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Dear friends,
The Eastminster Presbytery in Ohio invited US Coordinator Mark Adams to preach at their joint World Communion Service on Sunday. They also arranged 10 events with seven churches, two welcoming ministries, and a college in which Mark shared about the ministry of Frontera de Cristo and learned about how churches are in ministry with newer immigrants in Ohio.
On Sunday afternoon at First Presbyterian Church of Salem, Ohio, Mark Adams received a beautiful reminder that encounters across borders can continue bearing fruit for decades. There he saw Carol Riccardi, 23 years after she had joined a mission delegation to Frontera de Cristo. Through tears, Carol shared how transformational that experience had been—not only for her, but also for the youth and other adults who traveled with her. She read some of the reflections of the youth and adults that she had saved all the years later.
Then she offered him a cup of Café Justo. The congregation has served Café Justo ever since its delegation visited the Café Justo roaster in 2003, which had opened less than a year before their arrival. For nearly a quarter of a century, each delicious cup has connected them with the farmers’ vision: responding in faith to the root causes of migration by building a more just and sustainable livelihood. The church remains deeply grateful to share in that vision.
Members also proudly showed Mark how their backyard has become, in a very real sense, the front yard of neighbors whose homes stand behind the church, many of them from Guatemala. Community activities bring the congregation and neighborhood together, and the grounds now ring with the voices of children who use the space as a playground. What might once have been simply church property has become a place of welcome, relationship, and shared life.
The people of First Presbyterian Salem are glad to extend hospitality because they still remember, with gratitude, the hospitality they received in Mexico and the depth of faith shared with them there. Their story reminds us that a delegation does not end when travelers return home. It can keep transforming how a congregation drinks its coffee, welcomes its neighbors, uses its space, and lives its faith.
May we continue to nurture these long-rooted relationships and the new communities growing from them.
With gratitude,
Frontera de Cristo
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