04-AAEO 2025 - Lerma Main

AAEO 2025 - LermaMain

Laredo is a completely different world.

It's the largest inland
port of entry in the nation.

My name is Osvaldo Lerma.

And I'm Vanessa Lerma,

and we areSouthern Baptist missionaries

serving in Laredo, Texas.

If God is calling a church
to get involved in refugee ministry,

that is what we do here.

So when a church comes,
we help them experience

how God wants to use them.

We get to meet people crossing the border
who go through a legal process.

The U.S. grants them

an asylum seeker status,

because they recognize
that they need help.

So we're giving them
hygiene kits, food;

but the most important thing
we can give them

is the hope and salvation
that is only found in Jesus.

He's allowing this kind of movement

and bringing people
from all over the world

And we try to teach the group
to see that.

What more do we need
when the nations are coming to us?

Loving our neighbor,
loving them as ourselves,

as He first loved us?

And sometimes
it's hard for people to do that.

But I think that,
if they come and see it first-hand,

that changes their perspective.

They're ready to go back

and share with everybody what God is doing

-how they can minister
to their communities.

And for me,
that's what Christians do.

There's nothing
more important than that.