Ministry of Reconciliation

Mission worker bringing people together around issues of migration and faith

September 2009

As a young mission volunteer 15 years ago, Mark Adams experienced the kind of inclusive Christian community he had been seeking for years.

Adams, then a recent college graduate, was serving along the United States/Mexico border on a six-month assignment with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Since high school he had been struggling with the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s declaration to the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

“I realized that my life didn’t reflect that and I was grappling with what that meant on an individual and collective level,” Adams says. “My relationships tended to be all white and affluent.”

In the border community Adams saw Paul’s vision for the church come to life. “The way in which God worked in our lives to bind us together in real love amazed me,” he explains. “I had been proclaimed a child of the covenant at my baptism and was baptized into the community of believers. The reality of how grand this community is didn’t become clear to me until I lived and served with Uno En El Espiritu, a church in Piedras Negras, Mexico.” He saw relationships built on being “brothers and sisters in Christ” rather than being defined by language, nationality and social class.

After a seminary degree and ordination, Adams returned to the U.S./Mexico border as a PC(USA) mission co-worker. Today he continues the ministry of reconciliation, bringing people together around issues of migration and faith.

One important way he does this is through the Just Trade Center, one of the many ministries of Frontera de Cristo. Adams is the U.S. coordinator of the organization, which is supported by the PC(USA) and the Presbyterian Church of Mexico. It is based in the area near Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, and is one of six ministry sites along the border supported by the two churches. The Just Trade Center helps develop and expand coffee farmer–owned roasting businesses. 

Just Coffee is grown in Salvador Urbina in southern Mexico. The beans are transported to Agua Prieta, where they are roasted, ground and packaged in small air-tight bags. The coffee is then exported to the United States for shipment around the country.

Farmers not only receive a just price for their beans, but they also benefit from being owners of the production process. Other communities have learned about the model and have contacted Just Coffee, seeking to replicate it, Adams says. He and a colleague at Frontera de Cristo recently co-authored a book, Just Coffee: Caffeine with a Conscience, that tells the Just Coffee story.
 
Frontera de Cristo has played a crucial role in helping famers from the community realize their vision of reversing the migration trend. At a recent dedication of a new roaster a grower named Luis gave this testimonial: “What Just Coffee means for me is that Luis (his son) will not have to grow up without a father, and he will have opportunities in his community. Because of Just Coffee I can stay united with my family and not risk my life trying to migrate to the United States.”

Presbyterians and Presbyterian congregations are among the most loyal customers of Just Coffee. They are able to read the name of the farmer who grew the coffee on the outside of each bag, and many Presbyterians begin the day with a prayer for the farmer who grew their coffee.

While Adams’ focus is on reconciliation, he does his ministry with the backdrop of a wall constructed to prevent illegal movement across the border. Mark sees it has a human-made barrier that divides people. Christ, he insists, came to unite people.

“Jesus Christ has broken down the wall of hostility between us,” he says. “This is a fact of what Jesus has done. We stand in the shadow of a wall that is continuing to be built causing fear, suffering, pain and death. We witness to the reality of Jesus Christ, despite all the countervailing claims that say this is not true.”

In addition to Just Coffee, Frontera de Cristo brings people together by facilitating mission delegations from the United States to Mexico and from Mexico to the United States.

“We really focus on building relationships,” Adams says. “We emphasize worship and fellowship and participating alongside the church and community in the ongoing ministries.”

Many volunteers leave the border with their lives changed, Adams says. He recalls one physician from a larger U.S. city who after spending time with people battling drug dependency confessed his own addiction: "I am an addict to a lifestyle that isolates me from a major part of the world. I have learned how rich it is not to be isolated. I don’t want to go home because I don’t want to be the way I was.”

Adams and his colleagues rely on the promise that Christ can change lives and bring about reconciliation. “Christ has broken down the barriers,” he says. “It’s up to us to live into that reality.”