Short Stories from Service Learning Experiences
This month our Field Team hosted 96 participants from 5 different states on Service Learning Trips; thirty-one days overflowing with stories of discipleship, transformation and new perspectives.
Service Learning Experiences are immersive and educational, providing the opportunity for participants to connect with immigrant leaders faithfully serving along the border and to contextualize what God is doing in a place the world often characterizes as dangerous and crisis ridden. These experiences help paint an alternative portrait of the border, inviting participants to slow down enough to listen and to see God at work.
You Can Still Hear Them
Thirteen participants from Port City Community Church walked through the doors of Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center in early March to find three nearly-empty rooms, once inhabited by hundreds of asylum-seeking families just weeks prior. As the group swept and mopped the floors, they began to pray for the nearly one million men, women and children who had passed through the respite center over the past decade.
As we walked through the barren respite facility, one participant who visited the respite center with us back in September 2024 shared , “even though the silence is deafening… you can still hear them.”
You can still hear the laughter of children free to play for the first time in months, their mothers resting as the burden of ceaseless vigilance rolled off of their shoulders at the entryway. You can still hear surnames called over the intercom, signaling weary hearts forward to contact their family members waiting for them further north. You can still hear the sound of tears shed, welling simultaneously due to grief and relief. You can still hear the sound of well-used metal chairs scooting under tables as a hot meal is served. Although they are not physically present, “you can still hear them.” The footprints of human presence in this place will not be forgotten.
Free Consultations
During the second week in March, we hosted a group of eleven from Church Project, a family of four from Nashville, Tennessee, and a group of four from Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, Iowa.
In collaboration with the leadership team of our partner church, Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive, we had been praying for weeks about ways to equip and support families in the local community with mixed immigration statuses, many of whom have already been impacted by recent changes in immigration policy.
Three immigration law students from the community college, and their professor, a bar-certified immigration lawyer, gained insight into the challenges facing the local community. They hosted a free legal consultation clinic at Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive, where they were able to meet with 25 community members. Many of those who participated in the clinic had long desired to begin a legal process, but were unable to afford the cost of a consultation.
Through their generosity, doors were opened for some who had felt there was no way forward. Others left with valuable information, walking away with a renewed sense of hope. It was a blessing for those served by the consultation clinic to gain a sense of clarity in the midst of their uncertainty. This newfound understanding empowered them to move forward with confidence in their process, continuing to trust the Lord as He guides their journey.
A week after the trip, the student’s professor shared, “Alongside my own students, this week provided my soul a rejuvenation and restoration I was not truly sure existed. Rather than seeking peace away from those I don’t morally align with, I found a place of healing, love, and true stewardship. This is because of the Border Perspective team and the leadership team of the local church.”
He Is in the Waiting
Five women from The Heartland Church joined us at the US & Mexico border during the third week of March. We crossed into Matamoros, Tamaulipas with Pastor Abraham Barberi and had the opportunity to serve a meal at a local shelter hosting asylum seekers south of the border. Their residential number has fluctuated in recent months due to the termination of CBP1 appointments along the United States’ southwest border in January. One family shared, “If God allowed our appointments to be cancelled, it is because He has something better.”
We followed Pastor Abraham through the shelter, hugging those we knew and welcoming and encouraging those who had recently arrived. One young couple was holding a two-month-old baby. She was a premature baby born in Mexico in late December. She needed additional medical care after she was born, requiring her parents to make an impossible decision; would they stay by her side in the hospital, or would they cross into the United States in hopes of securing her future? They left their baby behind with her aunt and uncle to make it to the port of entry for their CBP1 appointment, and are still seeking solutions to be reunited with their daughter.
Pastor Abraham continues to sow into these relationships weekly. He makes four trips to the shelter every Sunday to pick up families who have chosen to integrate into the local church community, seeking God in the midst of their circumstances and trusting He is in the waiting. It requires faith and perseverance to choose to wait and be still in the midst of uncertainty, clinging to God’s promise in Psalm 46.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God’ I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
God is Glorified Through Service
During the last week of March we hosted a group of 59 staff and students from The King’s Academy. Throughout the week, we had the opportunity to walk alongside two pastors who are a part of Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive’s local church network. Every month, these pastors from throughout the Rio Grande Valley gather together to pray for the community and for each other; offering a powerful example of unity and oneness in the body of Christ.
We spent one afternoon at Iglesia Camino de Salvación. As students from the King’s Academy began pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, and tending to a garden outside, a member of our field staff had the opportunity to sit with a young woman who is overseeing the youth program at the church. She shared that God had been leading her in prayer to more intentionally invest in the middle and high school age students at the church, and that seeing a group of students their age come to serve was a confirmation to her that God was speaking.
The church members and students left mutually encouraged that afternoon. The purpose of pulling weeds was not for visual appeal, but to lift up those serving in the local church. Sometimes when we serve, we have a shallow understanding of its purpose. God often moves in ways we cannot see. When we remember that our service has nothing to do with us, spiritual fruit is produced in abundance and God is glorified.
