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Beloved Community,
This past week fifteen of us ventured to the hot Sonoran Desert around Tucson, Arizona to understand more deeply the stories of those coming to our country to seek a better life and the journey many of them are forced, by design of our nation’s policies and practices, to make across many miles of arid, unrelenting desert. These are asylum seekers and travelers who are fleeing abuse and persecution in their home countries, often created by political policies the US Government has supported, to find work and an environment where they are safe.
I know for me, I went on this journey thinking I understood what the issues are and what the journey might be like to basically walk into the US over the Southern Border, but I will be clear, I was ignorant. Our group went with agencies into the desert in 105+ degree heat to service water stations that get vandalized and poisoned by vigilantes, so that travelers can have some opportunity for life-saving water to drink and maybe be able to journey another few miles.
We placed three crosses on a site where three travelers were assassinated (shot in the head and chest) with an artist who is trying to help remember the thousands of lives lost to crossing the desert and give their souls the recognition that they deserve and help them to be remembered.
We were fed an incredible dinner by a Nicaraguan asylum seeker who is hoping to stay here in the US to escape the abuse she endured at home. We met with another asylum seeker who has built a business, following her asylum being granted, that helps other women to make money in this country while they wait the up to 21 YEARS for their cases to work their way through the “system” (they are permitted to work during this time), only to have her own asylum APPEALED when the current administration came to power on January 20th.
I don’t believe that any of the fifteen of us returned to San Mateo this past weekend unchanged in some way. Tears shed. Stories heard. Hearts changed. There is so much work to be done, and that work is here in our own neighborhood, with OUR NEIGHBORS. We cannot be idle. We cannot allow what is happening at our borders go unchallenged. We are commanded by Christ to “love your neighbor as yourself.” These people are our neighbors. Our fellow congregants. Our siblings in Christ. They are human beings.
In the coming months we will continue to discern how and develop ways we can best be helpful to our neighbors. How we as CCSM make an important impact on the issue of immigration, but also on the issue of the housing insecurity, food inequity, and many other issues that face our neighbors. We can make change happen. We can make a difference. I hope you will join us in this effort.
In peace,
Don Ruthroff,
CCSM Board Moderator
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