BROWNSVILLE, Texas — While drug cartels brandish guns and other weapons, Baptists are seeking to end the violence through prayer and the spirit of God, said Daniel Rangel, director of Texas Baptists’ River Ministry.
Texas Baptists are encouraging Christians to pray for the border and are training residents to have a positive impact on others in their communities.
“It takes a brave person to do what is right,” Rangel said. “It takes a brave person to stand up for someone else. It takes a brave person to be kind, to be helpful, to seek out what is right. They are challenged to be an agent of peace, a person of peace.”
Texas Baptists are working in partnership with No Mas Violencia — No More Violence. The joint effort, made possible by gifts to Texas from worldwide missions initiatives, partnerships through the Cooperative Program and the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, customizes the No Mas Violencia curriculum first used in Argentina to quell violence before, during and after soccer games.
Since then, it has been used throughout South America to end violence in various situations.
“The first principle they teach is you’re important and I’m important because we’re both made in the image of God,” Rangel said. The No Mas Violencia initiative is in direct response to a Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting motion to take action regarding violence along the border.
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