Due to weather conditions, all in-person daytime and evening programs have been canceled across the church’s locations for Wednesday, except for the Recovery programs and Food Pantry at Overland Park. Decisions for Thursday daytime programs will correspond with local school district decisions and will be posted on the church’s website.
Scheduled programming has resumed for Thursday, February 13 at all Resurrection locations.
Day 3 began and ended in El Paso, but the majority of the day was spent in Ciudad Juarez. For those not familiar with this part of the country, both El Paso and Juarez hug the border line. One being in the United States and the other in Mexico. Yet this is a border where all people are not free to cross back and forth as they please. The 18-foot high steel fence with added concertina wire is an ever-present reminder that many are not welcome.
Clara from Abara started us off with a discussion about ethical storytelling and shared some simple steps to help us honor the stories of others. I’m not sure most of us realize that the way we see, listen or participate in other’s stories can lead to the empowerment or detriment of the individual. Are we mindful of our neighbor’s dignity? Are we willing to be fully present and engaged? Are we listening between the lines?
Once in Juarez, Rosa and Daniel from Abara took good care of us. Rosa presented details about the stages of migration in Juarez; from which countries the migrants were fleeing during each stage; and information regarding the types, numbers and focus of the shelters there. It became evident that the city of Juarez has a long history of responding quickly and compassionately to the needs of the many migrants who have poured into the city over the years. Rosa also touched on some of the many deterrent policies that have been set up both federally and statewide to make it harder for migrants to reach their destination at the border and to discourage those seeking asylum.
Our next stop was the only men’s shelter in the city. Most of the shelters available for those awaiting asylum appointments are for women or families. Upon arrival, we learned some came from Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador and other Mexican cities. One young man, in particular, made his way north through the jungle in the Darien Gap, rode for miles on top of the train called “The Beast” and arrived three months later at the shelter. He was in his third week awaiting his asylum consultation. But, honestly, in the short time we spent with them, we ended up loving and caring for these men as we listened to some of their stories, sang songs, participated in a crazy soccer match and joined them for heaping plates of spaghetti and pizza.
Later Sami drove us to the area where New Mexico, Texas and Mexico all three share the border (and the wall). The road was bumpy (extremely), but it was worth it! At another point as we gathered near the border, we could see The Hacienda (Abara’s headquarters) on the other side of the wall. It was there that Sami and Rosa shared some of their dreams for bringing the residents of these two cities together in community with one another and creating a lasting bond between them. (I think planting sunflowers, throwing a concert to be simulcast on both border sites and bringing in masked professional wrestlers had something to do with it! 😊)
After a little sight-seeing and dinner at a humongous diner, all of us walked back across the border to El Paso. It was sobering to think how privileged we are. All of us showed our passports, most were asked no questions and then were quickly approved to cross — while others were visible sitting in glassed-in conference rooms with kids and crying babies in tow waiting to be processed or turned away.
Upon arriving back at our Abara apartment, Hillary shared a devotion from a Jewish perspective on the verses in the Old Testament that admonish us ‘to love the stranger.’ She said that when the Talmud states God told us 36 times in the scriptures to love the stranger, what it really meant was to love the stranger and we would experience ‘double life.’ Wow! Not just life, but double life. That’s like sticking 100 exclamation points on the end of it! God desperately wanted the Israelites to remember that they had once been the strangers in a new land…that they had traipsed for years in the same worn-out shoes as the foreigner standing right in front of them…and that someone had given them a chance to cross the border into the promised land.
Prayer: God, help us to see the stranger right in front of us. To look at his shoes and call to memory the times it has been hard for us to put one foot in front of the other. Help us to remember how it feels to be without hope. And help us, God, to act upon the things we remember. Amen