A special message from Feliberto Pereira, Executive Director of Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries
Dear Friends,
Our blessings overflow at Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries.
This spring and summer, we had the privilege of hosting 24 mission work groups comprised of 508 participants from eight states.
We also hosted seven retreats, involving 305 participants.The Texans who were with us came from 14 different cities.
The work accomplished by these groups included the construction of 12 new casitas (small shelters) for poor families in Matamoros, Mexico; preparing bags of beans for the hungry; making home repairs (including a new floor) for a poor family in Los Fresnos; and the construction of a new water purification system for Casa Bethel Orphanage in Matamoros.
In addition, mission groups provided and installed window decorations and coverings for the sanctuary windows at Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer in Los Fresno, where group members also painted and re-shingled dorm rooms and cleaned and painted the kitchen and other areas of the church.
Mission groups worked so hard to complete many needed projects at our Bayview campus, including placing new tile in the waiting area of our dental clinic to be open later this fall, as well as accomplishing many cleaning and painting projects; Groups also installed new fencing around a playground for the children and mothers who are with us weekly in a life-skills training program we sponsor called Lilies of the Valley; constructed a new outdoor platform and cover for the outdoor worship area at Bavyiew; and installed and painted hurricane shutters on all the buildings at Bayview.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank all those who participated with us on these mission trips, financially supported or prayed for mission group workers and prayed and supported our ministry. It is impossible for me to express the joy in my heart for all these accomplishments to help God’s neediest ones. Your love, prayers and support enable us to accomplish what we do.
I also wish to thank the many of our supporters who have contributed donations toward the purchase of 150 chairs for the Slaight Chapel at Bayview, to replace the worn-out church pews that are also damaging the chapel floor. We have received funds and pledges for all 150 chairs! These chairs will not only allow us to better serve our mission work groups but also participants of the many church retreats we are blessed to host during the fall and spring. We will have these chairs purchased and in place in early September.
Thank you for your continued prayers as we seek to be God's helping hands in the Rio Grande Valley! God bless you!
Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries Celebrates 25 Years of Service
In 1980, Central America stood in chaos—a region wracked by war, civil strife, and widespread human rights abuses. Violence had driven hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children through Mexico and across the border to the Rio Grande Valley—a migration of mass proportion that the United States had never seen at its border with Mexico before. What began as a trickle of refugees, arriving in 1979 from El Salvador, turned into a torrent a year later. The tidal wave of fearful, hungry, thirsty, and emotionally wounded refugees overwhelmed public agencies, charities, and churches in the Rio Grande Valley.
"I saw these brothers and sisters in bus stations, in airport parking lots, in our parks and orchards" recalled Feliberto Pereira, a local minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in San Benito who was a political refugee from Cuba before he received a Freedom Flight to the United States in 1969. "Driving home, I found needy men, women, and children crowded near our church doors and, eventually, at my front door. In all candor, I was initially at a loss as to what I could do for these strangers seeking protection from the violence in their homelands. I must confess that I saw them as foreigners. We should be visiting them as missionaries, I thought, not hosting in our country without an invitation. Overwhelmed, I pondered, “What is my responsibility to these strangers among us?”
The answers came to Feliberto loud and clear in a calling from God. He would step up and coordinate the many splintered efforts among churches in the Valley to serve refugees in whose shoes he once walked. But by the mid-1980s, it became clear that a more formal approach to the myriad efforts to help resettle the growing population of political refugees streaming across the border was required. He would give up his church in San Benito and serve refugees fulltime. With the assistance of Jennifer Riggs, Director of Refugee and Immigration Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and David Vargas, President of the Division of Overseas Ministries and Co-Executive of Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the founders established, the Good Samaritan Project, a name suggested by Vargas. Feliberto was named the organizations Executive Director, the position he holds today.
"At first our volunteer efforts were limited to helping refugees with immediate and basic needs—food, clothing, legal assistance, and spiritual guidance and counseling. But the refugees also needed a place to stay—besides my living room couch and floor—while their cases for political asylum were processed," Feliberto said. "I did not want them to endure immigrant detention centers. Refugees are not prisoners. Since our founding in 1986, our mission has remained the same over the years—to provide assistance to the thousands of needy refugees in the Rio Grande Valley, especially Central American political refugees and others who legitimately fear persecution in their homelands."
