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Cultivating Relationships
and Understanding
Across Borders
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Frontera de Cristo's border infrastructure tour for visiting delegations is a key element in understanding the borderlands―its history, realities, hopes, and dreams. | |
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"I experienced the Good News of Jesus Christ in a million ways, but especially in the mutuality between the various organizations FDC collaborates with. I witnessed consistent resilience in hope and love, trust and collaboration, joy and mutuality, support and light in the midst of a divisive context."
--Professor Travis West of Western Theological Seminary
Dear friends,
Frontera de Cristo is celebrating 40 years of cultivating relationships and understanding across borders. This past month we have been blessed with the opportunity in participate in the spiritual and intellectual development of students and faculty from Menaul School, an international high school, Queens University, and Western Theological Seminary.
We are grateful to our community partners who have taken seriously the gospel value of hospitality and have so generously shared life and ministry with over 20,000 men, women, youth and children over the years. As Isaac Badachi, intern with FDC 2016-2017, would tell delegations: "Your mission trip is only half done-- go back to your communities and put into action what you have experienced."
We are grateful for your encouragement, prayers and support of FDC that help to cultivate relationships and understanding across borders, respond in faith to teh realities of migration and respond in faith to the realities of the drug culture.
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Border Immersion Trip to Frontera de Cristo
May 5-11, 2024
by Adrian Bird, University Chaplain, Queens University of Charlotte
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FOLLOWING A SEMESTER-LONG COURSE studying issues surrounding immigration and human migration, ten students from Queens University of Charlotte (Charlotte, North Carolina) gathered during a retreat to write a mission statement for the culminating trip to the US/Mexico border. The team came up with the following mission statement:
“We commit to gain knowledge with gratitude and to find hope in community, inspiring and challenging others to do the same.”
Having spent several years traveling to El Paso, this year we elected to partner with Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian border ministry working within the sister cities of Agua Prieta, Sonora, and Douglas, Arizona. Our traveling delegation was a diverse group, with students majoring in several areas including political science, international studies, and religion. The motives for joining the team varied also, from the personal to the spiritual to the academic, yet all traveled with open minds and a willingness to be challenged in the midst of our personal encounters.
Continue reading Chaplain Bird's article
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FDC Coordinator Joca Gallegos (second from left, front row) led students from
Queens University of Charlotte, who spent a week with us on the border. | |
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Coffee Justice in Mexico
An Article by Amy Frykholm, published in The Christian Century, June 2024
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THOUGH THE COFFEE AT THE HOTEL WAS BLAND AND STALE, the carafe bore a label indicating that this was no ordinary brew. “Rainforest Alliance Certified,” it said. A few hours later, on an airplane on my way to Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, my coffee cup was marked with a label that said “Community Coffee” and noted that the airline selected its coffee in order to “do good.”
That’s a lot of angst for an ordinary drink that is part of the everyday life of 62 percent of Americans. I noticed it because I was on my way to visit Café Justo, a coffee company started by coffee farmers in Chiapas, their migrant relatives in the border town of Agua Prieta, and the Presbyterian church on both sides of the border. Americans have gotten the message that there is a problem with coffee, and Café Justo is linking the personal with the social in order to try to give them an answer to what troubles them.
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Daniel Cifuentes is the manager of Café Justo's roasting facility in Agua Prieta.
Photo by John Kurc.
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Getting to Know Us: Angie Victor
FDC Staff Cameo by Mary Goodwin, FDC Volunteer
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THE FRONTERA DE CRISTO OFFICE in Douglas, Arizona, is a rose-colored bungalow, typical of the 1920s. When you enter the front door, Angie Victor’s warm smile and gentle eyes greet you from behind a large desk that she salvaged and painted herself. Angie has served as Frontera de Cristo’s Office Manager since 2021. She oversees FDC’s daily business, including communication with delegations and visitors, answering email, and managing payroll, coffee orders, and donations. Her FDC colleagues say that Angie’s work behind the scenes is vital to FDC running smoothly. | |
Love Mercy, Do Justice, Order Coffee | | |
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FRONTERA DE CRISTO AND CAFÉ JUSTO CREATED the "Love Mercy, Do Justice" (Amar Misericordia, Hacer Justicia) initiative to provide coffee for migrant shelters across the southern border. Thousands of women and men each week are greeted with a cup of coffee, a meal, and vital medical attention when they are repatriated into Mexico. You can help support this effort with a donation to Love Mercy, Do Justice. | |
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The Immaculate Conception Shelter in Douglas, Arizona, is the newest partner with the Love Mercy, Do Justice ministry. It opened in September 2023 to receive persons seeking asylum who are released in Douglas by Border Patrol. Love Mercy, Do Justice has donated delicious freshly roasted Café Justo to help welcome to more than 6,000 guests who have found a safe and loving place on their journey. Frontera de Cristo provides the welcoming team each Friday. Would you like to support this newest shelter? See their Amazon Wish List for ways you can help.
In the mean time, why not order some coffee for yourself today? You will enjoy delicious 100% organic coffee cultivated, roasted, and shipped by the Café Justo cooperative. To order by mail instead of online, just download this form.
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David & Joca make coffee at the Douglas Welcome Center | |
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Two Dates to Save!
Frontera de Cristo's 40th Anniversary
2024 Border-to-Border Delegation: Coffee, Migration, & Faith
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Mark your calendars now and plan to celebrate Frontera de Cristo's 40th anniversary with us in Agua Prieta, October 18-20, 2024. | |
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Travel to the Guatemala border and learn about the Café Justo cooperative.
(Dates include participation in Frontera de Cristo's 40th anniversary celebration.) Download the flyer here. Download the registration form and pay by check or register and pay online.
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A Week in the Borderlands | | | | |
