Presbyterian Border Region Outreach has changed its name to Presbyterian Borderlands Ministries to better represent its ministry on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado Escobar live and minister on the border of the U.S. and Mexico in the shadow of a 30-foot steel dividing wall, grateful for the opportunity to provide witness to the reality that “Jesus is our peace and has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility.”
“I have faith that God will dry up the Rio Grande so that I may safely cross,” he said. He had been on the journey from Honduras to the U.S. for a month and a half when we met him in a migrant shelter in Arriaga, Mexico. His teenage son was traveling with him. He told us about the pressure on his son to join a gang and the lack of lawful means to support oneself in his nation. He talked of seeing people murdered in the street.
This past Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, participants in the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s southern border travel study seminar helped with the service and lunch.
Members of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Presbyterian Foundation crossed from El Paso, Texas into Juarez, Mexico, to learn firsthand about the situation at the border.
On Thursday, President Trump travels to the southern border of the U.S. to make his case for a $5 billion border wall to protect the country from an invasion of migrants. Mission co-worker Mark Adams has lived on the border since 1998. He believes that Christians are called to see the migrant issue very differently.
In November, 18 Presbyterians met in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico to consider the future of the Presbyterian Border Region Outreach (PBRO.) The relationship between the Mexico and PC(USA) denominations ended, major financial support had been dwindling for years, and communications between the six border ministry sites had become slack.