Since 1979, what is now Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries has assisted some 20,000 refugees from more than 40 countries—Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists. Refugees and those who serve them are welcomed at a five-acre facility donated and built by volunteers called Casa Compasión—"House of Compassion"—located three miles from one of the U.S. government's largest immigration detention centers, from which detained refugees are released to Pereira's custody. Once there, and in partnership with sister organizations, refugees are offered food, clothing, shelter and counseling while their applications for asylum are processed, an often long and demanding procedure. Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries also hosts offices for Church World Service chaplains who serve detainees at the Port Isabel Processing Center (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), outside Los Fresnos, Texas. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security routinely calls on Feliberto to assist with the settlement of Cubans seeking asylum at the International Bridge at Matamoros/Brownsville.
The ministry's mission has expanded to include many programs to assist the poor in the Brownsville-Harlingen-Reynosa area of the Rio Grande Valle and the Matamoros area of Northern Mexico. With the assistance of hundreds of volunteers across the United States from many faith backgrounds the ministry has grown to include an emergency food supply program (Disciples Rice and Disciples Beans); a toy and clothing drive for impoverished children and families in the border region; support of an orphanage and colonia in Matamoros; Bible Institutes in Monterrey and Matamoros; classes that teach young single mothers life skills; and dental and eye-exam clinics.
Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries believes that Jesus teaches us what the response should brothers and sisters in need in Matthew 25:44–45:
. . . Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
We are also to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, whose story is told in Luke, Chapter 10:
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So, too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then, he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
Reflecting on the 25 years of service provided by Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries, Feliberto said: "It is a privilege to serve those who come to us in search of love, understanding, and assistance. I am ever mindful of St. Paul’s message to the Ephesians, . . . You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Let us carry this message to all who will hear. For we, the people, are America. And we, the church, are America’s conscience. I pray that you will see the poor as members of God’s family and pray for them. In the same manner, I ask for your continued prayers that God will give us the strength and undivided commitment to continue serving “the least of these.' "
SWGSM Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Special luncheon and worship planned on May 8 as part of the Southwest Hispanic Convention Confraternidad (Fellowship Gathering)
Please plan to join us on Saturday, May 8, at our Bayview, Texas, facility for a 25th anniversary celebration of Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries.The celebration will take place during the Southwest Hispanic Convention of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which begins at 10 a.m. Feliberto Pereira, SWGSM Founder and Executive Director, will speak about the ministry’s 25 years of service to refugees and the poor. A special luncheon follows at noon. Tickets to the lunch are $10 each, with all proceeds going to the ministry. At 1 p.m., David Vargas, president of the Division of Overseas Ministry and Co-Executive of Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), will speak at a special worship service of the Southwest Hispanic Convention in the Chapel of Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries. The Rev. Vargas is the person who suggested the name “Southwest Good Samaritan” when Feliberto first felt called to start a ministry devoted to refugees and the poor in 1985. All are invited to attend this special day of celebration. RSVPs are needed for the lunch. Please call Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries at 956-233-5198.
Refugees find help and hope in 2009
Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries provided assistance to 178 refugees in 2009. The ministry provided housing, clothing, food, medical and legal assistance, travel funds and relocation assistance to refugees form nine countries. The nine countries and the number of refugees served from those countries, include: Cuba (76), Mexico (56), Guatemala (4), El Salvador (12), Columbia (5), Honduras (12), Nicaragua (11), Dominican Republiand Panama (1). God receives all the glory for so many who make these services possible.
We're often asked: "What does the Ministry need this year?"
We're thankful for your continued support of our ministry to refugees and the poor. If you or your church or group wishes to contribute a gift, please consider these list of needs for 2010.
HEALTH KIT:
1 bath towel
1 hand towel
1 comb
1 metal nail file
1 nail clipper
1 bath size bar of soap
1 toothbrush
1 (4-7 oz.) tube of toothpaste
1 small pkg. band-aids
SEAL ALL ITEMS IN A ONE GALLON ZIPLOCK BAG.
