Baptizing Illegal Aliens
By David F. D`Amico, CBF Missionary for Hispanic Immigrants
Carey, NC
During the 1970s I taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana of Fort Worth on the north side of the city was without a pastor. We knew some of the members because when we arrived in Fort Worth from Argentina, we became members of the church and they welcomed us very warmly.
Six of the church leaders came to see me at home to ask me about becoming interim pastor of the church for six months. We discussed my responsibilities and I agreed to serve. The six months stretched into thirty months as the congregation was happy with my leadership and I was happy ministering to them.
During that time there was a lay person from Mexico who was very enthusiastic about evangelizing. His name was Hermano (brother) Caceres. He was a character-a genuine leader and very funny. In his humble ways he would exhort others to become more evangelistic toward visitors.
Caceres invited two Mexican illegal aliens to attend the church-a father and his son, a youth. They were befriended by the membership and after a few months they made professions of faith and asked for baptism. It was a joyous occasion when I baptized them-Don Pedro and Carlos. They worked in construction without legal papers like millions do these days in the USA. No one in the church made a big deal that they were illegal; they were part of the church family.
One Sunday Brother Caceres came to Bible Study and with sadness told me: "La Migra se llevo a Don Pedro y Carlos." ("Immigration officers deported Don Pedro and Carlos.") We all worried about them. My missiological reaction was, "Well, at least we evangelized these new Christians, who will return to their families and become a witness for Christ."
About two or three months later during the Sunday morning worship service, Brother Caceres came to me with a big smile: "Don Pedro and Carlos are back in Fort Worth." The church recognized and welcomed them back to the flock.
Ever since then, I have kept this story in my heart as a parable of the complexities of illegal aliens in this country. The pattern of being deported back to Mexico and returning to the U.S. is a recurring theme much alive in the contemporary political, social, and economic landscape of our country.
An American farmer in Yuma Arizona stated on NPR the day President Bush visited the city during his effort to promote legislation related to immigration, "These people work hard in the fields. I pay them $16 per hour. No National Guard or fences will keep them away. I do not have a way to check whether their papers are legal. They come, work, and then spend their earnings in our city to the tune of $400,000 per year."
I wonder if the churches in San Diego, Yuma, El Paso, Laredo, and other border towns between the U.S. and Mexico have the same mission heart and attitude that the Primera Iglesia congregation in Fort Worth did in the 1970s.
In my heart I pray that there will be many illegal aliens baptized and sent back to Mexico as evangelists. Jesus told the demoniac from Gadara, "Go home and tell what great things God has done for you" (Mk 5:19).
