Reflecting on 2022
By Stephen Reeves
As the year ends it is appropriate to reflect on where Fellowship Southwest has been and what we’ve accomplished thanks to your support and our numerous partners. I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity to lead this organization, proud of the work we’ve done, and believe our best is yet to come.
Throughout the year migrants have arrived at our southern border seeking safety and refuge. While policies and politicians change, the conditions forcing folks from their homes and toward the US persist. The pastors and churches in our border network have been just as consistent. Every day they are there providing protection, food, clothing, and spiritual care while sharing the love of Christ. Because of your generosity we’ve been able to support their ministries all year long with a total of over $225,000 in contributions. Our staff have made many trips to be with them, beginning on January 6 where I was able to join the Three Kings celebration in Matamoros.
By far the biggest internal development for FSW was the addition of two full time staff members. Cameron Vickrey and Anyra Cano are an absolute blessing to me and the FSW community. Their passion and gifts have already made us a better organization, and I look forward to what we’ll do together.
I’m grateful for the work of Cintia Aguilar who, in partnership with Jorge Zapata and Hearts4Kids, provided 7 trainings to over 100 attendees in basic social work strategies for pastors engaged in ministry among migrants. We’re also blessed by our continuing partnership with the Center of Church and Community Impact at Baylor’s Garland School of Social work. By supporting their internship program we benefit from and share their work helping churches engage their communities. You can read about their projects here.
In February, Elket and I helped lead our friends at Good Faith Media on a trip along the border. They produced several videos and dedicated an entire edition of their Nurturing Faith magazine to the border and immigration. We’re grateful for their partnership and how they faithfully and thoughtfully told the amazing stories we get to be a part of.
FSW was also active in opposition to the death penalty in several ways this year. Our hearts were broken by the story of Melissa Lucio and FSW joined the numerous voices from the faith community asking the state to spare her life. It was a relief and blessing when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial just two days before the state was set to kill her. I made two presentations about why I oppose the death penalty. One at the annual conference for the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and at another on the future of the death penalty at Lamar University in Beaumont. This week I was quoted in the Baptist Standard commenting on TCADP’s annual report.
After Easter FSW partnered with CBF Texas, Oklahoma and CBF West to offer a retreat to Arizona where we gathered in the desert to rest, reflect, and be renewed. Join us in 2023 in Lake Tahoe, April 18-21.
In May our hearts were shattered by the massacre of school children in Uvalde. An unspeakable tragedy that is no longer unimaginable because it happens all too often. Like many of you I’m a gun owner, but after Uvalde I could no longer remain silent about how outrageous and unreasonable our love of guns and lack of action has become. We’re grateful that Congress passed the first significant gun safety reforms in decades, but there is so much more to be done in policy and culture to combat gun violence.
In June many FSW friends and supporters gathered in Dallas during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly. There we had the opportunity to celebrate the release of Lorenzo Ortiz, one of our border pastors, who had been kidnapped by cartel members earlier that month.
FSW made several trips to Washington, D.C. this year as well. Anyra and I both serve on the BJC board, which meets in D.C. FSW has vocally supported their efforts to save Oak Flat and their Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign. In November, Elket and I attended a convening of the Evangelical Immigration Table and National Immigration Forum where we lobbied Congress for significant action on immigration reform during the lame duck session. Sadly, despite the best efforts of thousands of advocates and after initial optimism, it does not look like reforms will pass.
Our amazing and faithful board of directors met twice this year and both times together were more than just a meeting. In May, we gathered in El Paso and crossed the border to visit a shelter in Puerto Palomas, outside of Ciudad Juarez, run by partner Rosalío Sosa. In October we gathered in Oklahoma City and began our time by meeting with several Native American pastors to begin building relationships, to learn more about their culture and contexts and dream together about future partnership and ministry together.
This reflection fills me with gratitude. Thanks for joining with us in this work, whether you have become recently connected, or if you’ve been a part of this for all of the past five years. We’re grateful for your support and can’t wait to share more about all that’s in store for 2023. I’m excited about our future together.