El Paso, TX

El Paso is at the far western tip of Texas, where New Mexico and the Mexican state of Chihuahua meet in a harsh desert environment around the slopes of Mount Franklin on the Rio Grande, which has often been compared to the Nile. As they approached the Rio Grande from the south, Spaniards in the sixteenth century viewed two mountain ranges rising out of the desert with a deep chasm between. This site they named El Paso del Norte (the Pass of the North), the future location of two border cities—Ciudad Juárez on the south or right bank of the Rio Grande, and El Paso, Texas, on the opposite side of the river. Since the sixteenth century the pass has been a continental crossroads; a north-south route along a historic camino real prevailed during the Spanish and Mexican periods, but traffic shifted to an east-west axis in the years following 1848, when the Rio Grande became an international boundary.

The El Paso area was inhabited for centuries by various Indian groups before the Spaniards came. The first Europeans in all probability were Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vacaqv and his three companions, survivors of an unsuccessful Spanish expedition to Florida, who passed through the El Paso area in 1535 or 1536, although their exact route is debated by historians. Several years later, in 1540-42, an expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronadoqv explored an enormous amount of territory now known as the American Southwest. The first party of Spaniards that certainly saw the Pass of the North was the Rodríguez-Sánchez expeditionqv of 1581; its arrival marked the beginning of 400 years of history in the El Paso area. This was followed by the Espejo-Beltrán expedition (see ESPEJO, ANTONIO DE) of 1582 and the historic colonizing expedition under Juan de Oñate,qv who, on April 30, 1598, in a ceremony at a site near that of present San Elizario, took formal possession of the entire territory drained by the Río del Norte (the Rio Grande). This act, called La Toma, or "the claiming," brought Spanish civilization to the Pass of the North and laid the foundations of more than two centuries of Spanish rule over a vast area.

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Christ the King Presbyterian Church (PCA)

Christ the King Presbyterian Church was the first Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) congregation to be particularized in El Paso, TX, and remains the only PCA church in El Paso to-date. Many of the BEAMM team members who live in El Paso attend Christ the King regularly. While not a direct BEAMM church plant, some members of BEAMM helped to initiate this work via Bible studies. The church owes its growth to the Presbytery of the Southwest (PCA) and the Southwest Church Planting Network. Christ the King is a BEAMM partner and is active in helping to further BEAMM works in El Paso, such as Las Tierra Community Church, and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

In an area of 131,000 people in east El Paso, where the population is 90% second and third generation Hispanic, and where there is socio-economic diversity, Manuel and Kim Padilla are praying and working toward establishing a multi-cultural bilingual church which they are calling the Las Tierras Community Church.

The Padilla’s are using community involvement and development strategies. In other words, they are engaged in their community at all levels, political and social, in order to see common grace and gospel transformation. What drives this is that we are all image bearers of God; that the mercy we have received we are to give; that we are to show kindness to all people, not only to those in the household of faith; and that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Whether through the neighborhood association or activities with schools and businesses, they work in the power of the Spirit to seek God’s Kingdom established. As people get to know them as those who care about their community and city, trust and relationships are developed which enable them to speak the Good News of Christ.

As a result of their work in developing a neighborhood association and relationship with the school and government entities they have been able to start Bible studies in the community. On September 9, 2007, a core-group of six families has now begun meeting in a local school band room.

Church Planters Manuel and Kim Padilla

Church Planters Jeff and Heather Vaughn

Other BEAMM Team Members in El Paso