Hope at the Border

Experience with Kino Border Initiative in Nogales

I am very surprised by the experience that God is giving me in so many different ways. The reality is so hard here in the sense of the stories shared by the people who come to Kino asking for help. I am impacted by the fact that most of the people are families with children who are emmigrating due to violence, insecurity, kidnappings, and other reasons. Here at Kino they are offered help in different ways, starting with the basics. Every day new people arrive, from 20 to 100 people a day or more.

Volunteering starts at 7:30am and we finish at 3:30pm. During this time we can support in different areas. Volunteers are in different services every day and some days they have two or three different services. These services include: cooking, setting up soup, serving food, handing out clothes, interviewing migrants etc. During this time at Kino, I am living in a community with three other sisters with different charisms. Each sister brings a unique gift to this experience. It has been enriching  to perceive that the Kingdom of God is to live for the same purpose where each one contributes what God has given them.

It has also helped me tremendously to participate in the various services every day. From the moment I start my day in Kino, I forget about time because I am simply present and attending to those that are here. I find in the faces of the ones whom I am with a mixture of feelings; tiredness, frustration, with a lot of fear because of all the insecurity they experience on their journey and at the same time they arrive with hope, faith and are very grateful.

The most important thing is to be able to listen and create a safe environment for each person. Some people arrive with the desire to cross for the first time, but they have no information and no idea of what is involved and many of them are deported. Some try to cross and the migra finds them in the desert or they are simply deported in different situations. This week there have been many women, men and whole families deported. Their situations are very hard. While I have been here, a family arrived with their 5 children who tried to cross through the desert and the guide (coyote) abandoned the whole group and the migra found them very quickly. They had sold everything they had to get to the USA with a relative because it is not possible to continue in Guerrero, Mexico, where there is a lot of insecurity and violence; now they did not know what they were going to do, but they recognised that God is with them and a taxi took them to Kino so that they could help them.

Being here in this time of Lent and Holy Week leads me to live deeply, barefoot in front of each person and to experience the closeness of God who is not indifferent to the suffering and who walks beside us in every situation, no matter how difficult it may be. God continues to encourage and walk with the migrant people today.

It helped me to have the opportunity to meet with the families once a week who are sleeping in the shelter and offer a space for prayer, reflection with the Word of God from our spirituality and people are sincerely grateful to have a space to be comforted, embraced, loved by God in God's word and through the generosity of so many who make it possible to offer all this for free. I have all those I have met close in my heart and my experience is that I am not "me", but I am with my Verbum Dei community and that is what generates Kingdom, bonds with the people and the other religious communities with whom I am sharing. Happy Easter!

www.kinoborderinitiative.org


 

Openness, Fraternity, Committment and Hope -
Gaby Shares Her Experience Through Four Attitudes

1. Openness:
"The experience alone of volunteering in the north of the country was already an invitation to openness. It was in the north of Mexico in a town called Nogales. It is located in the desert. It is a place with an extreme climate, with a lot of cold and heat. It is a place located on the border, where the migrants cross. When arriving at this place, upon seeing the space, and discovering in the painting of the Last Supper that Jesus sits down to share his bread with everyone, I was already being invited to something. Jesus shares with all people. He shares with children, adults, young people. And this was an invitation for me, to widen my heart, to open my heart, to open myself to welcome everyone, to serve them. Every day they came for breakfast and lunch. Often there were 20, 30, 100, or many more people. I was invited every day to be able to have an attitude of openness, to welcome every person I met in the same way, and to share the bread with everyone. And for me, serving the food was a blessing. To approach, to share the bread that God generously gives us and that God wants to share with everyone. This experience has formed within me an openness of heart, to welcome everyone without making distinctions and to create a space for every person".

2. Fraternity: Sharing with others their stories
"Each life is very sacred. Listening to the stories of each person, and their reasons for wanting to cross the border is unique. They are all different. Each person has their own story, and their own reasons as to why they have decided to immigrate. I remember well in the moments when I was listening to others share, I had a sense that it was Jesus himself listening to them through my own ears. In the moments when we all sat to dialogue, we were able to create spaces together for genuine sharing. We sought to find the best ways to channel needs through our shared experiences. 
I was surprised to meet many volunteers from different nationalities and places. Many volunteer because they are from there, from Nogales. But other volunteers are from other countries like the United States, Mexico, and Colombia. They come there with an open heart, experiencing a sense of fellowship and fraternity. We sincerely believe that each person, giving, and donating their time contributes to a greater project of building together a world of greater unity. It is an experience of fraternity. We were not indifferent to each other. We are brothers and sisters. We are children of the same Father. This was another great gift that God has given to me through this experience, and it is continuing to grow”.

3. Commitment: Accompanying the process of suffering and the cross
"On the third day of the volunteer experience in Nogales, Holy Week was just beginning. We had the opportunity to pray with the Stations of the Cross, walking the Way of the Cross in a very special way. We walked it along the Mexican-USA border, next to the dividing wall. It was an experience of praying with the Christ of today, with the Crucified Christ who lives in the hearts of the migrants. It became very clear to me while praying in this way, that behind every unique reality and situation in that place, there are many complications. There is a lot of suffering in the heart of each person. There is a lot of pain, there are many wounds. They have had to leave so much behind. In the midst of all that pain and suffering, I felt called to make a commitment. I felt committed. By doing and praying the Way of the Cross, Jesus invited me to walk with him, to walk with his people. He himself walks with us. He walks with each one of them. It was a call to recognize that each person is accompanied. They do not go alone. They are accompanied by Jesus, by this living Christ, who does not leave us alone, but makes the journey with us all the way to the end".




4. Hope: Being with the children  

"I had a very special experience with the children in the volunteer experience in Nogales. They were children who were waiting; waiting as they stayed at the shelter for a few days. We gave them the opportunity to express their dreams. As the children make the journey, accompanied by their families, they too become witnesses of many different realities. They too have specific needs. They too are searching. But, they don't lose sight of the horizon ahead of them. It is the dreams of the children that raise the hopes of their parents and families. It is a living hope, which is what we keep on fighting for. Their lives spoke to me about how hope remains alive. I could see it simply by listening to the children, by recognizing that they continue to walk with simple and pure hearts, also seeking to make their dreams come true. And God, in different ways, gives them the gift to continue walking and growing in hope. The children transmitted so much hope, many dreams, and dreams that they also hold for their loved ones. They dream big. God continues to act in them and in the midst of their journey. He does not negate what we are, our dreams, our ideals, who we are".

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”(Matthew 25:35)

 See more on Instagram