As we gathered in the basement of Casa Vidas to introduce ourselves, we were asked the questions. Tell us who you are? where you're coming from? Who did you say goodbye to last when you were leaving?
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On Saturday, May 9th, less than 100 people gathered under tents outside the NW Detention Center in Tacoma. We gathered to hear stories and to be a presence to those who are detained, and to say “enough is enough” to the 34K nation-wide nightly bed requirement set by ICE: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
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On Monday, our first full day on the Border Awareness Program, we had the opportunity to see first hand a small portion of the disputed fence marking our border. As we walked up to the fence, a couple of children living in the neighborhood along the fence on the Mexican side, ran up to greet us with smiles. I felt a deep disconnect in my heart. The short time we spent there, I couldn’t stop asking myself, “Where is God?”
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I am still quite a ways from completely processing all that happened during our time in St. Louis and all that it might mean. The question I have for myself is what I will do with this new knowledge I have gained. How can I translate this experience into something that has benefit to my children? To my church and my community? To my country? I am not sure how to answer those questions yet.
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From August 6-12, 2015, BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz sent a delegation of 10 to St. Louis in response to a national call put forth by Ferguson Action for participation in #UnitedWeFight, a week of training, education, and direct action during the anniversary of Michael Brown’s murder in August 2014.
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I remember being in the living room of the Amen House in St. Louis on August 7 when I heard about 19-year-old Christian Taylor’s murder in Texas. We had come together to resist the systems that enabled these kind of injustices, but became re-traumatized by another report of a young Black man’s death at the hands of an agent of the state. Our wounds are raw. I find myself in a constant state of pain each time I hear of another black person killed by police or white vigilantes; it is scary to realize I am living in a country that doesn’t value black lives.
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When people ask about my experience in Ferguson, I tell them it was the holiest experience of my life, and it was. I felt like I was putting feet on my faith, doing what Jesus has long commanded us to do. To fight with and for the oppressed. What I have carried with me every day since are the people that I met in St. Louis and Ferguson.
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They are privileged to live in a country of privileges. I am privileged unfairly, in a country where opportunities do not exist for all. My brother and sister do not have the same opportunities I have. Why? Youth of my people must migrate for pursuing dreams and new opportunities. Why? Not all of them have the same fate of being successful and their dreams become nightmares.
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We can’t change what has happened in past, but we can learn from our past to change the future. I had a wonderful experience at the Border Friendship Tour. By hearing some of the familiar stories, this experience brought back some of my old memories as well. I want to share some of my personal background that has shaped my perception toward the border and immigration.
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Easy answers and quick decisions are so often employed when it comes to immigration. The rhetoric that we often hear and accept (whether passively or actively) includes statements such as “immigrants would rather be in the US than their country”, “immigrants are a drain on our social services”, “terrorists are coming in through our southern border”, and “NAFTA was a positive economic move.” Our list continues to grow as the debate continues. Why do we so easily accept statements such as these for truths? Why do we allow these to dictate our opinions, lifestyle, hospitality, action, and inaction? We have betrayed a gift of our culture. Friends, our values of investigation, truth, and hard work have given way to blind acceptance, false truths, and negligence.
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Peach Jack was an attendee on the Justicia en la Frontera/Justice at the Border Friendship Tour to Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, TX. Originally published in "The Spire," the newsletter of Seattle First Baptist, her article addresses some of the important details of the trip itself as well as provides some useful information to help others formulate responses to questions concerning immigration and the issues around it.
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“It’s important to come to the border. To come here is to be unsettled by truth.” These were the words spoken to us by Ruben Garcia, one of the founders and the current executive director of Annunciation House, our host for the week in El Paso. Being unsettled by truth was the unofficial theme during the Justicia en la Frontera/Justice at the Border Friendship Tour.
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From February 8-15 a delegation of 15 attended the BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz Friendship Tour in El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Called Justicia en la Frontera/Justice at the Border, the experience educated participants about the injustices occurring at the U.S./Mexico border and equipped them to assist others in strengthening their responses to border-related issues including economic and immigration policy, humanitarian aid, labor organizing, and border militarization. The group was hosted by Annunciation House in El Paso and stayed at Casa Vidas, one of the two migrant shelters owned and operated by Annunciation House.
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The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA) received a $15,000 Palmer Grant (through the American Baptist Foundation) for a project called Justice at the Border, a two-part experience that will equip individuals and communities of faith to respond to injustices on the U.S./Mexico border. The grant covers the costs for 10 participants with a particular focus on attracting justice-minded young adults.
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I was at Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina, participating in the joint Quaker House-Baptist Peace Fellowship Friendship Tour September 7-9. 2013. The new Quaker House directors, Lynn and Steve Newsom, attended the BPFNA Peace Camp in 2012 and were eager to find ways to partner on peace issues.
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In January 2012, the BPFNA and Palmer Theological Seminary (formerly Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary) co-sponsored a traveling course titled Ministry on the Borderline.
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American Baptist missionary Ray Schellinger was our host for the week. Ray and his wife Adalia run a domestic violence shelter in Tijuana called Deborah’s House. Early in our visit, Ray took us to Friendship Park, described what it had once been, let us see what it has become and invited us to contemplate throughout the week the messages we’d like to add to the wall.
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This past January, Julie Warner lead a BPFNA Friendship Tour to Burma (Myanmar). I feel blessed to have been a part of this trip, along with Carol Day and Kay Cheves. I was asked by my church to give a report on this incredible experience. I have not tried to build a “scientific” report, but have rather focused on giving our congregation the strongest sense of what we have lived during these almost 3 weeks in the few minutes I had to talk. So I decided to tell three stories representing powerful, key moments that I will never forget.
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A fence runs through Friendship Park at the western end of the U.S. border with Mexico. A 20-foot tall steel structure begun in late 2011 and completed in early 2012, it begins at the very spot where (without barriers) it would be possible to stand in California, Mexico and the Pacific Ocean at the same time.
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I've been struggling to figure out a way to write about this experience; looking for a thread that connects it all together. Perhaps "no olvidados" (not forgotten) is that thread.
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