Partnerships on the Border

Sept.-Oct. 2007, The Presbyterian SUN

Synod of the Sun is involved in a vital new ministry!

We’ve formed a partnership with Synod of the Southwest, New Mexico and Arizona, and the two northern synods of the Presbyterian Church of Mexico — Sínodo de Noroeste and Sínodo de Israel. Together, these four will address the issues of migration, immigration, violence (particularly against women) and social justice. We expect to provide education and options for advocacy of the human rights of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Mexico. With Euro-Americans and Mexicans working together, we can do this with integrity as a unique partnership in the entire General Assembly.

The impetus for this new ministry came from a petition to our synod and the Synod of the Southwest to do what we can in response to these issues of injustice. For the record, I am grateful to be part of a synod which is committed to speak out and not remain silent amid such serious human rights violations. We will offer a choice and will advocate those in power in Mexico to improve conditions-particularly economic-that cause people to want to flee the country. We are committed to letting you and your congregations know what you can do to make a difference.

I find myself flooded with biblical passages that remind us of the importance of this new ministry: “When did we see you hungry and thirsty?…When you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me;” “If you do not love the brother or sister you can see, how can you love God, whom you cannot see?” “Love kindness, do justice, walk humbly with God. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Make love your aim.”

I realize how inappropriate it would have been for the Good Samaritan to have asked the injured man in the ditch, “Are you here legally?” as a part of the consideration of whether or not to give him help.

For now, here are just a few ideas of how we can each participate in this ministry:

1. Add Bienvenidos (Welcome) to your church sign if you truly welcome immigrant people to your worship.
2. Learn at least a little basic Spanish. Have your congregation learn to pray the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish. Sing some of the hymns from the Presbyterian Hymnal in Spanish.
3. Support small business people in Mexico by contributing to Opportunity International (opportunity.org), which offers micro-loans to them to help create their own small businesses and make a decent living. These contributions can be as small as $50.00. They make a difference; it is a wonderful program.
4. Contact Trinity Presbyterian Church in Denton, Texas, about their program that assists immigrants in filing for citizenship. It is a very complicated and lengthy process.
5. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Mexico and for the Presbyterian churches there as they work to make a difference. Pray for God to use you in this ministry of reaching out to people in need.
6. Go to borderlinks.org to learn additional ways of helping. Go to synodsun.com and read Jack Haberer’s editorial, Immigration: What Next? (also reprinted on this blog) from the August 13, 2007 article in Presbyterian Outlook.

In our synod, we spend a lot of time trying to discern what God would have us do and be. We feel that this new ministry will be a vital part of that discernment process. I hope you will become even more informed, and that you will pray with and for those of us involved. We will keep you informed as well. Thank you for what you have done or will do in the days and months to come. May God find us faithful in these endeavors.

Shalom/Salaam,
Judy

(GUEST) Immigration: What Next?

Guest Column by

Jack Haberer, Editor

Presbyterian Outlook

(reprint permission requested)

Immigration: What Next?

08/13/2007

Congress did not produce new immigration legislation. What are we Christians to do now?

Now that the political points no longer need to be made, we do well to reconsider the facts on the ground. Toward that end, Barbie and I visited the Mexican border ourselves. We accepted the invitation of former GA moderators, John Fife and Rick Ufford-Chase, to explore the Tucson sector, a 60-mile, south-to-north area above a 240 miles-long stretch of the border.

Encountering migrants and the Christian volunteers seeking to serve them, we heard about the cycles of migration that have crossed the border for hundreds of years. Seasons of planting and harvest, periods of major construction and other rhythms of labor have driven breadwinners to seek employment wherever available, and family ties have drawn them back home as soon and as often as possible.

We heard how the well-intended immigration legislation of 1994, aimed primarily at drug trafficking, backfired. The drugs still flow freely. But the flow of workers has been blocked in the major border towns, leading many of those workers to undertake perilous journeys through the desert in search of employment. And, since they can no longer count on making return visits, they now bring spouses and children, leaving behind their home communities, in order to settle permanently and covertly in the United States.

Add NAFTA to the mix, with its easing of migration for corporations in search of cheap labor. Now many Mexicans and Central Americans can work for an American corporation in their homeland, earning a dollar or two per hour, or they can sneak into the United States to work for the same corporation at five times the wage.

The result? Hundreds have perished in the desert. Thousands have been captured and returned. Millions have settled in our country — and are living in constant fear of capture and deportation.

Yes, the legislation has backfired. Sadly, the American spirit has, as well. A nation that has harmonized cultures of east and west, the vast majority being immigrants themselves, has become collectively xenophobic, even jingoistic toward the newest immigrants. This ought not be so.

What are we to do?

For one thing, we can continue to urge members of Congress to write helpful legislation.

We need a migrant worker program. Countless U.S. employers need laborers, and the market can drive the pace of migration. Providing papers for temporary workers would relieve border patrol officers of the duty to track legitimate workers and allow the officers to focus their efforts on interdicting drug smugglers and terrorists.

We need a law that will help us embrace the millions of landed, undocumented immigrants that our existing laws have inadvertently drawn here. We can’t lock them up. We ought not to drive them away. Given our unintended complicity in causing them to sneak in here, let’s pave a path toward citizenship for them.

We also need to revisit our trade agreements with partner countries in the western hemisphere. We Americans found the courage to institute a Marshall Plan for Europe and Asia after World War II. Can we not muster the courage in our time to institute a similar plan for the Americas? Such a program would need to address patterns of wealth development and poverty imposition; it would need to prosecute corruption; and it would have to build infrastructures for the development of commerce. But the true American spirit — under Christian influence — can do that!

