I grew up with The Simpsons. I was in 6th grade when the longest running American sitcom debuted. You might remember that it stirred some controversy. Bart Simpson was a rude, disrespectful boy with a potty mouth who fought constantly with his dad and other authority figures. As a middle school boy, I was the perfect audience.

Fellowship Southwest is deeply disappointed in the recent failure of federal voting rights legislation in the U.S. Senate. The freedom to vote and ensure all votes count is fundamental to our democracy. Moreover, we have a long and sad history of denying citizens the equal right to vote due to racial discrimination. The struggle continues to this day, and federal legislation is needed to protect the right to vote.

Today, Pastor Eleuterio González began organizing a huge effort to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to over 900 migrants in Matamoros. González is able to organize this effort thanks to the cooperation of both the Mexican and United States federal governments.

On Thursday, January 6, hundreds of refugee families along the U.S.-Mexico border, in Matamoros, Mexico received gifts and supplies in celebration of Epiphany or Three Kings Day, a significant Hispanic holiday, thanks to the effort of many Fellowship Southwest’s partner churches and organizations. The goods were distributed in the Esperanza (Hope) and Corazón (Heart) migrant shelters, and in a slum in Playa Bagdad (Baghdad Beach) – on the Gulf coast 25 miles from Gateway International Bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros– where hundreds of Hispanic and Haitian refugees have relocated.

Travelers fill the biblical narrative. Before the road to the cross, the road to Emmaus, or the road to Damascus, there was the road to Bethlehem, and Mary and Joseph’s trip did not go as planned. At Christmas, we remember that when God came to earth, he was born to travelers in a temporary, makeshift shelter. The best they could find, relying upon the kindness of a stranger.

Mexico is in the process of implementing its own migrant protection protocol (MPP). But do not worry. This new plan has nothing in common with the recently relaunched U.S. policy, better known as “Remain in Mexico,” which does not actually protect migrants at all.

On the contrary, this MPP is an agreement between various churches, denominations, civil organizations and three levels of Mexican government to holistically address the needs of migrants in the state of Sonora, Mexico, across the border from Arizona.

John Ogletree is the definition of a public servant. But one of his most treasured positions, a school board trustee, has just been taken away from him because of his advocacy for diversity and inclusion in the district.

In this Advent week of Hope, we celebrate the deliverance of hope to young girls in the form of new handmade dresses. Earlier this year, the ladies’ sewing circle at Second Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, decided to dedicate their energies on sewing dresses for immigrant girls.

As we sit down for dinner at our house, my wife Deborah asks us each to say one thing we’re thankful for that day. Nearly every night we begin the blessing of our meal with gratitude. This is a discipline that requires intention and depending on the mood of our young kids, the answers might include NOTHING… or EVERYTHING!

Dear Fellowship Southwest Friends,

Thanksgiving is the appropriate season to write to you. My heart overflows with thanks to all of you—individually and collectively—as I count down my final days as founding coordinator of Fellowship Southwest. How retirement arrived so soon (I feel I should be 32, not 65) baffles my imagination, but this is the moment.

All along the U.S.-Mexico border, the pastors who comprise Fellowship Southwest’s Immigrant Relief Ministry are facing a nuanced and complicated migratory flow. The number of Mexicans fleeing violence has skyrocketed, due to an ongoing cartel turf war in the southwestern states of Michoacán, Veracruz, Guerrero and Chiapas.

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I suspect you might as well. It sometimes feels both as essential to modern life as the telephone and a potential cause of the downfall of humanity.

It is easy to love some of what Facebook, Twitter and Instagram bring to our lives. Connection with friends and family across the miles and years. The ability to “watch” kids grow up from afar. A constant stream of interesting information.

Goodness starts with God and can draw others to God, Fellowship Southwest Executive Director Stephen Reeves told Baptist Standard Editor Eric Black in a recent episode of “On the Way,” the Texas Baptist news organization’s podcast.

These past few months have been busy as we began preparing for Afghan families to arrive here in Fort Worth and then began to welcome them. God has stirred the hearts of so many to welcome new families and donate items to help them settle into life here in America.

Fellowship Southwest launched a new era this week, conducting its first board of directors meeting under the leadership of Executive Director Stephen Reeves in San Antonio.

The board elected Reeves, who has guided the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s advocacy program, early this year. Since mid-March, he has overlapped with Fellowship Southwest’s founding coordinator, Marv Knox, who will retire late this year.

Iglesia Valle de Beraca—a key partner in Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief network—is making progress on construction of a community center in downtown Matamoros, Mexico.

The wall dividing the Biden administration from nongovernmental organizations that assist refugees on the U.S.-Mexico border is growing taller.

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.