Greetings from the U.S.-Mexico border, where a Fellowship Southwest team has spent part of this week crossing back and forth—meeting the people, both the refugees and those who serve them; listening to their stories; and thinking and dreaming and praying about how we can help them. 

Our hearts are full of grief, glory and gratitude as we process all we have seen and heard. We grieve for the refugees—for the violence and suffering that prompted them to flee their homelands. We have basked in the glory of saints who sacrifice to minister to them in Jesus’ name, day after week after month. And we are grateful for how God is working even through this horrible crisis to bring people to faith by experiencing the love of Jesus.

The love of Jesus anchored a weekend mission project that served immigrant refugees on the Mexico-U.S. border Aug. 9-10. Anchored Love Ministries, founded in 2003 to reach and minister to women and their families, particularly Hispanics, sponsored the event. Last weekend marked Anchored Love Ministries' third project in the Rio Grande Valley, noted Executive Director Sandra Dubon Cisneros. Previous trips took the group to Guatemala, Peru, Spain, Mexico, North Carolina, elsewhere in Texas, and other parts of the United States.

A slideshow of more pictures from the mission trip to the Navajo Nation in Leupp, Arizona.

An ecumenical Protestant/evangelical coalition has organized to “feed the hungry and welcome the stranger” along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley on the southern tip of Texas. The Hebrews 13:2 Coalition of the RGV held two organizing meetings—one primarily involving Baptists and the other more broadly ecumenical—in McAllen, Texas, Aug. 5. Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

The love of God permeated a portion of the Navajo reservation in Arizona the first weekend in August. It looked like children smiling through painted faces, bales of hay stacked in pickup trucks and backpacks stuffed with school supplies. It sounded like laughter, plus sermons, hymns and prayers offered in at least three languages. It smelled like frybread and desert vegetation. And it felt like summer sunshine, tempered by breezes flowing down the mountains.

An El Paso congregation continues to experience the joy of serving others in Jesus’ name, even as it suffers the grief of incalculable loss. First, thanks to your generosity, Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro can maximize how it serves refugees and immigrants in Juarez, Mexico, and in El Paso, as well.

Gunshots that slaughtered at least 22 people in El Paso, Texas, last Saturday echoed around the world. They particularly reverberated in the hearts of residents of the American Southwest.

The murderer (Let’s refuse to placate the perversion of mass murderers by repeating their names.) drove from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to El Paso specifically to kill people from Mexico. A manifesto he apparently posted on an online forum claimed he wanted to stop a “Hispanic invasion.”

Do you remember when we told you about the churches in Harlingen, Texas, which sustained damage when a 15-inch rain deluged the city in four hours—and then when other congregations showed up to help them? 

In the past few days, a couple of those churches have felt tangible love from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas, delivered checks for $5,000 each to the worst-damaged congregations—Iglesia Bautista Avondale and Iglesia Bautista Emanuel.

Last week, we told you about Iglesia Bautista Capernaum in Brownsville, Texas, whose members serve breakfast tacos to asylum seekers across the U.S.-Mexico border in Matamoros.

They’re still at it, going strong. But this week, we’ve got a couple of updates.

I’m a Christian against Christian Nationalism. Are you?

I oppose Christian Nationalism because I’m devoted to Jesus Christ and loyal to the United States of America. Christian Nationalism stresses the only good Americans are Christians and the only real Christians are Americans. By perversely linking faith to nation, making them co-dependent, Christian Nationalism undermines and diminishes both Christianity and patriotism.

The Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma’s signature missions project reflected unity through diversity this month. For several years, CBF Oklahoma has partnered with the Oklahoma Indian American Baptist Association to sponsor ministries alongside Native American congregations in the western part of the state. In mid-July, Native American, Hispanic and Anglo congregations from Baptist and Pentecostal traditions joined forces to share the love of Jesus with Watonga.

When asylum seekers on the border bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, eat breakfast tacos, they look into the smiling faces of volunteers from Iglesia Bautista Capernaum. You are there, too.

Hay muchas oportunidades para voluntarios misioneros que desean asistir a aquellos solicitantes de asilo agrupados a ambos lados de la frontera (EE. UU.-México) nos informa Jorge Zapata, director del Ministerio de Ayuda a los Inmigrantes de Fellowship Southwest. Cada contacto con un refugiado inmigrante es un encuentro evangélico, agregó.

A trio of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship organizations are teaming up to help four churches whose properties received damage in flash floods late last month. 

Parts of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas flooded June 24, when 15 inches of rain fell in four hours. Several churches that collaborate with Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas and director of Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry, sustained damage in the deluge, Zapata reported. The congregations do not have flood insurance.

Mission opportunities are available for volunteers who want to minister to asylum seekers clustered on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border, reported Jorge Zapata, director of Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry. Every contact with an immigrant refugee is a gospel encounter, he added.

If the photograph of Oscar Alberto Martinez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria—her tiny body tucked under his T-shirt, arm around his neck, both drowned face-down in the Rio Grande—broke your heart, welcome to the Legion of the Brokenhearted. 

On June 24, Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley was dumped with 15 inches of rain in just four hours. Everything flooded. Several churches that Fellowship Southwest interacts with for immigrant and refugee ministries were severely damaged. 

Primera Iglesia Bautista in Alamo, Texas—a longtime servant to immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, has stepped up its ministry in the face of desperate need. For months, Primera Alamo has provided food, hygiene kits and plush toys to immigrants on the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas. 

This summer, Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, sponsored a mission trip to the Rio Grande Valley, where they ministered to immigrant refugees on the U.S.-Mexico border. Calvary’s youth pastor, Ali Chappell DeHay, filed this report:

Prayers from across the spectrum of religious faith went up on behalf of separated immigrant families this week. Faith Forward Dallas sponsored a prayer vigil Monday at the regional headquarters of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.