Pulpit plagiarism has been making the news again.

“Again” is the operative word. This is not new. A couple of friends, now in their 80s, recall making a wager about which swiped sermon a famous Baptist preacher/evangelist would deliver to a captivated crowd at Oklahoma’s Falls Creek Assembly when they worked there as young men. That was at least 50, maybe 60, years ago.

You can understand if Maria Elena De Los Angels feels like Job. She’s one of the victims of the deep freeze that pummeled Texas last February—folks Fellowship Southwest is helping through its close partner, Hearts4Kids.

¡Mírame! Eso me susurró Jesús todos los días que estuve en la gira de Fellowship Southwest visitando los ministerios que componen su red de apoyo a migrantes. Por espacio de dos semanas, fueron muchas las veces que me encontré a Jesús por la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México.

Kyle Tubbs believes Cooperative Baptists in Oklahoma will “dream big” about their future. And from what Tubbs has seen, he’s confident that future is as big and bright and open as the Sooner State’s vast horizon.

Tubbs became the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma’s fourth coordinator June 1, succeeding Steve Graham. Previously, Tubbs led the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s national church-starting program. Before that, he started one of CBF’s most innovative congregations, Peace of Christ Church in Round Rock, Texas.

“Look at me,” Jesus whispered every day as I participated in a recent tour of Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief network. Many times, I saw him on the U.S.-Mexico border.

• I saw Jesus in the anguished eyes of a deported veteran, feeling betrayed.

• I saw Jesus scrambling to scavenge used clothes thrown into the street by Mexican residents.

I mowed my lawn Saturday morning. No, this is not an unusual chore, but it didn’t feel the same.

After spending 10 days along the border with pastors who sacrifice so much for their neighbors and talking with refugees who walked out of their homes with only what they could carry, it was jarring to go back to such a common, mundane luxury. It seemed just so inconsequential. (According to their letter, my homeowners’ association disagrees.) I rarely consider how fortunate I am to have this chore.

Goals most U.S. fathers take for granted—building a family and living in peace—seem like luxuries in Central America. And hopes of life free from the grasp of organized crime “gangs” feel more like fantasies than achievable dreams.

A paradox of the refugee crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border sat smiling on the floor of a Chihuahuan desert shelter. She cooed and waved and charmed three Fellowship Southwest visitors.

Fellowship Southwest received great news last week—from the Internal Revenue Service.

“We’re pleased to tell you we determined you’re exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3),” the IRS said in a letter sent to FSW Coordinator Marv Knox.

Los cristianos fieles siembran la semilla del evangelio que produce almas nacidas en el reino de los cielos, incluso en el pedregoso suelo de los caminos migratorios.

El domingo pasado, la Primera Iglesia Bautista de Piedras Negras, México, llevó a cabo su primer servicio bautismal desde el inicio de la pandemia del COVID-19, y fue una celebración infundida por la inmigración.

Even on the rocky soil of migration pathways, faithful Christians sow gospel seeds that yield bountiful blessings—souls born into the kingdom of heaven.

This past Sunday, Primera Iglesia Bautista of Piedras Negras, Mexico, conducted its first post-COVID baptismal service, and it was an immigration-infused celebration.

—Painting is “Easter Hope” by Rebekah Krevens—

As we begin moving to the other side of this pandemic, four words are on my mind—grief, gratitude, hope and resolve. I feel the weight of grief. It is a heaviness in my chest, a knot in my gut and a frequent dull headache. I feel this not just for the many lives lost, but for all that was given up…

What began as an airport ministry to asylum seekers has become an oasis to fill the spiritual emptiness of all travelers, whether migrants or not.

Ana María Zambrano García, de 32 años, viajó miles de millas desde su natal Ecuador para terminar incapacitada en un refugio para migrantes en la remota aldea desértica de Palomas, México, luego de caer desde lo más alto del muro fronterizo entre Estados Unidos y México. En su intento por pisar suelo estadounidense, Zambrano se rompió las piernas, la columna vertebral, y ahora está confinada a la cama de un refugio.

If you’re of a certain age, you may recall hearing Memorial Day called by another name, Decoration Day. And if the old-timers who mentioned it had their stories straight, the term originated as a call to decorate the graves of fallen veterans and evolved into a day to lay flowers on the graves of departed family.

Ana María Zambrano García, 32, traveled thousands of miles from her native Ecuador to end up incapacitated in a migrant shelter in the remote desert village of Palomas, Mexico, after falling from the top of the US-Mexico border wall. In her attempt to set foot on U.S. soil, Zambrano broke her legs and her spine, and is now confined to a bed in a shelter.

Broadway Baptist Church Senior Pastor Ryon Price hosted a “Courageous Conversation on Voting Rights and the Church.” Fellowship Southwest Executive Director Stephen Reeves participated in the panel discussion, alongside Rev. Danielle Ayers, Pastor of Justice at Friendship West Baptist Church, and Jesse L. Gaines, voting and civil rights attorney and member of the Board of Directors Executive Committee of the Fort Worth Tarrant County Branch of the NAACP.

An “aha moment” brought Jess Gregory to Baylor University. Now, the continuing revelation of what she learned in that instant is shaping the ark of her life and ministry.

A path to citizenship for millions of immigrants living in the United States seems attainable. Their best avenue appears to be budget reconciliation—the process the U.S. Senate implements to bypass the filibuster and to fast-track consideration of the nation’s budget, according to panelists in a recent webinar.

Decenas de líderes cristianos hispanos de múltiples tradiciones denominacionales y teológicas se unieron para apoyar una declaración que exige al Congreso que promulgue una reforma migratoria basada en un conjunto de principios compartidos.