Carlos Navarro, pastor of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville and leader of Fellowship Southwest's immigrant ministry in Brownsville is hosting the group for the week. Elket Rodriguez, CBF field personnel who serves as Fellowship Southwest's immigration specialist in the region, helped to lead them along the way by contextualizing and debriefing their experiences, and introducing them to the importance of advocacy.
Many of the youth in the group are children of immigrants themselves, and several are bilingual in English and Spanish.
The group is staying at the respite center at I.B. West Brownsville, a hotel-like building on the church's campus that Fellowship Southwest helped construct in 2019-2020. There was one other resident of the respite center with them earlier this week: a Guatemalan woman who recently delivered a baby. The group was able to help her prepare as she departed Wednesday for the next stage of her immigration journey.
The youth were able to help around the respite center and the church, cleaning and washing bedding after the Guatemalan mother left and preparing her room for the next resident. They brought from home bundles of clothing for donation to the respite center. So one of their tasks was sorting, folding and organizing their donations according to West Brownsville's tidy system.
Pastor Carlos Navarro giving the group an orientation to the ministry context at Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville. The slide says that they have helped 30,888 migrants, led 11,170 to the Christian faith, and hosted 382 so far in the new respite center.
They began their week worshipping with the West Brownsville congregation and witnessing the dedication of the Guatemalan-American baby and learning from Pastor Carlos all about their ministry to migrants.
On Monday they dove right in and crossed the border to Mexico. They joined up with youth from Valle de Beraca in Matamoros, whose pastor is Eleuterio Gonzalez. They traveled together to Playa Bagdad, a community devastated by poverty. The youth groups worked together, led by the Matamoros youth who serve here regularly, delivering food to the small homes on the beach.
Jeisson R Belman Duran, a 13-year-old on the trip, was moved by the experience that day, a day which was 99 degrees but felt like 105. “I was struck by the conditions the children in Playa Bagdad live,” Jeisson said. “They were playing outside (on the pavement) without their shoes in that intense heat.”
On Tuesday, the group stayed in Brownsville, mostly in the respite center, folding and sorting clothes and doing laundry. They also visited with and fed homeless refugees in downtown Brownsville, something that Pastor Carlos does regularly.
Wednesday the group did all the planning and preparation for backyard Bible clubs they led in the colonias, both later that evening and Thursday evening, along with Hearts4Kids, another ministry partner in the region led by Jorge Zapata.
Thursday the group visited McAllen's food bank and volunteered there before leading another Bible club in the evening.
Tomorrow, Friday, they are "off" and get to have some well-deserved fun. They will be visiting Space X and then heading to the beach on South Padre Island.
After serving alongside them for five days, Elket Rodríguez said, “The youth from Central Baptist Church and Iglesia el Buen Pastor served and at the same time witnessed what migrants experience at various stages of their journey. They observed how migrants live after being expelled to Mexico under Title 42 and served them. They spent the night with migrants in a respite center and served them. They also witnessed how migrants live in colonias in South Texas and served them.”
Ruth Cuellar, the pastor of El Buen Pastor, said, “Our expectation before the mission trip was to be the heart, hands and feet of the master of Galilee. Now we are certain that we walk in his footsteps as his disciples and sojourners.”
If you or a group from your church or community would like to plan a similar trip to the border, we are eager to help you. The opportunities and the needs are endless. We just need you to come and see.