Shifting circumstances never hinder Lorenzo Ortiz from helping hurting people.

Ortiz’s ministry to refugees blossomed in 2018, when they flooded his church in Laredo, Texas. Back then, immigrants seeking asylum in the United States could cross into the country, complete their application and wait out the process.

But the 2018 immigrant surge overwhelmed the U.S. asylum system, and destitute refugees far from home waited on the streets. Ortiz took immigrants in Laredo into the church where he was pastor, and Fellowship Southwest started providing funds to buy groceries and pay escalating utilities.

One of the most important people in Fellowship Southwest’s network of ministry to immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border needs your prayers.

Maria, a refugee from Cuba who lives in the shelter in Palomas, Chihuahua, is facing surgery, reported Rosalio Sosa, director of Red de Albergues Para Migrantes (Migrant Shelter Network) and pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso.

Imagine arriving as a refugee in a new country amidst a pandemic: Government offices are closed or working remotely. Documents needed to work and support your family are very difficult to acquire or are delayed months. Those who would normally welcome you and help you navigate life are social distancing. Isolation can be overwhelming and seem hopeless.

While social distancing, I’ve struggled with how to minister effectively in the midst of a pandemic. Instead of focusing on all the things I can no longer do, I’ve tried to focus on what God is still doing in spite of what I may see or feel. I’ve seen God show up in incredible ways.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship introduced its 25 Young Leaders to Know during the CBF General Assembly this summer. Six of them hail from and/or are preparing for ministry in the Southwest. They include…

Who can forget the Holocaust? In just five years, about 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and their supporting governments.

We also must remember the Third Reich planted the seeds of genocide long before it carried out the Holocaust.

Much earlier, the German government implemented multiple policies to compel Jewish people to flee. These policies, known as judenrein (“cleansed of Jews”), sought to make the Jews so miserable they would emigrate to more hospitable countries.

Members of the Navajo Nation—among the hardest-hit victims of COVID-19—will receive tangible aid and a clear expression of God’s love, thanks to CBF West.

“The Navajo Nation infection rates per capita have become the highest in the country when compared with any individual state,” noted CBF West Coordinator Glen Foster.

Multiple factors enabled the pandemic to spread across vast region, covering northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico, added Greg Long, executive director of Selah Navajo Ministries and a longtime leader in CBF West.

There have been growing demands for reforms of police departments across the nation. I was part of a group of denominational leaders who worked with a professor who was a former policeman and now teaches criminal justice at the university level.

We met with him for several hours asking him all sorts of questions about what research has shown to be most productive things that police departments can do to improve. Most of our questions were directed toward larger police departments. However, we were reminded by the professor that many police departments are quite small and not all of these recommendations would be applicable. Also, these are recommendations related to taking a long-term approach to improving police behavior.

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.

Is 2020 a pivot point in U.S history? Will the momentum for changing how Americans see race—and repair the damage of 401 years of racism—become a movement? Five Southwest pastors examine this moment and the church’s role in it.

Although the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—provided temporary relief for young immigrants, their future remains uncertain, and the United States desperately needs immigration reform, participants in a bilingual webinar insisted.

Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas, or the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, sponsored a two-part webinar, first in Spanish and then in English—“DACA & Dreamers: What’s Next?”—June 23 in the shadow of the high court’s DACA decision.

Across the ages, pandemics have packed punitive punches:

• From 1347 to 1351, the black death swept across Europe. Mobs scapegoated Jews, murdering thousands.

• In the early 20th century, the Spanish flu spread throughout the world, and millions died. In the United States, the pandemic spawned racial and social unrest, prompting the deaths of many African Americans in what has been called the Red Summer of 1919.

Servir y satisfacer las necesidades de los refugiados puede ser un poco más problemático en estos días, ya que las iglesias y los negocios están cerrados y se nos pide que seamos socialmente distantes. Los refugiados son muy hospitalarios y quieren que te sientes y tomes una taza de té con ellos, pero ahora llevo una máscara y guantes y dejo las cosas en la puerta y salgo rápido.

A pastor who fled Central America because of religious persecution now feels like a pawn in U.S. politics.

Because of the U.S. government’s Migrant Protection Protocols—also known as MPP and “remain in Mexico”—he languishes just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Based on the persecution he and his family endured for their Christian faith, he hopes they will be granted asylum in the United States. But because of MPP, they must wait out the process in Mexico.

Refugees in Palomas, Mexico, are assured of getting care for possible COVID-19 infections, thanks to the attention and faithfulness of Rosalío Sosa.

Sosa is pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso and director of Red de Albergues para Migrante, a network of 14 immigrant shelters in the north central Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Mexican drug cartel enforcers went hunting “coyotes” in the desert but found a shepherd instead.

Lorenzo Ortiz, director of El Buen Samaritano Migrante Ministry, cares for refugee asylum seekers in the states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. Fellowship Southwest supports Ortiz and El Buen Samaritano, providing monthly funds for food and other necessary items, as well as operational funds for the shelters and the ministry.

I am a white-presenting Puerto Rican woman. I will soon marry a black man. My college roommates are black. My ancestors are black. My future children will be black. Due to this, the recent events with David McAtee, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have had a certain sting.

Heaven became a happier, funnier, more joyful place early in the morning of June 14, when Babs Baugh joined the heavenly chorus. Most likely, she started choreographing dance steps to enliven divine music.

The voice speaking through my phone carried me to the side of a brother in the faith. He is Cuban, black and seeking U.S. citizenship. He called to ask a sad question that reflects our times: “How can I protect myself from police intervention?”

His question provoked tears as I reflected on the curse of classifying people by the color of their skin. I was born in Puerto Rico where people’s skin tones reflect the palate of possibilities.

Growing up, I had three great friends—Juan Sostre, Daniel Vega and Nelson Túa. We loved wrestling, and that brought us together. Daniel looks Asian, Juan is black and Nelson is white with brown hair.

Webinar hosted by Marv Knox, coordinator of Fellowship Southwest.

Contributors:

• Mary Alice Birdwhistell, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas

• Glen Foster, pastor of Pantano Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona

• Becky Jackson, pastor of Northwest Baptist Church in Ardmore, Oklahoma

• Garrett Vickrey, pastor of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas

• Jorge Zayasbazan, pastor of Baptist Temple in San Antonio

She’s known as Emma. She’s the mother of James, her older son, and Robert, his younger brother. She’s from Guatemala. Her hometown is beautiful, with lots of coffee trees. The weather is great. The lakes and the mountains look like heaven.

Paradise is one thing, but reality is another.