Professional soccer beckoned to Rogelio Pérez. Soccer loved his speed, strength and energy. It respected his great mentor and father, Jaime Humberto Pérez Castillo.

But at age 16, Pérez trotted off the soccer field and onto a much different life journey.

How would you feel if the federal government compelled you and your 10-year-old child to submit to an invasive screening that includes DNA testing, iris and face scans, and voice and palm prints in order to obtain a benefit offered freely to others? How would you feel if you had to go through this process after you and your child suffered domestic abuse?

Jeremiah 29: 1-14 is written for exiles, for those in captivity. The vast majority of the Jews were uprooted from their birthplace, a land they dominated for centuries until 587 B.C. They were forced to travel roughly 700 miles through the Middle East desert. On their journey, these Jews left behind the provisions that sustained them.

The Babylonian customs were foreign to them. Their language was incomprehensible. The scenery was dull. The weather, the routines and the culture were different. These changes shocked them.

In 1954, Pablo Neruda, one of the most influential Latin American poets, published "Ode to the Onion." The Chilean praised the onion—the cheapest vegetable, and therefore most accessible in the homes of the poor. In doing so, Neruda uncovered Latin America’s soul and identity defined by simplicity, observable in sharing plain food.

Today, in the midst of the pandemic, hurricanes, financial crises, economic and political declines, and the collapse of the health systems of our Latin American siblings, I find wish to honor our many Latino cultures with an ode to the rice and the beans.

What does the Bible say about immigration? And what resources are available to study immigration from a biblical perspective?

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Advocacy Team for Immigrants and Refugees has curated an array of resources to illustrate what the Bible says about immigration. The team compiled “Biblical Resources on Immigration” to help people of faith think and act biblically.

When COVID-19 caused several members of Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo to lose their jobs and income, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship grant enabled the Fort Worth congregation provide relief to its community.

CBF established the coronavirus fund shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began inflicting its wrath globally. The catastrophe particularly harmed immigrants, who live closest to their communities’ crumbling edges of vulnerability. In the United States, for example, many immigrants were the first to lose their jobs when the economy restricted. And although they pay taxes, they were not eligible to receive stimulus checks provided to citizens.

Based on his family background, Israel Rodríguez Segura seemed destined for the pastorate. Not necessarily so, but a decision he made as a rebellious teenager turned his life back toward God and made a long and faithful ministry possible.

People of faith must speak up for immigrants before next Wednesday, Sept. 30, when President Donald Trump will set the U.S. refugee quota for the next fiscal year, CBF leaders urged.

Can pizza prevent a kidnapping? Or spread harmony through a community? Or entice people to consider their relationship with Christ?

Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz thinks so. That’s why he’s launching Pizzas el Buen Samaritano in Nuevo Laredo, a city in northeastern Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.

On the tails of Hurricane Hanna’s punishing winds, the gentle breeze of God’s Spirit breathed new life into a Rio Grande Valley family.

Thanks in part to financial support from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Disaster Response, CBF Texas has started helping two families rebuild their homes in colonias—poor unincorporated villages—near the U.S.-Mexico border, reported Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of CBF Texas.

A “call from heaven” enabled Pastor Eleuterio González to help a desperately sick child in Matamoros, Mexico.

Supported by Fellowship Southwest, González and his church, Iglesia Valle de Beraca, feed and protect more than 1,600 immigrants living in the Alberca Chavez shelter, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas. They also minister in camps, where thousands of refugees live outdoors in tents.

On Sept. 12, González was engaged in his typical Saturday routine—providing food in the mammoth camp on the banks of the Rio Grande. An immigrant told him about a 9-year-old Honduran girl suffering from severe vomiting.

In mid-September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed it has expelled 8,800 unaccompanied immigrant children along the U.S.-Mexico border, based on COVID-19 emergency orders.

The children did not receive basic protections. They didn’t have access to legal counsel. They didn’t appear before immigration judges. They didn’t see social workers. Many were not registered, so their whereabouts is unknown. Many were left vulnerable to human trafficking.

These children crossed into the United States during a pandemic because of desperation cultivated by U.S. immigration policy. The government’s Migrant Protection Protocols—also known as “Remain in Mexico”—stipulate immigrants seeking U.S. asylum must wait in Mexico as they await the process.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced many nonprofits in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to shut down, Hearts4Kids rallied volunteers to take up the slack. And thanks to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship donors, the CBF Coronavirus Emergency Relief Fund fueled the effort for almost a month.

“H4K’s mission is to stay committed and focused to serve those who are suffering and hungry,” the ministry’s founder, Jorge Zapata, explained. “We knew at the beginning of the pandemic Rio Grande Valley families would be most affected because of their socio-economic status.”

Fellowship Southwest recently reworked our positioning statements to offer more clarity to our partners, donors and friends.

We worked hard with the FSW steering committee and other stakeholders, along with our friends at Upward Public Affairs, to create statements that reflect our commitment to serving God and neighbor throughout our region and also to express what makes us unique as an organization.

A calm head, a kind heart—and reasonable guards—combined to provide a birthday blessing for a Honduran family on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Last Sunday, Pastor Eleuterio González taught a biblical discipleship class at the Alberca Chávez shelter in Matamoros, Mexico. It seemed like a typical Sunday in the pastor's busy routine. Then everything changed in a heartbeat.

Through its extensive network of churches, missionaries and nonprofit partners, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship serves thousands of immigrants who live in the United States. They are not government statistics; we know them personally. They are our friends and neighbors—in colonias along the U.S.-Mexico border, Eastern Seaboard cities, and neighborhoods in-between.

Because we know them well, we know their stories. They have told us why they came to America—to make a better life for their kids, of course, but also to escape systematic violence, extortion, persecution, ecological degradation and starvation. We also know their dreams—not just to prosper personally, but to contribute to their adopted homeland, to work hard and to make life better for everyone around them.

Even before Hurricane Laura finished decimating the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast, one thing was clear—destruction meted out by Laura and her older sister, Hurricane Hanna, far exceeded resources to provide adequate response. So, your help is needed.

Category 4 Laura made landfall early Thursday morning, Aug. 27. At the time of this posting, disaster officials said accurate assessment of needs could not be made until winds died down.

(Photo: NY Times)

A “death sentence” got Juvenal González’s attention, and a reprieve changed his life forever.

As a teenager, González migrated from his home in Guerrero, Mexico, to Washington state, where he picked apples, pears and peaches, and then on to North Carolina, where he picked sweet potatoes. His migration was complicated, but his purpose was simple—buy a pickup truck and prosper.

One morning, he bolted from his bed, vomiting blood. The next morning, he awoke in a hospital bed, facing death.

Pastors Lorenzo Ortiz and Rosalío Sosa—pillars of Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief network along the U.S.-Mexico border—are mending from COVID-19 infections and thanking God for lessons learned while enduring adversity.

Ortiz operates three shelters in Nuevo Laredo and Saltillo, Mexico, and Sosa coordinates 14 shelters in the state of Chihuahua, mostly in Juarez. Together, they serve 2,520 refugees who are waiting in northern Mexico as they work their way through the U.S. asylum process.

María Elena Lao Rodríguez endured a long and circuitous journey from persecution in Cuba to an operating room in Mexico. Along the way, she has seen signs of God’s grace.

María trained as a nurse and gained experience in commerce and agriculture. She studied to be a doctor, too, and was just two months shy of earning her M.D. degree. But in 2016, she, her daughter and her grandchildren fled Cuba to escape torture and violence.

She journeyed across almost all of South America and arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border more than a year ago, seeking asylum in the United States.