Finding home

Church comes to rescue for refugees

Chicago | The lines of migrants streaming across the Rio Grande into El Paso seem far away, until they begin arriving by bus and plane in your state. More than 10,000 refugees have arrived in Chicago since the first group was bussed from Texas in August 2022. The numbers may seem unreal, until you learn those migrants are living in police stations, like the one in your neighborhood.

If you are Jonathan de la O, that’s when you call your church into action. “When we saw what was happening, knew we had to help,” he said. Many of De la O’s church family were immigrants themselves not too many years ago.

De la O drove to Precinct 25 to find young men and some families huddled outside with their few belongings, and others inside were sleeping on the floors. They have nowhere to go, and without help, little chance for work.

So the young pastor of Starting Point Church in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood, a congregation he planted nine years ago for first- and second-generation Hispanics, opened their doors.

“Our facility has spaces that we have used to house mission teams, but I’ve had to call the teams and say we’ve had a change in plans. We have moved the teams into the auditorium, because we need the sleeping space for migrants.”

Portable partitions form a maze of small rooms on the church’s second floor. Most are about 10’ by 10’, with two air mattresses. Others are slightly larger and sleep three. They provide some dignity and privacy for the guests.

One young man said how grateful he was to be at the church. He described sleeping under a staircase at the police station. The overwhelmed facility had nearly 25 people housed in rooms only slightly larger than his new bedroom at the church.

Downstairs, the migrants have access to a clothing closet, showers, and a kitchen to prepare meals and eat together. The pastor described one man breaking down in tears when De la O showed him the food pantry and told him, “This is yours.”

A young Venezuelan woman, Franchesca, 25, painted a picture of why full shelves bring a grown man to tears.

“Because of the dictatorship of the president, there is no food, there is no work, and it is killing the youth,” Franchesca said through a translator. “Everyone that rises up against the government is being killed.”

Franchesca and her father, Benardino, 62, escaped their home in Venezuela through Cúcuta, Colombia. They spent three months mostly on foot traversing jungles, mountains, and then hopping a train for the last stretch through Mexico. Franchesca described the dangers they faced, like holding onto a rope to cross swift-moving crocodileinfested rivers, and avoiding human dangers of robbery and rape in the jungles.

Once at the U.S border with Mexico, they were able to request legal asylum. After about 10 days they were transported to Chicago. The depravation “is something that remains in your mind, the traumas from everything we experienced. But we are so grateful to be here, at peace, now.”

De la O has found help from other churches in the Chicagoland Baptist Association. Elmwood Park Community Church, which recently opened a food bank, regularly supplies the pantry. Real Life Church, which moved into a facility that formerly housed De la O’s congregation, supplied portable air conditioners.

“Our friends at churches in the Association asked what we needed,” the pastor said. “When we told them, they were here right away.”

In the way that crisis becomes opportunity, De la O is finding, too, that opportunity produces some crisis. During the day, he helps the men find work and navigate the immigration system so they can get established in their new home. The plan is for them to stay at the church for a couple of months, then secure housing when they can afford it.

The church, which offered some ministries in English and Spanish, has increased its bilingual worship and Bible study. And De la O is finding his guests, some from Catholic backgrounds, are open to the gospel, because of their open doors.

“I’ll show them their rooms, and I can’t control myself.” De la O admits shedding some tears too. “I go home and tell my wife, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’”

Then he does it again the next day. “It’s overwhelming, but it’s a good thing.”

SETTLING and his daughter, Franchesca, make a temporary home at Starting Point Church in Chicago. After three months fleeing from economic crisis in Venezuela, they arrived at the U.S. border. Moved from Texas, their next stop was a Chicago police station (above), as it has been for many of the 10,000 refugees.

From the front: QUIET CAMPAIGN WITH LOUD OUTCOME

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Barber presided over most of the first day’s proceedings at the SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans June 13-14—including debate over upholding the dismissal of three churches, the denomination’s stance on women as pastors, and whether to renew the task force implementing sexual abuse reforms—not knowing if he would be in office two days later to finish what he started.

He is.

The avuncular rancher-pastor from a mediumsize Texas church was reelected to a second oneyear term by a 2-1 margin, turning away the challenge from Georgia pastor Mike Stone. Barber won 7,531 votes to Stone’s 3,458 votes, 68.38% to 31.40%.

Barber declined social media sparring, while Stone spoke in multiple churches and the Twitterverse was alight with arguments over concerns he raised.

Stone ran for office two years earlier as a candidate for the emerging Conservative Baptist Network (CBN). He ran on a similar platform this time, saying the denomination is adrift and has lost its evangelistic focus. Stone was critical of the abuse reform that moved responsibility for tracking abuse claims to the denomination at the national level, rather than leave it to autonomous local churches. He criticized Barber’s appointments to the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force last year which included vocal abuse survivors.

Stone advocated a clearer constitutional stance on women in ministry. In online interviews, he called the “soft complementarian” views he’s heard expressed in the denomination just another form of egalitarianism.

Stone’s nominator, Pastor Willy Rice of Florida, told messengers that “a cancel culture has replaced a gospel culture” in the denomination.

He urged messengers to “chisel” their objections “in stone.”

Stone was in attendance at a breakfast on the morning of the election hosted by the CBN. A series of men called for recommitment to Baptist distinctives and bold stands for biblical values in culture. Chuck Kelley, former president of New Orleans Seminary, stressed that the SBC has been in a crisis of evangelism for years. “Look at the Methodist denomination,” Kelley said. “That’s where we’re headed unless we put the Great Commission back at the center of what we do…. Continuing as we are right now is a road to insignificance.”

At a B-21 luncheon, a panel that included Southern Seminary President Al Mohler, Southeastern Seminary President Danny Akin, and former SBC President J.D. Greear affirmed Barber’s nomination.

Messengers went with Barber by more than twothirds. In SBC elections, that is a huge landslide. It was what The Tennessean called a win for a “conservative mainstream faction” over a hard-edged conservatism. Announced late in the first day’s business, the outcome was met with vigorous applause.

Stone tweeted his congratulations to Barber. “May God continue to grace you with wisdom, discernment, and strength. That will continue to be my prayer for you as you lead.”