Fellowship Southwest has received a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to expand its existing immigration ministries across the next five years.
Each year for the next five years, Fellowship Southwest will recruit churches along the U.S.-Mexico border to develop a well-connected network of migrant ministries from the West Coast to the Gulf of Mexico.
Additionally, each year Fellowship Southwest will engage a new group of churches not located along the border that will commit to compassion and justice ministries around immigration. The churches will receive guidance from the immigration ministry manager and seed grants to support implementation.
Stephen Reeves
“Fellowship Southwest is deeply honored that the Lilly Endowment decided to invest in our immigration program and fuel the growth for the future,” said Executive Director Stephen Reeves. “I believe many churches will find a calling and renewed vision by practicing compassion and pursuing justice for their immigrant neighbors. By establishing relationships, learning the stories of migrants and becoming more proximate to the crisis of human migration, they will embody the value of Christian hospitality and solidarity.”
Currently, Fellowship Southwest works with a few churches and ministries along the border as they feed, shelter and support migrants who seek asylum in the U.S. The nonprofit also hosts trips and facilitates partnerships between non-border churches and churches on the border.
Lilly Endowment made the grant through its Thriving Congregations Initiative.
Fellowship Southwest is a nontraditional network of Christians who organize around issues concerning the Southwest U.S. by practicing compassion and pursuing justice. The organization was founded in 2017 with Marv Knox as its first executive director and with major support from the John and Eula Mae Baugh Foundation.
Over the past seven years, Fellowship Southwest has added staff and programming and has become a recognized leader in border ministries.
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