This is a re-publication of the letter that Pastor Ryon Price sent to the congregation of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, during his trip with Fellowship Southwest to the 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.

¿Cómo lo hacemos? Esa es la pregunta que se hace el pastor Eleuterio González cada vez que piensa en su ministerio con los migrantes en Matamoros, México –al otro lado del Río Grande con Brownsville, Texas. Durante casi tres años, González y la congregación que pastorea, la Iglesia Valle de Beraca, se han levantado temprano en la mañana para alimentar, albergar, transportar y proteger a los migrantes en la ciudad fronteriza.

How do we do it? That question keeps lingering in Pastor Eleuterio González’s mind every time he thinks about his ministry to migrants in Matamoros, Mexico –across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. For almost three years, he and the congregation he pastors, Iglesia Valle de Beraca, have woken up early each morning to feed, shelter, transport and protect migrants in the border town.

What can we do with so many migrants? This question kept lingering for months in Eleuterio Gonzalez’s mind, while he witnessed the arrival of thousands of migrants in Matamoros, Mexico –across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas and the city where he pastors Iglesia Valle de Beraca. And the answer to that question was simple, but it required a bold commitment: opening the doors of church members’ homes to welcome migrants.

On Thursday, January 6, hundreds of refugee families along the U.S.-Mexico border, in Matamoros, Mexico received gifts and supplies in celebration of Epiphany or Three Kings Day, a significant Hispanic holiday, thanks to the effort of many Fellowship Southwest’s partner churches and organizations. The goods were distributed in the Esperanza (Hope) and Corazón (Heart) migrant shelters, and in a slum in Playa Bagdad (Baghdad Beach) – on the Gulf coast 25 miles from Gateway International Bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros– where hundreds of Hispanic and Haitian refugees have relocated.

Este ha sido un año difícil pero gratificante para Jorge Zapata, coordinador asociado de CBF Texas, director del ministerio de ayuda a inmigrantes de Fellowship Southwest y fundador de Hearts4Kids, una organización sin fines de lucro que sirve a las comunidades más pobres del Valle del Río Grande.

Una pandemia, un huracane y miles de familias inmigrantes hambrientas a ambos lados de la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México han redefinido el ministerio de Zapata en 2020.

This has been a tough-yet-rewarding year for Jorge Zapata‚ associate coordinator of CBF Texas, Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief director and founder of Hearts4Kids, a nonprofit ministry that serves the poorest communities in the Rio Grande Valley.

A pandemic, a hurricane and thousands of hungry immigrant families on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have redefined Zapata’s ministry in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stricken the heart of Pastor Eleuterio González’s ministry to immigrants in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

Two pastors on the U.S.-Mexico border have more reliable transportation to serve immigrants, thanks to the generosity of Fellowship Southwest churches.

Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz in Laredo drives across the border every day to serve refugees he shelters in Nuevo Laredo and Saltillo. In order to protect them from the cartels, Ortiz keeps them off the streets by shuttling them in a 15-passenger van. He often shuttles immigrants to and from Nuevo Laredo, Saltillo and Monterrey, a three-hour drive one-way, several days a week.

Professional soccer beckoned to Rogelio Pérez. Soccer loved his speed, strength and energy. It respected his great mentor and father, Jaime Humberto Pérez Castillo.

But at age 16, Pérez trotted off the soccer field and onto a much different life journey.

A “call from heaven” enabled Pastor Eleuterio González to help a desperately sick child in Matamoros, Mexico.

Supported by Fellowship Southwest, González and his church, Iglesia Valle de Beraca, feed and protect more than 1,600 immigrants living in the Alberca Chavez shelter, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas. They also minister in camps, where thousands of refugees live outdoors in tents.

On Sept. 12, González was engaged in his typical Saturday routine—providing food in the mammoth camp on the banks of the Rio Grande. An immigrant told him about a 9-year-old Honduran girl suffering from severe vomiting.

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.

A perfect storm of calamity—the immigration crisis, COVID-19 and a hurricane—has buffeted Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry in Matamoros, Mexico. The needs are dire; the response is sacrificial.

Since 2018, Fellowship Southwest has supported feeding projects on the Gateway International Bridge between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, as well as in the sprawling immigrant camp just south of the bridge. Since this spring, FSW has sponsored the burgeoning immigrant ministry of Pastor Eleuterio González and Iglesia Valle de Beraca further into the city.

El huracán Hanna dejó una estela de devastación al pasar el pasado 25 de julio por el Valle del Río Grande de Texas. Hanna arrojó más de 15 pulgadas de lluvia en la región cercana al Golfo de México, inundando severamente las zonas rurales y las colonias.

Los impetuosos vientos de Hanna causaron estragos en la zona, volcando casas rodantes y arrancando los techos de muchas residencias.

"El huracán causó mucho daño a las colonias (nombre otorgado a las villas no incorporadas que abundan en la frontera)", informó Jorge Zapata, coordinador asociado del Compañerismo Bautista Cooperativo (CBF por sus siglas en inglés) de Texas. "A muchas familias les voló el techo de sus casas".

Hurricane Hanna left a trail of devastation as it tore through Texas’ Rio Grande Valley near the Gulf of Mexico July 25. Hanna dumped more than 15 inches of rain on the region, severely flooding rural areas and colonias.

Hanna's impetuous winds also wreaked havoc, overturning trailer homes and ripping roofs off others.

“The hurricane did a lot of damage to the colonias,” the unincorporated villages that dot the border, reported Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas. “Many families had their rooftops blown off their homes.”

Thirty-five desperate children from Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua limped into Pastor Eleuterio González’s refugee shelter in Matamoros, Mexico, last Saturday.

"The children arrived dehydrated and with callouses on their feet, because—like their parents—the coyotes forced them to hand over their sneakers and shoes if they had nothing to pay with," said González, pastor of Iglesia Valle de Beraca in Matamoros and the main contact between the immigrants and the Tamaulipas state government.

Iglesia Bautista Capernaum delivers bread and the Bread of Life to asylum seekers in the campgrounds of Matamoros.

At least two days a week, the small congregation brings lunch to immigrants waiting out the asylum process in tent villages amassed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Pastor Rogelio Pérez is sure to feed their souls as well as their stomachs. Each visit to the campgrounds includes a worship service, in which Pérez invites the refugees to accept ultimate asylum in the love and grace of Jesus.

It was a warm Thursday morning. Pastor Rogelio Pérez and I just crossed the United States-Mexico border accompanied by three brothers and sisters in Christ. We were carrying food, clothes and hygiene products. Our objective was clear—distribute these supplies to immigrants waiting in Mexico to enter the United States. Almost immediately, a man recognized Pastor Pérez from the multitude. He hugged the pastor and joined the group on our mission to help the needy.

He stood out from the rest of the refugees. He was different. Others were coming to see what they could get from Rogelio. Who can judge them? They are totally dependent on our giveaways for survival. Still, this man wasn't thinking about himself. He was thinking about those around him who needed more help.

Asylum seekers will receive a much more comfortable welcome when Fellowship Southwest and Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville complete their first collaborative project.

FSW and the Brownsville congregation are teaming up to build a respite center on the church’s campus. Refugees will be able to shower, wash clothes, rest and receive Christian hospitality before taking a bus or plane to live with sponsors while they await their fate.