Hello! My name is Abel Vega and I am the Director of Mission, Service & Justice Ministries

Jeremiah 29:7
Micah 6:8
Luke 10

All of us are called to live and practice our biblical mandate to be in mission out in the world. We are all agents of change in the 21st Century for God’s vision of the church. We all strive for peace, health, and justice in our modern times. Although this is an aspirational vision, God asks us as Disciples of Jesus Christ to seek the well-being of the community, both locally and globally. 

Mission, Service, and Justice (MSJ) Ministries of the Rio Texas Annual Conference aims to model Shalom by connecting churches, organizations, and individuals to diverse communities in our region and around the world. 

The Rio Texas Conference is blessed with 450 miles of border where God’s transformation continuously evolves through relationship building. MSJ is a resource that aims to orient communities—inside and outside of the Rio Texas Conference—to networking, volunteering, and justice advocacy through virtual spaces (webinar calendar) and active engagement. 

MSJ educates, mobilizes, and connects volunteers to disaster response, domestic and international missionary work, and other global ministries. MSJ works in tandem with churches in the United Methodist connection as a resource for learning how to serve our international neighbors as well as the neighbors that reside across the street from the local congregation. 

Join and connect with MSJ’s mission to thrive together for SHALOM of the community.

Our work is to create, support, and develop missional programming, including Conference Advance and Five-Star Program, Harvest Sunday, the newly formed Rio Texas Conference Rural Initiative, and the Transforming Communities Network (formerly Transformational Communities of Praxis).

Our work is to partner with the Conference Office of Mission, Service, and Justice Ministries, with task teams and coordinators of Missionary support and Itineration, Immigration/Migration Responses and Border Ministries, Disaster Response Committee, and the Volunteers-In-Mission Development Team. 

Now, in 2022, in part, because of heightened awareness and concern regarding persistent “isms,” socially and structurally entrenched, and in part, to lessons learned in this season of pandemic induced adaptation, the Transforming Communities Vision Team is prepared to expand our work of convening, equipping, accompaniment, and support for local congregations and communities, seeking to learn new skillsets in the mission field of community transformation.