Equipping The Next Generation To Be Peacemakers
“Faith and Service Project Grant” by TENX10
Over the past eight years, Border Perspective has mobilized thousands of people from across the United States, youth and adults alike, at the border and beyond. In 2025, our hope was to offer a full-scholarship Service Learning opportunity to local youth from the Rio Grande Valley for the first time. Yonathan Moya, our Executive Director, and Jennifer Moya, Operations Director at Border Perspective, both raised along the U.S. and Mexico border, shared how valuable a program like this would have been to them in their adolescence. They reflected on how it could have deepened their identity in Christ within a bi-cultural context while also helping them recognize how God was at work in their community.
“I wish I had an opportunity like this when I was growing up. Experiences that stretch your faith and expand your worldview are life-shaping. It’s humbling that now, through our partnership with Tenx10, Border Perspective can provide this experience for students along the U.S.-Mexico border. Investing in the next generation is vital, not just to help them grow, but to shape them into the future leaders God has called them to be.” — Yonathan Moya, Executive Director, Border Perspective
During the last week of July, this hope was realized through the generosity and collaboration of our friends at TenX10 and the Faith and Service Project Grant (learn more here). As grant recipients, Border Perspective facilitated a six-day service learning trip for students from five different churches in South Texas, including our local church partner, Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive. Additionally, we revised our Peacemaker’s Guide, to make its content more accessible to youth and created a hybrid version of our standard Field Guide, with a primary focus on peacemaking.
For many of these students, this service learning experience was the first time they had stepped into the intersection of faith and justice. They had the opportunity not only to be hearers of the Word, but doers also (James 1:22). They sat at tables with local partners, listened to stories of resilience and hope, and served in communities where the gospel is not only preached but practiced.
When we talk about “equipping the next generation” in the faith space, we often assume we already know what they need. While wisdom and experience certainly have their place, effectively raising up the next generation of peacemakers begins with listening to them. They are not only the future, they are also the present.
We were incredibly encouraged by the feedback we received from the students that participated in this Service Learning Experience. Here are a few highlights:
All students reported feeling more equipped with a biblical understanding of immigration
95% of participating students reported feeling more equipped to discuss immigration with others
100% of participating students expressed greater curiosity about discipleship and their walk with Christ
Students reported feeling more prepared to engage in peacemaking, desiring to move towards conflict rather than avoid it and to seek God’s guidance in challenging conversations and relationships.
Students reported experiencing a first time connection, a deeper connection or a reconnection in their relationship with God.
We live in a time where everyone has a digital outlet to share their thoughts and opinions, yet very few people feel truly heard, seen, or known. As a nation, we are experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of loneliness; a void created by the digital age and our increasing hyper-independence. This upcoming generation longs for more. Our faith cannot simply be “another side of the coin,” or reduced to an antidote to the cultural moment. It must be something entirely set apart as God intended it to be. Only then will we find deep, transformative satisfaction in Christ, and only then will we have something compelling to offer the generations to come.
"She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'" – Genesis 6:13
Throughout this service learning experience, students had the opportunity to slow down and listen, engaging with topics that affect the lives of their families and the border community every day. They also served alongside four local agencies — Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Border Missions, Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center, and Holy Family Services — committed to addressing food insecurity and the needs of mixed-status individuals living in the Rio Grande Valley.
While this week emphasized service and perspective, our primary focus was discipleship, specifically exploring what it means to be a peacemaker. At the end of each day, the group spent time together preparing for the following morning’s devotional. During Wednesday night’s church service, Jennifer Moya shared with the student’s parents that their teenagers do have a desire for God’s Word, and that their presence and leadership as adults are essential to their children’s spiritual formation. While they may not choose discipline on their own, they respond when they are invited into it.
Our Peacemaker’s Guide focuses on three key components of peacemaking: peace with God, peace with self, and peace with others. Through a five day scripture study, students were invited to consider what it means to be at peace with God, reminded of the reconciliation and transformation that come through the gospel, truths some heard for the first time. They wrestled with their own inner conflict and anxieties, gaining practical tools to address them through the promises of God.
Finally, the students evaluated their relationships and explored what it means to be a peacemaker rather than an instigator of conflict both in the context of immigration and in their everyday lives. Peacemaking, they discovered, is as much of an inward practice as it is outward one.
"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles." – Psalm 34:17
Much of the brokenness in our world today, even among believers, comes from a lack of inner healing and not allowing Jesus’ light into the darkest places. As a church in the United States, we have often prioritized outward appearances at the cost of lasting transformation; and this disingenuousness is glaringly obvious to this generation.
The lessons these students learned are as much for us, the “current” generation, as they are for them, the “next” generation. There is no use in hiding what is already plain to God. He knows us intimately. This truth is a great comfort to a generation longing to be known, so why do we so often run from its power?
"You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar." – Psalm 139:1-2
The invitation to peacemaking is open to all of us: to be at peace with God, at peace with ourselves, and at peace with others. We are incredibly grateful for all that God did in and through each student who participated in this local service learning experience, and all that He will continue to do in the aftermath.
Reader, you are invited at every moment to experience the power of the gospel. We also invite you to join us at the U.S. and Mexico border to learn more about what it means to be a peacemaker.
