the Our Children Project

Since much of my inspiration comes from my time at a local Immigration shelter, I thought I should give a little background. I have the honor of being apart of the Our Children Project. This is a collaboration between Solidarity and CLUE OC that provides an opportunity for Christians to be apart of a missional community that engages the issue of Immigration by walking with children currently in Immigration Detention and by participating in a Bible study specifically about Immigration. We partner with a local shelter that houses 50 unaccompanied minors who are undocumented...basically kids, who for one reason or another, have no legal guardians and no papers. It is so fascinating to hear each of the kid's stories: where they are from, why they came, how they came, and how they ended up in custody. Every story is different, but almost all are equally heartbreaking. Some have come here to find family they haven't seen in years, others are fleeing immense danger in their home country, and some have lived here since they were very young but got caught state side and were taken into custody. One boy I met was being recruited by the local gang in his home country. The gang members killed this boy's best friend in front of him and told him he had 24 hours to join, or they would kill him too. He left immediately with the hope of being reunited with his mom living here, who he hadn't seen in 14 years. The majority of the kids are from Central America and Mexico, and are 13-17 years old. However, there are the occasional kids from Africa or Asia and sometimes even kids as young as 6 or 7.
The Our Children Project volunteers visit the shelter weekly or bi-weekly to do various activities with the kids. It really gives Christians an opportunity to experience the issue first hand and build relationships with those living amidst it. If you are interested in being apart of one of the Our Children Missional Communities, email me at ourchildrenproject@gmail.com