—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.

Dozens of Hispanic Christian leaders from multiple denominational and theological traditions have coalesced behind a document that calls on Congress to enact immigration reform based upon a shared set of principles.

College students from North Carolina wrote and mailed letters of encouragement to migrant children and their families. The Latinx Student Association from Mars Hill University wanted to do something for the children at the border, since they are unable to travel there due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Lacey Ondracek integrated her life experiences, love for hurting people, respect for church ministry and professional curiosity during her internship with the Center for Church and Community Impact (C3I) in Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work this academic year.

Bubbles are a big hit at my house. With 6-, 4-, and 2-year-olds, we keep a bottle of bubbles close at hand. We have all sorts of bubble wands, a bubble gun and a battery-operated handheld bubble machine that can churn out bubbles by the hundreds.

¿Te imaginas pasar el Día de la Madre perseguida, huyendo y escondiéndote en un refugio abarrotado?

Así pasarán este Día de las Madres cientos de madres migrantes en la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México. Muchas de ellas han encontrado protección en los albergues del Buen Samaritano Migrante, dirigido por el pastor Lorenzo Ortiz, el cual es respaldado por el ministerio de ayuda a inmigrantes de Fellowship Southwest.

Can you imagine spending Mother’s Day fleeing persecution and hiding in a crowded shelter?

That’s how refugee mothers on the U.S.-Mexico border will spend this Mother’s Day. Many of them have found protection from Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief ministry partner El Buen Samaritano Migrante, led by Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz. It operates four refugee shelters—three of them in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, just across the border from Laredo, Texas, and arguably the most dangerous city in North America.

Nataly Mora’s identity as a second-generation U.S. Latina shaped her internship with the Center for Church and Community Impact (C3I) in Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work this academic year.

Brianna Childs’ heart beats for women in crisis. She’s met many of them in her still-young career—as chaplain of a Baylor University women’s dorm, pastoral ministry associate in the university’s Spiritual Life program, intern with the Jesus Said Love nonprofit and current pastoral associate at University Baptist Church in Waco.

It shouldn’t feel so hard to write about voting rights in a way that will not offend partisan sensibilities. It didn’t used to be this way. In 2006, Congress reauthorized the 1965 Voting Rights Act with a unanimous vote in the Senate, 98-0. It was promptly signed into law by President George W. Bush, who did so in honor of Fanny Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in attendance.

A few years ago, I noticed many students in my Baptist history class would get perplexed or defensive when I said Baptists were greatly influenced by the Evangelical revivals that swept across the English-speaking world during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Two years after fleeing Cuba, Erika Meléndez,* Roberto Ortiz and their daughter, Yolanda, still live in hiding in Matamoros, Mexico—across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Back in Cuba, they endured persecution for crimes they did not commit, so they fled their homeland as potential “enemies of the state.”