Guest Blog by Jason Ahlenius It has been two months since I have seen my friend Andrés and his brothers and father pull away from our apartment complex in their red pickup. Now I am sitting beside him again in this same pickup on the other side of the border headed for Capacuaro, Mexico. […]Continue Reading →
The topic of immigration not only represents a wedge issue dividing communities, political parties and electoral calculations but also, immigration stands as the proverbial elephant in the room; the evangelical room. Evangelicals in America may very well serve as the most viable constituency as our nation once again discusses immigration reform while simultaneously determining the outcome of 12 million current undocumented residents.Continue Reading →
I met Jesus in jail today. Actually, there have been many wrongly and unjustly incarcerated men named Jesús. Yet, somehow on this day in a cold and unwelcoming room of concrete, harsh incandescent lighting, and a permeating smell resembling a combination of bleach and burnt hair, I encountered Jesus Christ, el Salvador.Continue Reading →
“Three Florida fruit-pickers, held captive and brutalized [sic] by their employer for more than a year, finally broke free of their bonds by punching their way through the ventilator hatch of the van in which they were imprisoned. Once outside, they dashed for freedom” (The Independent, 2007).Continue Reading →
“God has chosen the people who are scorned and without importance in this world, that is to say, those who aren’t anything…” (My English translation of 1 Corinthian 1:28 from the Spanish translation Dios Habla Hoy).
This verse leapt off the page at me this morning. A recent community conversation about the make-up of our church echoed in my mind. It is a bilingual church-plant with both English and Spanish speaking groups of adults, and a horde of children from many continents. The topic was immigration reform, and its relevance to our church. Continue Reading →
Dear Immigrant Community,
I’m sorry.
I know it’s not every day you hear those words from me.
But I wanted to start there.
I’m sorry.
I have forgotten so much. I’ve forgotten that Scripture is full of stories of immigrants.
I’ve forgotten the repeated commands to extend hospitality to the stranger, show mercy to the foreigner, and ensure justice for the alien.Continue Reading →
Love is the impulse that allowed Jesus to migrate from his place of celestial power to take on the form of a third-class servant who rode an ass and withstood the insults of those who feared him. We must follow in His steps.
Silence is complicity and fear is its accomplice. May we replace silence with joyful proclamations of a blessed King who comes in the name of the Lord to infuse us with a fearless love that makes all of us cross borders of fear.Continue Reading →
Around my neck hangs a rosary of wooden beads given to me by my friend Andrés the night of his departure for Mexico last November. “Ni modo, Jason,” I remember him telling me just minutes before their truck pulled away from our parking lot one last time. “Ni modo:” roughly, “No way.” It was a phrase often repeated between us. The friendship I have enjoyed with Andrés has left me with an acute awareness of the disjunction between the personal realities of friendship and family and the legislation that often works against such realities. In our friendship we feel the tension between the deep reality of a friendship forged across cultural boundaries and the borders that temporarily impose physical distance between us.Continue Reading →
We have in our country right now 12 million people who are primarily poor, vulnerable, and outside the protection of the rule of law because they are here without legal status. These are people who often had to leave their homes, their cultures and familiar surroundings to go to another country to secure food and opportunity for their families. Leaving everything behind, the foreign-born are often the most vulnerable in our society, people who often are at the mercy of others.Continue Reading →
