Treinta pastores y líderes hispanos del Compañerismo Bautista Cooperativo en los Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico se reunieron en Mérida, en la península de Yucatán en el Golfo de México a mediados de septiembre para disfrutar de un espacio de descanso y renovación auspiciado por Familia, la Red Latina de CBF.

Durante aproximadamente una semana, los pastores y líderes se recuperaron de los estragos del ministerio ocasionados por la pandemia de COVID-19, incluyendo la pérdida de seres queridos y la merma en la asistencia a sus iglesias. El retiro ofreció un oasis para el clero que necesitaba desconectarse de sus rutinas ministeriales diarias.

Familia, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Latino Network, provided a haven of rest and renewal during a mid-September retreat on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Thirty CBF Hispanic pastors and leaders from the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico gathered in Mérida, on the Gulf of Mexico. For about a week, they recuperated from the ravages of ministering through the COVID-19 pandemic, including the loss of loved ones and suppressed church attendance. The retreat offered an oasis for clergy who needed to disconnect from their daily ministerial routines.

On Sept. 7, I was blessed to join 18 other pastors, ministers and faith leaders from the Southwest and beyond for a three-day retreat at the beautiful Mary and Joseph Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

Set among green gardens on a hilltop overlooking the lights of Los Angeles and just a few miles from the coast, it was the perfect location for quiet reflection and building relationships.

Happy birthday to me.

There, we got that out of the way. This week, I’m celebrating a “significant” birthday. It’s not round. It’s a gateway. My wife, Joanna, will celebrate the same-number feliz cumpleaños in five months. Because of those birthdays, we’re passing from one life-phase to another.

The sewing circle from Second Baptist Church Lubbock, Texas, has been busy this past year sewing dresses for little girls ages 1 to 8 years old. A deacon from the church, Bob Howell, delivered 225 dress packages to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship office in San Antonio on Friday, Aug. 27, to be distributed to refugee children at the border.

Scripture tells us what justice looks like.

Justice looks like:

• Water flowing down (Amos 5).
• An ear inclined toward the orphan and the oppressed (Psalm 10).
• No wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan or the widow (Jeremiah 22).

How would you feel if someone you trust harmed you as badly or worse than someone who beat you? On an international level, that’s what the U.S. immigration policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols—or MPP, or “Remain in Mexico”—is all about.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a district court decision ordering the Department of Homeland Security to reimplement MPP. Many faith-based and humanitarian organizations that work with migrants, including Fellowship Southwest, swiftly opposed the high court’s decision.

Fellowship Southwest featured prominently in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 2021 General Assembly, conducted online again this year due to resurgence of the COVID pandemic.

At the beginning of the opening worship service, Lois Gagne, pianist at Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, provided special music from the congregation’s sun-dappled Atrium.

This is not the column I wanted to write. Perhaps things are not going as you hoped right now either. I was blessed with the gift of extra time off in the early months of my transition to executive director of Fellowship Southwest and while Marv is still serving as coordinator. The month of July was just about everything I could have hoped it would be.

Fellowship Southwest's immigrant relief ministry has fed, sheltered and protected an estimated 300,000 vulnerable people and committed more than a half-million dollars to the ministry along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The immigrant ministry extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. FSW supports a network of pastors who serve refugees amassed along the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking asylum in the United States.

On Tuesday night, Aug. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order that effectively reinstates the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. Commonly referred to as the “remain in Mexico” policy, MPP is largely responsible (along with Title 42, which facilitates expulsion based on COVID fears) for migrants being forced to assemble at the U.S.-Mexico border to await their opportunity to make an asylum claim in court.

Back-to-school launches the second year of one of Fellowship Southwest’s most productive partnerships—an internship program in the Center for Church and Community Impact at Baylor University’s Garland School of Social Work.

One of Christianity’s iconic pioneer missionaries demonstrated the power of women to propel the gospel, CBF Texas Coordinator Rick McClatchy stressed during First Baptist Church of San Antonio’s Judson Day Celebration this summer.

Fellowship Southwest (FSW) joined hundreds of faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organizations in a letter asking president Biden to honor U.S. international and domestic commitments to refugees. The document – which also commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention– highlights the organizations’ disappointment with the administration’s recent actions undermining refugee protections.

Immigration is near and dear to Fellowship Southwest, because we believe our love for migrants reflects our love for Jesus. So, we’re delighted to tell you about We the People Ride, a coast-to-coast event sponsored by our friends at Vote Common Good.

Fellowship Southwest will celebrate its fourth birthday this Sunday. How can Aug. 1, 2017—our launch date—paradoxically seem like only yesterday and decades ago? Well, joyful activity seems to make time fly. And we have traversed the pandemic, which made weeks feel like months and months seem like years.

This summer, friends in ministry demonstrate how helping one another in times of need actually helps extend our community ministries to others. Isa Torres, pastor of Cliff Temple en Español at Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, and Carlos Valencia and Anyra Cano, pastors at Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth, already were friends and ministry partners in the DFW community.

Misinformation creates mental barriers that affect the lives of many migrant families, immigration attorney Elket Rodríguez told more than 600 refugees stranded in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.

Los cubanos en el exilio han sufrido junto a sus compatriotas en la isla, aseguró el pastor David Deulofeu del Templo Bautista de South Houston.

Texas Impact organized a rally at the Texas state Capitol July 19 to protest the proposed voter suppression legislation. Over 400 people of faith gathered on the south side of the Capitol and listened to a dozen inspirational speakers. The speakers, representing Christians of many denominations, Jews and Muslims, all professed convictions about the importance of protecting the right to vote.