Contents: Intro | Day 1 |
Intro:
In October 2025 the Davis Community Church (DCC) sent 8 members on a 4 day trip to Frontera de Cristo (FDC), a Presbyterian border ministry in sister cities Douglas, AZ and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, a Smaller port of entry to Mexico between Nogales Mexico and New Mexico.
I went because I wanted to see the wall that I've been hearing a lot about for the last 10+ years. I got to see it and it was more interesting than I thought especially comparing the U.S. side of the wall with the Mexican side .
But it was much more than that. We spent most of our time on the Mexican side of the border. We didn't see any Immigrants (Immigration had dropped way off by the Fall of 2025) but we met a lot of passionate, faithful people doing great things.
We also visited a camp in the middle of the Mexican desert which had been used by immigrants and took a mile walk to the wall.
The experience is highly recommended by all of us.
We drove from Tuscon to Frontera de Cristo offices in Douglas for an introduction .
Douglas-Agua Prieta is port of entry in South East Arizona, between a major port of entry at Nogales Mexico and New Mexico.
Frontera de Cristo Coordinators Mark and Miriam gave us an introduction to their mission and the trip.
We then went to the border at the U.S. side to see the wall infrastructure.
What drew me to the trip was wanting to see the wall which we've all heard about for the last 20 years.
The older sections of the wall were 18-20 feet high with concertina wire(Razor wire) at the top. Newer sections are 30 feet high.
It's made of steel bollards 6-inches wide 4 inches apart.
It is set back about 3 feet from the actual border. It's actually a fence because you can see thru it.
There are light posts on the other side of the road with motion detectors and cameras. Border patrol pickups were regularly driving up and down the road.
The border wall from a high point on the Border Road in East Douglas overlooking Sulphur Springs Vally towards New Mexico.
Mark opened with an informative overview of immigration and a little about the wall.
His talk, "Reflections at the Border", asked "What do Borders mean to You?".
He closed with Ephesians 2:11-22,
Paul explains that non-Jewish believers (Gentiles), who were once excluded from God’s promises to Israel and separated from Christ, have now been brought near to God through Jesus’ sacrifice.
This passage is used by all the border ministries.
We then crossed the border into Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, it was the easiest border crossing I've ever done. I just showed my passport card.(You should bring a regular passport though)
We went to Lirio of the Valles Presbyterian Church for dinner. Some of us stayed in dorm rooms there for the rest of the trip, other stayed in motels.
Frontera de Cristo was started in 1984.
In addition to supporting immigrants they support a variety of ministries in Agua Prieta and Douglas.
Their mission is Building Relationships and Understanding cultures Across Borders.
It was originally funded by Presbyterian Church (USA) Foreign Missions, but Presbyterian Foreign Missions was discontinued in 2025.
Ministry partners are now Cafe Justo, a fair trade coffee cooperative, The Migrant Resource Center (MRC) and Centro de Atención al Migrante “Exodus” (CAME) who supporting imigrants deported from the U.S.,
They also get support from many churches in the US.
The rest of the trip
Our hosts, Mark, Miriam, and their teams put together a great program for us, which opened insights into their mission, people, places and more at the border.
They thanked us at the end for showing interest with all our questions.
Frontera de Cristo, works with and supports churches and secular organizations on both sides of the border to do Justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.
Some of the activities and groups we visited:
The main part of the trip was meeting the people involved in these activities.
We were impressed by the faith, hope and love of the people in all of these groups.
See The The "Douglas-Agua Prieta Story video" below for more about the people.
Note: Agua Prieta literally translates from Spanish to "dark water." It refers to a local body of water that has a dark appearance,
Old U.S. Highway 80 in Arizona was a major transcontinental highway in the 1920s, known as the "Dixie Overland Highway" that ran from Savannah GA to San Diego. It has been replaced by I-10 connecting to I-8.
Tree of Life
We rode to a walnut tree in the middle of the desert 13 miles West of Agua Prieta, 3 miles north of highway 2 thru a cattle farm and about a mile south of the border where a Presbyterian church group set up a water drum and brought food to camped immigrants. There were no immigrants there during our visit.
Immigration has s dropped off in 2025.
We walked a mile across the dessert to the wall.
Wall view from the Tree of Life
The mile to the the border was covered with by creosotebush (Larrrea divaricata), Chihuahuan whitethorn (Acacia neovernicosa), desert hackberry (C. pallida), woolly buckthorn (Sideroxylon lanuginosum), soaptree yucca (Yucca elata), Arizona walnut (Juglans major), and home to coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and rattlesnakes.
However it is nothing compared to the Darién Gap, a remote, roadless, and dangerous region of tropical rainforest along the border of Panama and Colombia, which South American immigrants must cross.
Wall 13 Miles west of Agua Prieta
A picture from the web of scaling the wall.
We participated in the weekly "Healing Our Borders Prayer Vigil" on Pan-American Ave., the road to the port of entry in Douglas, AZ and held up crosses with the names (Many crosses listed name unknown) of many of the 486 immigrants who perished from 2000 - 2025 in Cochise County in the SouthEast corner of Arizona.
About 1/3 of crosses are held up each week reading the name and chanting "Presente!"(meaning "present" or "here").
This picture is another group.
See a Video of a a previous vigil.
Note: Pan-American Ave is not part of the Pan American Highway which goes thru Texas.
They used to have the prayer vigil at the wall.
When they built a new wall in 2019.
They put numbers on the wall at stopping points for prayers.
US Border Patrol told them it was defacing government property and they had to take them down.
Vivamos Siempre Como Hermanos - Let us always live as brothers.
Todos Somos Inmigrantes - We are all immigrants.
Sister Cities:
I can sum up the wall there it 2 words:
US side - In/humanity | Mexican side Humanity.
Roasting room.
Links:
Douglas-Agua Prieta Story | click it to start the video
Frontera de Cristo - Building Relationships and Understanding ...
Agua Prieta | Wikipedia
Agua Prieta literally translates from Spanish to "dark water." It refers to a local body of water that has a dark appearance due to the nature of the terrain.
The first settlers in 1898 were people who were employed to work in the mining company Phelps and Dodge Copper Co that its foundry in Douglas, Arizona.
Agua Prieta's participation in the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1917, was extremely important and significant since this place became, for many reasons, an important point for the most prominent men of the Revolution.
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Douglas, Arizona | wikipedia
Douglas was founded as an American smelter town, to treat the copper ores of nearby Bisbee, Arizona. The town is named after mining pioneer Dr. James Douglas and was incorporated in 1905. Two copper smelters operated at the site. it operated until 1987
