Over the next weeks and months, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will be sharing reflections from our CBF field personnel serving around the world. These are stories of impact and outreach, Gospel-sharing and relationship building, long-term presence and abundant love. The following is a reflection from CBF field personnel Rick Sample, who serves with internationals in … Continue reading
By Elket Rodríguez Shared understanding of weakness and vulnerability prompted a Houston church to support a ministry to refugees in Matamoros, Mexico—just across the border from Brownsville, Texas. As Pastor Eleuterio González responded to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced him to close an immigrant shelter in Matamoros, Pastor David Deulofeu prepared to bless González’s ministry … Continue reading
By Elket Rodríguez In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus demonstrates the power of compassion to transcend ethnic and religious differences. Now, 2,000 years later, shared love for immigrants has bound the hearts of Christian brothers from different quadrants of the Baptist denomination. Carlos Navarro is the Southern Baptist pastor of Iglesia Bautista West … Continue reading
By Ashleigh Bugg Global migration is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Millions of neighbors are on the move due to political persecution, natural disasters from climate change, sustained war and conflict, food and water insecurity, and ethnic cleansing based on racism and xenophobia. To address issues of global migration and poverty, … Continue reading
By Elket Rodríguez Despite COVID-19’s grinding misery, pastors who form the backbone of Fellowship Southwest’s ministry to immigrants are adapting to an ever-changing refugee flow and escalating needs of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Lorenzo Ortiz comforts immigrants torn apart by trauma and despair in Nuevo Laredo, just across the Rio Grande from … Continue reading
By Rubén Ortiz 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 … Continue reading
Por Rubén Ortiz Jeremías 29:1-14 se escribe para un pueblo en el exilio. Una gran parte del reino de Israel, fue desarraigada del lugar donde habían nacido casi unos 587 años antes de Cristo. Fueron obligados a viajar unas 700 millas por el desierto del Medio Oriente dejando atrás su tierra y las provisiones que … Continue reading
By CBF Communications “God has sent so many people into my life. That’s how I’ve experienced God’s love.” These are the words of Rosalie, a refugee from Zaire who now lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Nearly 25 years ago, when 9-year-old Rosalie and her family fled violence in Zaire in 1996, God sent United Nations workers … Continue reading
By Elket Rodríguez People of faith must speak up for immigrants before next Wednesday, Sept. 30, when President Donald Trump will set U.S. refugee quotas for the next fiscal year, CBF leaders urged. The current U.S. refugee admissions ceiling is 18,000—the lowest number of refugees resettled in a single year since Congress established the refugee … Continue reading
By Marv Knox Immigrant families in Central Texas have roofs over their heads, food on their tables and utilities in their homes, thanks to La Puerta Waco and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Coronavirus Emergency Relief Fund. CBF established the coronavirus fund shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began inflicting its wrath globally. The catastrophe particularly harmed … Continue reading