In the immediate context, we Presbyterian Christians need to take a hard look at what we are doing locally. Thousands of us have volunteered to give relief in hurricane-damaged areas. Might thousands more volunteer time to help migrants? The need is massive, but the workers are few.

A small number among us have felt called to challenge the present enforcement of immigration policies (see p. 8 of Presbyterian Outlook, 8/13/07). Such civil engagement is not to be taken lightly. We are law-abiding citizens. But some laws and law enforcers need to be defied, as Corrie Ten Boom showed us during the German Holocaust. In the name of the gospel of grace, ought we to contemplate doing similarly on behalf of migrants?

Congress has not acted as we had hoped. Then again, for us Christians, our ultimate hope is based not in Washington, D.C., but in a center of government not of this world. Our citizenship is based there, too. The Sovereign commands us to love one another and, especially, to love the aliens among us. May God find us obedient.

— JHH

Recommended Reading

July-August 2007, The Presbyterian SUN

About this time every year, my friend, the Rev. Dr. John Buchanan, dedicates his publisher’s column in Christian Century to books and summer reading. I have read some wonderful books at his suggestion and now I’m following suit in my column.

I am sorry to have finished Khaled Hosseini’s captivating new book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, only because I have to wait indefinitely for his next book. His first, The Kite Runner, is also excellent. Hosseini’s consummate storytelling pulls me into another culture, that of the Afghani people, and teaches me so much.

While multiculturalism is important to me, I live in a pretty Euro-American world. Reading authors of other cultures invites me to live in their world and learn about their customs and, to some extent, some of their peoples’ worldview.

As a woman, it is difficult to read about a culture that values the role of women so little. In this book, the domination of men means that women are prevented from being seen or speaking in public. A man can take more than one wife and can beat them. The women have no recourse. Those who survive this and all the ravages of war as well are truly heroines.

Instead of focusing on what is happening to mainline denominations, Diana Butler Bass focuses on what is happening in these churches with The Practicing Congregation. Sometimes we Christians dwell so much on that we do wrong that we fail to acknowledge the life and vitality, meaning and purpose in our congregations.

Bass helps us to see the latter by pointing to numerous congregations where members’ interest in spiritually is leading them to install labyrinths and offer silent retreats; where their desire to practice the faith leads them to contemplative Bible study and many new practices. Congregations using these summer months to probe new ways of practicing an old faith may find Bass’s book helpful.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite readings of this past year. The title refers to the fact that we instantly know some things but we do not know how we know them. We know in a blink that we are right. The variety of examples and experiments in the book citing this are fascinating.

The book also chronicles the times that people did not get it right. The story of the short-lived New Coke and the election of Warren Harding are two examples. Another tells why no one knows about the new wonder, Equa Chair.

After reading this book, I tend to trust my instincts more and observe others more. Gladwell’s earlier best seller, The Tipping Point, is enjoyable as well.

I hope you join me in offering gratitude to God for the gift of being able to read and also for the many authors who provide us those stimulating and provocative books. Reading helps me grow as a person and strengthens my ministry as I try to relate to all peoples.
I’m headed to the woods to spend a few days in an RV. Tucked in among my crafts and cards are: The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World by Bob Abernethy (of PBS’s Religion and Ethics) and William Bole; a re-read of Ronald Heifetz’ Leadership Without Easy Answers; and The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad.

I wish for each of you a good pace of summer living which includes time for reading. See you browsing in the book store?

Shalom/Salaam,
Judy

Waiting In Silence

May-June 2007, The Presbyterian SUN

NOTE: For the eight weeks of February and March I had no speaking voice. A virus caused nerve damage on my right vocal chord.

During this silent period, questions asked of me had a theme.

It went like this:
• Have you had any special learnings or insights during this period?
• Have you had any kind of spiritual experience or message from God in all this?

So, I tried to be especially attentive to any important revelation. I even prayed to God for good attention. I did not want to miss this new thing that could come to someone whose life was rather normal, except for a new dependence on a dry erase board or e-mail to communicate with the whole world.

I listened. I waited.

I imagined it was similar to a Native American experience of waiting for a voice in the wind or vision to see something sacred not seen before. I reminded God that I was trying to be attentive. Would I disappoint friends if nothing happened except the great frustration of voicelessness.

Then, something happened. For the record, here is the story.

We were at dinner during a board meeting. By then, I had learned the conservation of writing. Think quickly when you want to try to add something to the conversation, write fast, and hope they have not moved on before you show your words on the whiteboard.

After several of these hurried exchanges, a friend took my board and marker and began to write. We had several exchanges. It left out others at the table, but it was fun.

Only in retrospect did I realize much more than a simple exchange had occurred. This friend was willing to enter my limited world. He was willing to meet me on my unwelcome turf. He met me where I was.

It was a spiritual experience. An unexpected bond formed. And I was left with a warm feeling of acceptance that I had not felt in weeks of being voiceless.

This has become a powerful reminder of what God does for us everyday. God meets us where we are and moves at our pace to connect with us. Sentiments of an old hymn came to mind, “God walks with us and talks with us and tells us we are God’s own.” This kind of participation in our lives must reflect God’s hope for all humans behavior.

It has made me wonder, for whom do I need to slow down or move closer? Did I pass them too quickly? What human experiences are waiting for me if and when I do slow down?

I will ponder these things, but for now I will savor the warm experience of a friend connecting with me where I was and where I am.

Shalom/Salaam,
Judy

P.S. Thank you, Pierce

P.P.S. Thank you to each of you who showed concern and offered prayers. In several months I may be able to preach and sing again. I welcome continued prayers. Thank you, dear friends.