Some people spend Valentine's Day kissing their boyfriends. Some spend the day bingeing on chocolates with their gal pals. I spent the day speaking about migrant justice at University Presbyterian Church in Tempe, Arizona. This church graciously invited the Tucson YAVs to be their weekend guests during Mission Month. We led a workshop on Solidarity, Charity and Advocacy, preached, spoke during Adult Education and went on a short hike with the youth group. I'm thankful for the opportunity to share my reflections on my year service.
The four Tucson YAVs, Allie, Emily, Hanbyeol, and I preached a sermon together. First, we read a poem called Passover Remember, which we first heard during YAV Orientation in August. Then, we used different verses to individually reflect on the our experiences during the first half of our YAV year.
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| Workshop on Solidarity, Charity, and Advocacy Source: University Presbyterian Church |
Below is my part of the sermon. Click here to hear a recording of our sermon.
Do not hesitate to leave
Your old ways behind –
Fear, silence, submission
… Then begin quickly,
before you have time to sink back
into the old slavery
Why do we feel the need to create borders? How do we build equal and respectful
relationships with people who are unlike us?
How can I work as an ally with those who are oppressed? What does modern
day slavery look like? These are some of the questions I’ve grappled with
during my year of service with Young Adult Volunteers.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve at
BorderLinks, where I organize and lead educational trips about the border. During the last six months, I have spent time
with a wide variety of people who have taught me more than I could have
imagined.
While observing the 25-foot border wall that separates Mexico
and the United States, I have prayed with seminarians, reflected with
teenagers, and taken pictures with retirees.
I have led workshops for squirmy middle schoolers where we explore what
the words “immigrant,” “border”, or “family” mean to them. Brave migrants have told me their harrowing
testimonies at shelters in border towns like Nogales and Agua Prieta,
Sonora. I’ve wept as a woman recounted
her experience of crossing the desert, getting detained by Border Patrol, and
separated from her husband. I have visited
migrants at Florence Detention Center who migrated north to escape cartel
violence in Honduras and Guatemala. I
have felt the panic that constricts your chest when you learn that your
friend’s undocumented husband was just detained. In the last few months, the border has come a
part of me. It is present in my
thoughts, my tears, my worries, and my prayers.
In addition to learning about the challenges on the border, I
had the chance to meet people who are bringing human dignity back to this
region. Raul, one of my friends and
coworkers, spent last Christmas in a cold detention center, visiting detainees
who have no one else to support them. My
friend, Josue, grew up undocumented, and is now organizing with other young
migrants to get more access to higher education. My local Presbyterian church, Southside, has
opened its door to provide sanctuary to an undocumented mother so she can stay
with her two boys and husband.
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| If your Christ is not Chicano, what is he? |
Amidst the darkness, I have also witnessed a powerful display
of God’s love in the borderlands. We are
lucky to be part of a community of students, pastors, church members, atheists,
migrants, and allies who have bonded together to turn barriers into bridges and
make our earth look more like God’s kingdom.
As the Bible says in Ephesians 2: 13-15,
“But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were
far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the
two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of
hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and
regulations.”
During the last six months, my eyes have opened, my heart has
ached, and my resolve has been strengthened.
With the support of my fellow volunteers and coworkers, I have begun to
acknowledge my privilege, my citizenship and the effects of my country’s
policies.
My work here has encouraged me not to “sink back into the old
slavery” of injustice, prejudice, and ignorance. I truly believe that the most radical act of
love is to introduce people to each other.
If be build relationships, we realize we are linked. Their struggle is our struggle. Our society’s borders affect us all by
perpetuating division, fear, and even hatred.
If we leave behind our fear, silence and submission we can reach a state
of collective liberation where we are all free.
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| Adult Education Source: University Presbyterian Church |
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| Hike with University Presbyterian Church youth group I am in the hat. Source: University Presbyterian Church |
