Putting a face to an "alien"

The last post I was left with a conundrum of what to do with my Christian faith and U.S. citizenship in the midst of what I was experiencing during my mission trip. A major revelation occurred during my morning bible reading in which a brilliantly orchestrated hermetical analysis was given to me and I was able to share it with the group during morning devotionals.   However, this will have to wait until the next post. The reason for this is one, I would like to keep these events in chronological order and the revelation I mentioned above happened on the morning of November 8th 2014 and the event I will highlight in this post happened on the evening of November 7th 2014, and two to explain exactly what God revealed to me in a post that captures the debt of it, but still is short enough for a blog post will take lots of hard work, so after this is posted I will immediately get to work on the next post!  

I will now to get to the main focus of this particular post. As you may recall, during the previous three posts our group was still on U.S. soil and had yet to move into Mexico’s territory. This is remarkable when I understand how much my eyes were already open to a new reality. After settling in a community center that was there as a resting place for people who did not have a place to stay, we were off to “Cena con CAME” a migrant shelter that provided resources for people who had no food and no place to stay. 

After hoping off the van, we gathered in the courtyard of the property while we introduced ourselves to four men who were currently staying at the shelter. We got a chance to listen to their stories of the horrible things they had experienced during their trip to the border. One man told us of the dangerous life of train hopping in Mexico. His friend and him were nearly shot as a Mexican soldier unloaded a machine gun in the train car they were riding in. He told us the terror of realizing how close the bullets were to their feet. They were then commanded to get out of the train car. They obeyed and both received some injuries from the jump off the train. Now they found themselves at gunpoint. The soldier gave them a command (what exactly it was has slipped my mind), the man who was talking to us complied and was unharmed, and unfortunately his friend did not comply and was shot. The bullet was not fatal, but I cannot begin to imagine how terrified they must have been.

For the first time during my mission trip journey I was faced with the reality that the country of Mexico soldiers were not the most humane of characters and actually increased the danger for people who were pursuing the dream of heading into the U.S. What was I supposed to do with this information and should that change how I feel towards the U.S. and our less than desired relationship with migrant people? 

After hearing a few more stories, we headed into the dining room area to share a meal with the men, women and children who were staying at the shelter. The excitement was evident and my nerves bouncing due to my lack of Spanish. We blessed the food and I settled down next to Omar (one of the men in our group who was not allowed to go the Border Patrol office tour). Directly across from me was a middle age Mexican mother and to the left of her were two teenage boys who were not her sons, but who she agreed to care for as her own as long as they were both in the shelter.   

The mother and her family’s story were heartbreaking. Her and her family (Husband and three children) had made a living for their selves in the U.S. None of the family were U.S. citizens expect for the woman’s youngest daughter. I do not recall if they were deported or they were visiting a family member who was ill (after all Omar was translating for me), but somehow they were on Mexico’s side of the border. The shelter informed them about the dangers and difficulties of cross the border today as opposed to years ago when the woman family first crossed. The workers of the shelter helped the women’s husband find a construction job so they decided to stay in Mexico, so as not to risk harm to her family or the loose her daughter who was a U.S. citizen. 

Interestingly enough, the two teenage boys who I thought resemble a famous boy band, viewed crossing the border as an adventure. In their boyish youth, they did not fully comprehend nor did they seem to care about the dangers they would encounter in making the attempt to cross. They have family that lives in Indianapolis and if they could make it successfully they were going to attempt to meet up with them. It occurred to me that they had no clue how far it was from the region of Arizona they would be into Indianapolis. But again in their boyish youth they just viewed it as an adventure. They were in school in Mexico and had come up with an excuse as to why they need to be gone for a week. Their first attempt failed and I got the impression that they were going to give it one more shot and if they didn’t make it they would return home. 

This post has simply been real life experiences of people which I think is just as powerful as any profound revelation and perhaps is a revelation in its own respect. I tell these stories in hope that the reader, whoever you are, are able to put faces and personalities on those people who are called “aliens” or immigrants. First and Foremost we must remember that these people are just that, people, created in the image of God.