immigrants Archives

What’s in a name? A lot. Names reveal who we are

Posted October 27th, 2020

People’s given names say a lot about their pride, their identity, their ancestry and even their faith. Justice and respect say should honor those names.

Minute for Mission: Immigration Sunday

Posted June 11th, 2020

“I have faith that God will dry up the Rio Grande so that I may safely cross,” he said. He had been on the journey from Honduras to the U.S. for a month and a half when we met him in a migrant shelter in Arriaga, Mexico. His teenage son was traveling with him. He told us about the pressure on his son to join a gang and the lack of lawful means to support oneself in his nation. He talked of seeing people murdered in the street.

Community ID cards help immigrants feel welcomed

Posted March 4th, 2020

Church ministry helps immigrants who lack conventional forms of identification get community ID cards.

Venezuelan refugees’ plight tugs at the heart of mission co-worker in Colombia

Posted July 23rd, 2019

Just steps away from the Reformed University campus where he teaches, Presbyterian mission co-worker César Carhuachin comes face to face with some of Colombia’s most marginalized people. He encounters Venezuelan refugees who seek to survive by selling candy on the streets. Earlier this year, the United Nations estimated that 3.4 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland, where political repression has created severe economic hardship and pervasive shortages of food and medicine.

God’s family stands up for others

Posted July 23rd, 2019

As Christians, this is the promise toward which we live, but it’s not just an eschatological hope. It’s God’s vision into which we are called to live daily, supported by our faith in the One who has given himself on our behalf. Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” — nothing less — and the guide for our daily living. Our Presbyterian predecessors knew this and strove to give concrete meaning to Jesus’ promise in the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which consists of two parts — the “Book of Confessions” and the “Book of Order.” In the “Confessions,” the Larger Catechism instructs us beyond the command “Thou shalt not kill,” adding that we are “to preserve the life of ourselves and others,” in “forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, … requiting good for evil, … protecting and defending the innocent.” It forbids “the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful or necessary means of preservation of life.” As for the command “Thou shalt not steal,” we are called to “endeavor by all just and lawful means to procure, preserve, and further the wealth and outward estate of others, as well as our own.”

Partnership ministers to refugees and immigrants

Posted June 12th, 2019

The Reformed Calvinist Church of El Salvador (IRCES) is a unique church partner. Though small in number, it is big in vision and commitment to the gospel. Grounded in their reformed identity, they are always making time to analyze and discern their call, based on the context in which they serve. From way south of the border, our partners are watching and anticipating the direct impact of U.S. immigration policy as they turn to longtime U.S. mission partners and confidants to ask, “What are you going to do about this? How can we face this together?”

Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary

Posted May 17th, 2019

Tucson’s Southside Presbyterian Church is known for being a sanctuary church and for its joyous Sunday worship. But its pastor, Alison Harrington, recently told a Presbyterian Mission Agency delegation that the other six days of the week are important for members and friends, too — as well as their pastor.

Immigration through the experiences of Border Patrol agents

Posted April 15th, 2019

Three Border Patrol agents answered pointed questions about their work during a near two-hour session last week with a delegation from the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

On The Way Church celebrates a year of ‘great blessing’

Posted November 19th, 2018

During the recent one-year anniversary celebration of On The Way Church, the Rev. Rafael Viana began to see a convergence of many things. “Each one was necessary for us to reach this moment of great blessing,” he said. Viana arrived in Atlanta with his wife, Ivette, and their two children in February 2016.

«Si Dios abre un camino, nadie puede cerrarlo»

Posted November 14th, 2018

Después de plantar cuatro iglesias mientras que él era un refugiado que vivía en Uganda, Prince Mundeke Mushunju naturalmente le interesaba establecimiento de un servicio en inglés y suajili cuando llegó a Greensboro, Carolina del Norte, hace tres años.