written by Jessica Pittman, photos by Jessica, Ryan Townsend, Christa Wiens and Brenda Zavala (Justice Coalition Mexico Team)
I’ve been thinking about this trip, this 4 day whirlwind in Tijuana Mexico, and how to make sense of it all. Our team went to train the Border Church in our preventing trafficking workshops. We went in as professionals in human trafficking education from the Central Valley, but simply as learners in the nation of Mexico, especially in this border city. We sat with migrants seeking asylum and talked with people who were deported just two days before with no money or job or way home. We put politics aside (because I for one know I don’t have the answers to those questions) and went to love people, to share what we have learned and see where that took us.
preventing trafficking and exploitation in Mexico is not like it is here, and yet, it totally is.
How is it different? Even though I traveled overseas regularly in my 20s, it has been about ten years now since I’ve left the United States. Although I absolutely know better, I easily take our priveledge here for granted. In regards to our Coalition’s prevention work especially, it was the reminder that I need once in awhile. “Does the Mexican government help with any food, resources or cash aid for the people who need it in Mexico? What about for the some 8000 migrants seeking assylm who end up living on the streets in Tijuana, because they cannot return to their homes and have no where else to go?” The Pastor, who has worked in Tijuana for almost 9 years, and now runs a day center on the border, laughed. “In our dreams!”
These issues are the same because whether a person is vulnerable because they are fleeing a war torn nation, gang violence or poverty in Central America, or they are running away from gang violence, poverty and abuse in the Central Valley of California, they all end up dangerously vulnerable. They don’t know who they can trust. They have to take a risk, it’s their only hope for a better life. Sometimes it’s their only hope for survival. Sometimes they risk it all and lose, and not just money or time, but their own lives. After living through trauma, we sometimes end up searching and risking it all for something better, so we can find freedom and bring hope to our kids. Many have been abused or exploited for so long so the trauma is normal, and freedom is a dream they know is worth risking everything for.
esperanza
Sunday morning, we gathered and were part of leading the service at the San Diego/Tijuana Border with the Border Church. They meet every Sunday during the last thirty minutes that the wall gates are opened. The service is bilingual, faciliated through translation on the USA side and Mexico side at the same time. It was simple. It was powerful. Tears flowed freely, because as humans we find much to divide us. In Christ, we are one.
Jesus is the hope of the world.
today, i ate lunch with a survivor of human trafficking here in Fresno, and i shared with her some of what i learned in Tijuana. That many say the women caught in human trafficking in la Zona Norte (the red light district where prostitution is legal) really have no way out if they want to survive. My friend asks the obvious question.
“how can you begin to make a dent in a problem like that?”
– local human trafficking survivor
#love resists
I’ve been wondering and contemplating what #loveresists meant to person who wrote this. For me now, it reminds me how to make a dent.
Love resists. It resists letting our differences divide us. It resists us letting the humanity of others in desperate crisis be irrelevant to our lives. It resists being so comfortable in our own homes, our own churches, our neighborhoods and our own jobs that we forget the brokeness of our neighbors. It resists deciding who our neighbors should be, when Jesus has already told us. “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).
So to our partners who are doing the work, day in and day out, in a neighbor country that is forever connected to ours, you are the ones we honor, celebrate and thank.
As for the problems?
“it is too much”. -local pastor.
I heard those words and saw it in your eyes. I feel it. Know that we are with you, and we commit to not forget what you have shown us. (We confess we are human and we will struggle to remember sometimes.) And for you we pray, “Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strenght. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31