Fellowship Southwest and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have joined a broad coalition of faith organizations and faith leaders who have urged the Biden Administration to hold U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers accountable for abusing Haitian migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The coalition has asked the administration to pursue all possible procedures that would guarantee humanitarian protection for the Haitians.

Women called by God into ministry must run to rather than flee from God and their callings, speakers stressed during Texas Baptist Women in Ministry’s annual meeting Oct. 13 in Dallas.

Texas BWIM held its first in-person event in more than a year and a half, noted Executive Director Anyra Cano. The organization collaborated with the Baptist House of Studies at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, which hosted the event, and Faith Commons, a Dallas-based organization that promotes public discourse rooted in the common values of many faiths.

Thousands of Haitian migrants are stranded in northern Mexico following the largest mass-expulsion of migrants by the U.S. government, in Del Rio, Texas.

Many of the deported Haitian migrants relocated to Matamoros, Mexico—across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas—waiting for a chance to enter the United States officially.

Rosalío Sosa sat at ringside when boxing legends Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield battled for the world heavyweight title in 1997. As millions watched the sluggers, Sosa waged his own fight, struggling with God’s call to ministry.

Life in ministry came full circle for Sheila Klopfer Oct. 3, when Del Sol Church in Albuquerque ordained her to the gospel ministry.

Change never stops on the U.S.-Mexico border. From a Haitian caravan encamping under a bridge, to a surge of unaccompanied migrant children, to the expulsion of asylum seekers, the border is the setting of hundreds of stories every week.

Every news outlet frames its narrative according to its perspective: Some depict the border as a war zone, where Customs and Border Protection officers clash with migrants. Others portray border dynamics as a humanitarian crisis. Many frame the border as a political challenge. A few claim the border is open, while others insist it is closed. Many Americans believe most migrants are criminals, while others think asylum seekers only desire safety from persecution.

The Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma will honor a musician/composer, denominational leader, educator and pastor at its 2021 Celebrating Excellence awards dinner, Oct. 24 in Norman, reported Kyle Tubbs, the organization’s new coordinator.

The annual event recognizes individuals who honor Christ and strengthen the church through the excellence of their careers in service to others, Tubbs noted.

Pastor Israel Rodríguez-Segura received shock after shock when he heard the news about 15,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, camping under the international bridge between Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, and Del Rio, Texas. The number of migrants shocked him, as did reports of their squalid conditions, as well as the fact government officials had closed the bridge.

Treinta pastores y líderes hispanos del Compañerismo Bautista Cooperativo en los Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico se reunieron en Mérida, en la península de Yucatán en el Golfo de México a mediados de septiembre para disfrutar de un espacio de descanso y renovación auspiciado por Familia, la Red Latina de CBF.

Durante aproximadamente una semana, los pastores y líderes se recuperaron de los estragos del ministerio ocasionados por la pandemia de COVID-19, incluyendo la pérdida de seres queridos y la merma en la asistencia a sus iglesias. El retiro ofreció un oasis para el clero que necesitaba desconectarse de sus rutinas ministeriales diarias.

Familia, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Latino Network, provided a haven of rest and renewal during a mid-September retreat on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Thirty CBF Hispanic pastors and leaders from the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico gathered in Mérida, on the Gulf of Mexico. For about a week, they recuperated from the ravages of ministering through the COVID-19 pandemic, including the loss of loved ones and suppressed church attendance. The retreat offered an oasis for clergy who needed to disconnect from their daily ministerial routines.

On Sept. 7, I was blessed to join 18 other pastors, ministers and faith leaders from the Southwest and beyond for a three-day retreat at the beautiful Mary and Joseph Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

Set among green gardens on a hilltop overlooking the lights of Los Angeles and just a few miles from the coast, it was the perfect location for quiet reflection and building relationships.

Happy birthday to me.

There, we got that out of the way. This week, I’m celebrating a “significant” birthday. It’s not round. It’s a gateway. My wife, Joanna, will celebrate the same-number feliz cumpleaños in five months. Because of those birthdays, we’re passing from one life-phase to another.

The sewing circle from Second Baptist Church Lubbock, Texas, has been busy this past year sewing dresses for little girls ages 1 to 8 years old. A deacon from the church, Bob Howell, delivered 225 dress packages to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship office in San Antonio on Friday, Aug. 27, to be distributed to refugee children at the border.

Scripture tells us what justice looks like.

Justice looks like:

• Water flowing down (Amos 5).
• An ear inclined toward the orphan and the oppressed (Psalm 10).
• No wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan or the widow (Jeremiah 22).

How would you feel if someone you trust harmed you as badly or worse than someone who beat you? On an international level, that’s what the U.S. immigration policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols—or MPP, or “Remain in Mexico”—is all about.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a district court decision ordering the Department of Homeland Security to reimplement MPP. Many faith-based and humanitarian organizations that work with migrants, including Fellowship Southwest, swiftly opposed the high court’s decision.

Fellowship Southwest featured prominently in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 2021 General Assembly, conducted online again this year due to resurgence of the COVID pandemic.

At the beginning of the opening worship service, Lois Gagne, pianist at Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, provided special music from the congregation’s sun-dappled Atrium.

This is not the column I wanted to write. Perhaps things are not going as you hoped right now either. I was blessed with the gift of extra time off in the early months of my transition to executive director of Fellowship Southwest and while Marv is still serving as coordinator. The month of July was just about everything I could have hoped it would be.

Fellowship Southwest's immigrant relief ministry has fed, sheltered and protected an estimated 300,000 vulnerable people and committed more than a half-million dollars to the ministry along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The immigrant ministry extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. FSW supports a network of pastors who serve refugees amassed along the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking asylum in the United States.

On Tuesday night, Aug. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order that effectively reinstates the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. Commonly referred to as the “remain in Mexico” policy, MPP is largely responsible (along with Title 42, which facilitates expulsion based on COVID fears) for migrants being forced to assemble at the U.S.-Mexico border to await their opportunity to make an asylum claim in court.

Back-to-school launches the second year of one of Fellowship Southwest’s most productive partnerships—an internship program in the Center for Church and Community Impact at Baylor University’s Garland School of Social Work.