WACO—A group of concerned Texas Baptists is seeking to enlist 440 churches around the state to become sister churches and prayer prayers with the 44 Baptist churches in Juarez, Mexico.
Last year, Juarez experienced more than 1,400 homicides—many of them drive-by shootings and gangland-style killings associated with drug cartels—and the violence continued to escalate until the Mexican government recently sent in a military presence.
Representatives from the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Buckner International, Baylor University and several churches met recently in Waco to explore ways Texas Baptists can respond to the needs of churches in Juarez.
The gathering was a follow-up to a meeting in El Paso involving Pastor Mario Gonzales of El Paso’s First Baptist Church, Josue Valerio from the BGCT, Bernie Moraga with the CBF and Dick Hurst, a medical doctor and missions volunteer from First Baptist Church in Tyler.
Gonzales informed the group some schools in Juarez closed due to threats to teachers, but several Baptist churches in the cities have responded by offering tutorial programs for children, as well as pastoral counseling for them, said Don Schmeltekopf with the Center for Ministry Effectiveness & Educational Leadership at Baylor, who facilitated the meeting. The meeting predated the recent swine flu outbreak, which has forced the temporary closing of many schools.
Hurst pointed to the potential impact Texas Baptists could have on Juarez if churches around the state developed relationships with the congregations in the border city.
“Churches that already are involved in BGCT and Buckner mission trips in Mexico could form the nucleus of the ones that would commit to a relationship, because some of them already have connections to Juarez,” he said.
The group that met in Waco agreed to seek 10 Texas Baptist churches to enter a relationship with each of the 44 Baptist churches in Juarez.
They also agreed to look for ways Baptist University of the Americas and other Texas Baptist schools could help the seminary in Juarez in leadership development.
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As Texas churches develop close relationships with Juarez congregations and commit to pray for them regularly, needs will come to light that will lead to missions involvement, Hurst added.
“The violence is Mexico is a terrible evil, and the church must confront it,” he said. “If not, the church is not being the church.”
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