October 30, 2000

Deportees find hope and help at Oasis
___OJINAGA, Mexico--To the casual observer, it's just a tiny pie-shaped cinder-block building on the corner of two dusty streets in middle-of-nowhere Mexico.
___But to recently deported Mexicans, it's a literal oasis in the desert.
___"Oasis is a ministry born out of the needs of people who have been deported out of the U.S. to Mexico," explained Edmundo Valenzuela, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Bethel in Ojinaga, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Presidio.
___The church sensed a need for such a ministry years ago, when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service began dropping illegal Mexican immigrants off at the Rio Grande bridge at Presidio-Ojinaga.
___That spot gained government favor because it's so far from anywhere: A long way from El Paso-Juarez and their booming factories. A long way from the Lower Rio Grande Valley and its farmland and factories. In their quest to slow down the flow of illegal immigration into the United States, the feds favor Presidio-Ojinaga, because illegals who want to re-enter the United States for work will have to travel a long, long way just to get back to bountiful employment opportunities.
___And that means Ojinaga often is flooded with broke, out-of-work people, who also happen to find themselves at rock-bottom emotionally.
___"For many years, we looked for a place for this kind of ministry," Valenzuela reported. "This building was a convenience store, and the lady who owned it decided to close it down.
___"I think the Lord was in it because of the location--right by the bridge."
___So, almost every day scores of deported immigrants pass within a few feet of the triangular building where Baptists are offering a new lease on life--eternal life.
___Oasis workers, mostly members of the Baptist church, offer the deportees exactly what a sign near the bridge advertises: "Jesus is the answer to your greatest problem."
___Workers at Oasis offer free refreshments for undocumented aliens. But they also much offer more. They pray with them, and read the Bible to them. They tell them that, despite their failures and disappointments, Jesus Christ offers more than they ever dreamed of finding in the United States.
___"This is one of the ministries you don't always see the fruits of," Valenzuela concedes. "These people always are on their way to someplace else.
___"But this is a ministry to people who are depressed, whose dreams have been destroyed. And this ministry gives them a light of hope."

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