By Anyra Cano

On Monday, July 1st, Fellowship Southwest joined the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas for its 2024 Annual Gathering and sponsored the Young Latino Track of its program.

I (Anyra) led a session with about twenty young Latino leaders to share Fellowship Southwest’s work. I started my session by asking the young leaders, “Have you ever heard of Fellowship Southwest?” One young couple raised their hands; I was pleasantly surprised. I asked how they knew about us, and they responded, “We know Tiffany Harris at Dayspring Waco, and we have learned about Fellowship Southwest through their Noami Welcome House and how you helped get them started.” I was so encouraged and proud; they were hearing that as a testimony from a much younger couple and not from me. That gave me a great segue to begin sharing about FSW’s work around compassion, justice, and connection.

As I shared with the group about FSW’s desire to work in partnership/coalition with others, I introduced two other young leaders: Edrei Rodriguez, our ministry partner serving/pastoring the Haitian Migrant Community in Reynosa, and Lisa Jacob, the North Texas Organizer for Christians against Christians Nationalism of BJC. They each spoke about their work and the importance of young leaders in their corresponding work.

At lunch, we added a few more, and they were invited to our Compassion and Justice Conference, border trips, and advocacy days.

I hope these young leaders who share our passion for compassion and justice can identify with Fellowship Southwest and join us in our mission, connecting and partnering with this important work.