Dear Friends,
I am often called on to provide pastoral accompaniment to migrants who become critically injured or ill on their journey over the many borders they have to cross to get to the U.S. Still, it was something of a surprise when I received a call on Christmas morning: “Baby Jesus needs your help,” the message said. While I had looked forward to a few errands and nice brunch with my family, we changed direction and went to the hospital to meet Jesus Aaron and his mother.
The first thing I noticed as I entered the hospital room was a small dark-skinned, exhausted-looking woman, curled up on a cot by the door. Maria (not her real name) raised herself to greet us with great effort and considerable dignity, considering her plight. She had left Honduras and entrusted her four small children to her mother. They were dying the slow and certain death of impoverished children and she could stand it no longer. Although she was eight months pregnant, she thought that if she could make it to the US, she could send enough money home to care for her kids.
Thus began her month-long journey through Mexico, barely eating and sleeping, jumping off and on moving trains in search of food and a place to sleep. She said she followed a bright star as she walked part way and hung on for dear life for the rest. She thought that the baby she carried would be shaken from her by the lurching train or that harm would come to them by vicious gangs or corrupt and violent Mexican authorities. But eleven trains and many days of walking later she made it to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The next stretch she had to conquer was a three-day walk through the Sonoran Desert. Rain, cold and high winds, rugged terrain, animals, snakes, cactus and other perils added to the trauma of the train. What strength must she have drawn from as she walked, swollen, exhausted, pregnant, and malnourished across that lonely terrain?
On the third night, December 22, Baby Jesus could wait no longer and his tiny four-pound body thrust into the cold and rainy night. Border Patrol, alerted by others from her group, finally arrived after six long cold hours. Despite mom’s amazing journey, Jesus’ miraculous birth, and the jubilation of those who came from far and wide to greet them in the hospital, their story does not have a happy ending. Mom and baby stayed in Tucson for a month or so as they awaited their orders for deportation back to the crushing poverty that sent her North.
Why am I sharing this Christmas story with you now, especially when Easter has just passed? Because ever since I lost sight of Maria and Jesus, I have worried and wondered about who will nourish and sustain them on their journey. We make much of the miraculous birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but what of this Jesus and this migrant mother? Every day, somewhere in the world, the migrant Christ is being born under the harshest conditions, in the most destitute of places, to the most unlikely parents. Whether he or she survives infancy, grows into adolescence, develops as a leader, prophet, or pastor is up to us.
While we could only accompany Maria and Jesus for a short while, BorderLinks ensures that others like them have a chance, not merely to survive, but to thrive. To be a resurrection people is to live in solidarity with people-made-poor, to think critically about how we are complicit in their suffering and how we can advocate for and accompany them until the injustice stops. To be a resurrection people is to “go and tell” the stories of the birthing, dying and rising of the migrant Christ today. This is our work together as the BorderLinks community.
BorderLinks educational programs on both sides of the border raise consciousness and inspire action around political and economic circumstances that threaten the lives of people-made-poor. In the U.S., BorderLinks and BorderLinks II delegations open the eyes, hearts and minds of participants from the U.S. and they return to their communities transformed. They become an educated and compassionate electorate. They become agents of positive social change.
In Mexico at the Casa, the most impoverished women and children learn to think critically and act consciously to pull themselves out of poverty, to prepare themselves as leaders, to organize for positive social change. Through our unique Children’s Food Security Program, the poorest children in the community receive a nutritious and delicious lunch, and also work cooperatively in the community garden; take classes together on health, hygiene, and nutrition; and participate in Kids Camps and After-School Programs. Our new Children’s Early Learning Center will provide the neediest children an opportunity to develop skills necessary to thrive. The Casa Women’s Cooperative and Adult Education classes offer men and women the opportunity to improve their family economy and resist migration. Secondary and high school equivalency, English and computer classes provide needed skills to get a job in a highly competitive environment.
Recently, our work has been made more difficult by the sudden cancellation of eleven delegations over Spring Break caused by the State Department travel advisory on Mexico. Although we have seen no evidence of violence in Nogales in the communities we visit, we want you to know that, if for any reason you feel you cannot travel to the Mexico border, we have other programs on the US side of the border and into the interior of Mexico. We urge you to continue your support for solidarity and compassion with migrants through BorderLinks programs. You can learn more about our response to the travel alert and opportunities for other programs at www.borderlinks.org or by calling our Education Department.
Today’s economic reality has also hit us hard. We have had to cut staff positions and have gone to a four-day work-week. Our staff and board are busy re-visioning our work, re-imagining how, in the context of these new challenges, we might best live into our mission. We are also reaching out to form a National Advisory Committee of educators and religious leaders. As we live into these difficult times, we are determined to rise to a new level of stewardship of resources, sustainability, imagination and implementation of new programs, adapting to meet the demands of the times and the needs of our constituency.
Please, if you are able, sit down and write a check to BorderLinks today or establish a monthly automatic withdrawal from your bank account to BorderLinks. Call or write us to tell us about how we might better help you to respond to the impact of global economics, militarization, and faith in your lives. Since the current situation is likely to worsen before it gets better, help us to continue to affect profound and lasting change. Direct aid is important, but lasting change comes through transformative education. Please help in any way you can.
In hope,
Rev. Delle McCormick
For the BorderLinks staff and board
