Stories to inspire, challenge and educate.
To find stories related to FSW’s four priorities, click on the category below.
The Ides of March, 2021—even better than expected
“Beware the Ides of March,” Julius Cesar is warned in Shakespeare’s famous play.
But March 15, 2021, was a day I had been looking forward to for weeks—and one for which I had hoped and prayed for even longer. This was the day I would start as executive director of Fellowship Southwest. Even though I’d start by sitting down at my desk in my home office just as I had for a full year thanks to the pandemic, this first day was still exciting. It did not go as planned.
FSW’s partner Sosa constantly adapts to changing migrant conditions
Overcrowded shelters and constant movement of migrants from other sections of the U.S.-Mexico border are testing the limits of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, reported Pastor Rosalío Sosa, a key member of Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry.
Relief organizations, such as Sosa’s Red de Albergues para Migrantes (Migrant Shelter Network) also are feeling the strain, noted Sosa, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso.
Churches must pave the way for women pastors
“Not for Ourselves Alone” focuses on the women’s suffrage movement and two of its primary leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Anthony and Cady began working as a team in 1848, and the movement consumed the rest of their lives. When both died, the right to vote for women had not yet been accomplished. Yet their work was not in vain, and women did eventually obtain that right to vote.
Love follows need: Migrants receive care in the Harlingen airport
A simple question launched a ministry that touched more than 100 refugees in a single week and promises to serve thousands of lonely, vulnerable people in the months to come.
An immigrant named Carina approached Eddie Bernal, a worker helping travelers at a gate at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, at the southern tip of Texas, just miles from Mexico.
As immigration policy changes, González cares for migrants left behind
A symbol of one of the harshest immigration policies ever devised by the U.S. government has been dismantled and vacated.
The refugee tent camp on the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico—just across the Gateway International Bridge from Brownsville, Texas—has closed in the past week.
FSW’s partner Lorenzo Ortiz takes on another task—transportation coordinator
Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz always finds a way to serve people in dire need.
As director of the El Buen Samaritano Migrante ministry, he feeds and protects more than 100 refugees in three shelters in the Mexican states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas.
But he never considers that mammoth commitment as an excuse not to help others.
Fellowship Southwest’s pastor-partners adapt as “Remain in Mexico” shifts
Pastors who form the backbone Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry are adapting to meet the needs of asylum seekers as immigration policy rapidly changes.
The U.S. government is cooperating with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to implement Phase One of a program to roll back the Migrant Protection Protocols—better known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy—designed to begin processing migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Hearts4Kids’ Christian warmth thaws winter’s fiercest freeze
When the mid-February polar vortex caused temperatures to plummet to historic lows, Fellowship Southwest’s close ministry partner Hearts4Kids showed up to provide physical and spiritual warmth on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Fellowship Southwest selects Stephen Reeves as executive director
Stephen Reeves, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s public policy leader, has been elected executive director of Fellowship Southwest.
Learning to live into hope: lessons from the African American church
February is a month for us to remember the contributions that African Americans have made to the our society, which are many. I would like to take a narrower focus and examine the wonderful contributions that African American churches have made for the wider Christian community. Certainly, we could go to the major contributions that African American churches have made in civil rights, homiletics, education, and music. However, the thing that most impresses me with African American churches is how they live into hope.
Immigration webinar details impact of policy changes, advocacy opportunities
The U.S. government has taken a humane turn in its immigration policy this year, but the situation for refugees seeking asylum in the United States remains dire, participants in a webinar about immigration reported.
“Take Action for Immigrant Justice in 2021,” sponsored by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, outlines changes in U.S. immigration policy either implemented or promised by the Biden-Harris administration.
CBF Oklahoma selects Kyle Tubbs as next coordinator
Kyle Tubbs, a national leader in church starting, has been elected coordinator of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship Oklahoma. He will succeed Steve Graham, who will retire the end of May.
The CBF Oklahoma Coordinating Council elected Tubbs following a national search for a leader to follow Graham, coordinator since 2012.
Want to help Pastor Navarro serve immigrants? Send backpacks
If you’ve been wondering how to directly help immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, Pastor Carlos Navarro can tell you how to lend a hand. Actually, lend a backpack.
With FSW’s help, immigrants build better lives—one concrete block at a time
Thanks to a clever idea and willingness to work, three Cuban immigrants are supporting themselves and their families while living in a refugee shelter supported by Fellowship Southwest in Juarez, Mexico.
Shelter Director Rosalío Sosa knows his Cuban friends well and appreciates their strong desire to work. So, when he realized a concrete fabrication machine was for sale, he saw a path to financial independence. And with Fellowship Southwest’s support, he bought the machine and moved it to Juarez.
Fellowship Center for Ministry Development to strengthen churches by strengthening clergy
Fellowship Southwest has launched a new initiative to strengthen churches by helping them discover, train and nurture ministers.
The Fellowship Center for Ministry Development provides a focused response to a growing need among congregations throughout the region, announced Fellowship Southwest Coordinator Marv Knox.
CBF, Fellowship Southwest leaders welcome administration’s immigration initiatives
CBF and Fellowship Southwest leaders have expressed appreciation for President Joe Biden’s tone toward immigrants and gratitude for affirmative steps taken by his administration on immigration policy.
“As Christians, we have heard Jesus’s call to welcome the stranger. In response to that calling, we as Cooperative Baptists will continue to witness the love of God to immigrants and refugees through our missions and advocacy work,” CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley said.
La toma de posesión de Biden despierta esperanza entre los inmigrantes mientras las nuevas caravanas hacen cola
La toma de posesión de Joe Biden despertó la esperanza entre los inmigrantes de ambos lados de la frontera sur de los Estados Unidos cuando se convirtió en el cuadragésimo sexto presidente de los Estados Unidos.
Los indocumentados, inmigrantes, solicitantes de asilo y refugiados que viven en los Estados Unidos estuvieron a la expectativa de los primeros pasos del presidente hacia la reforma migratoria. Mientras tanto, en Centroamérica, las personas que viven bajo el yugo de la pobreza y el sufrimiento ponderaron si ellos también deberían considerar migrar al norte.
Biden’s inauguration sparks hope among immigrants as new caravans queue
Joe Biden’s inauguration sparked hope among immigrants on both sides of the United States’ southern border as he became the nation’s 46th president Jan. 20.
In the United States, the undocumented, immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees anticipated the president’s early steps toward immigration reform. Meanwhile, in Central America, suffering people considered whether they, too, should consider migrating north.
New law designed to make southern border safer
On Dec. 31, 2020, the U.S. government passed a law with bipartisan support that offers practical safety measures to reduce the dangers immigrants face when crossing the border through the Arizona desert.
Lista de deseos de Fellowship Southwest para una nueva era
Con la inauguración presidencial de los Estados Unidos a tan solo seis días, el Congreso ya en sesión y con las legislaturas estatales preparándose, Fellowship Southwest mira hacia el futuro con esperanza. Por supuesto, nuestra máxima confianza está en Dios y no en el gobierno. Pero nos comprometemos a orar y a trabajar por una cooperación que resulte en justicia, y en una compasión compartida por las personas necesitadas.