SCHOOL KIT:
1 pair of scissors
4 pkgs. of ruled notebook paper (1/2")
3 pads of art paper (blank)
1 (30cm/12 inch) ruler
1 hand-held pencil sharpener
1 box (12) new pencils with erasers
1 large pink eraser
1 pkg. colored construction paper
1 box of 12-24 markers (crayons MELT)
1 pkg. of colored pencils
1 (12" X 14") cloth bag with handles and closure of Velcro, snap, or button
PACK ALL THESE ITEMS IN CLOTH BAG AND SECURE CLOSURE.
NEW UNDERGARMENTS:
All sizes for both boys and girls up to 18 years old
All sizes for adult females
All sizes for adult males
CLOTHING:
Good, gently used warm weather clothes for children, teenagers, and adults.
TOOLS:
We would ask for good, used tools if you are coming to work with a Mission Group. Upon leaving, you may consider a gift of leaving the tools with us for others to use when they come. We need: shovels, hammers, fiberglass step ladders, folding sawhorses, heavy duty extension cords, all sizes of drill bits (5/8" and 1" auger bits), 7 1/4" circular saws. Please call the office before coming with your group, and we can be more specific of our needs.
BEANS and RICE:
We would ask you to bring bags of beans and/or rice; all sizes can be used-from 1 pound to 50 pound bags. If the large sizes are brought, groups can re-bag them into freezer strength ziplock bags for easier distribution. If these items cannot be brought to SWGSM, you may send a check or donate online and designate rice and/or beans.
SCHOOL TUITION and UNIFORMS:
Students in Mexico have need for tuition in order to attend school. Tuition varies for elementary, middle and high school students and students must wear uniforms. College tuition also varies based on classes taken. In making donations online or by check, designate the gift on the memo line for either "tuition" or "uniforms."
NEW Bedding for Dorm Bunk Beds:
Twin bed/mattresses are needed along with twin sheets with fitted bottom and flat top sheets. Pillows and pillowcases are also needed.
WINDOW UNIT AIR CONDITIONERS:
Six (6) new window unit air conditioners are needed. The units MUST be 110 electrical with a regular plug. Dorm rooms are not equipped with 220 electric lines.
PORTABLE GENERATOR:
A generator with 5500-6200 watts is needed. If one is available, it could be used as power supply for tools while building casitas in Mexico.
In making donations online or by check, please designate in the memo line what you would like your gift to purchase. For more information concerning specific costs or other matters, please contact the SWGSM office, 956-233-5198.
Border safety concerns addressed
In recent months, our ministry has been asked this pointed question: Is Mexico a safe place for mission trips?
News stories have suggested that Mexico may not be a "safe destination" for U.S. citizens to travel, whether as tourists or as mission workers and volunteers. Stories have surfaced about violence along the border areas, such as gun battles on the streets of Mexican cities and outright war between the large drug cartels and government soldiers and police. So the question is raised: Is it safe entering into Mexico and, specifically, is it safe to plan a mission trip into Matamoros?
We want to be clear in our answers and honest in responding to any concerns:
- Yes, there is an increase in violence, but the over-whelming number of violent incidents are in the cities further West along the Mexican border—cities such as Laredo, Juarez, Nogales and Tijuana. The violence is among drug dealers and law enforcement authorities.
- Matamoros, the border city with Brownsville, Texas, is the least affected of the larger border cities by this recent violence. In fact, it appears that Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, or Austin could be labeled as much or more "dangerous" given their current rate of crime. Mostly, we want to share that, in all our years of service to the poor of Matamoros, including about 60 groups who have shared there in the past 18 months, we have not had even one incident of concern about safety with our groups. We visit and work during safe hours and in safe locations. All youth workers are carefully supervised. Our ministry depends on volunteers knowing that we would never put these groups in circumstances which might lead to harm.
Get a copy of Feliberto Pereira's inspirational memoir
I Was A Stranger: Hope For A Hidden World by Feliberto Pereira and Chris Kelley. Keep up with the latest news from the authors at iwasastranger.org
