Growing up in Puerto Rico, the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo recalls Los Posadas and Three Kings celebrations where he and his friends would awaken people at 3 o’clock in the morning — even their favorite teachers weren’t exempt — with celebratory music of the season. Amazingly, those aroused from their slumber would in turn feed the revelers.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness joined 16 other faith, humanitarian, and civil society organizations in signing a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of her trip to Mexico and Guatemala Sunday and Monday to address the issues that lead tens of thousands of Central Americans to come to the United States.
Just two blocks north of our home in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, is a 40-block-long linear park that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. My family and I enjoy walking there in the evening and relish the spectacular sunsets that don’t respect borders. In this time of pandemic, we are glad to see families and friends walking dogs and getting exercise along the 14-foot-wide park.
Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado Escobar live and minister on the border of the U.S. and Mexico in the shadow of a 30-foot steel dividing wall, grateful for the opportunity to provide witness to the reality that “Jesus is our peace and has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility.”
This past Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, participants in the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s southern border travel study seminar helped with the service and lunch.
Members of the Board of Trustees and staff of the Presbyterian Foundation crossed from El Paso, Texas into Juarez, Mexico, to learn firsthand about the situation at the border.
Whatever your opinion of U.S. immigration policies, many people — such as those attempting to enter through our southern border — are living in precarious, life-threatening situations. In response, people of faith continued to provide life-saving services that uplift the human soul and reaffirm individuals’ dignity.
When Maria’s husband became increasingly violent toward her, she left her home and sought refuge in a safe place. What she never dreamed was that he would also exercise violence against her legally, through gaining custody of their two sons and filing for a restraining order to bar her from her home and the business she built with him. Homeless, Maria returned to the congregation she had stopped attending when she got married 18 years earlier; she was welcomed back, and a church family offered her shelter in their home. Her story is only beginning, as she heals and finds the courage and stamina to challenge the system and regain access to her sons.
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?”
