A piece I wrote ran in the Newsong NOC bulletin last week and I thought I would share part of it here!

Mark 12 tells us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength AND love our neighbor as ourselves.

I have been trying to love my neighbor as myself for about 5 years now. As I have cried with my neighbors as they share the struggles of being undocumented, I realized that the call to love must go beyond comforting them in their darkest hour. I have to look at the root of the darkness and take on their pain as my own, just as Jesus did. I choose to carry the burden of my undocumented neighbor because I have to remember how Jesus carried my burdens on the cross.

I speak up for my undocumented neighbors because I know God intended us all to have a voice. I chose to fight for my undocumented neighbors to have rights here, because I know our identity and worth is not found in the country listed on our birth certificate. I care deeply for those that are “orphaned” and “widowed” by the oppression in their home country or by the broken system in our country because I know God is in the business of bringing freedom and justice for those our society says are “the least of these”. I want the Church to understand the complexities of immigration because I think this is our chance to be who God has intended us to be. We can chose to live in fear, hoard our blessings as Americans, and follow the kingdom of the world OR we can choose to live in freedom, lay our lives down for our neighbors and align ourselves with the Kingdom of God. I am here to tell you that amidst the confusion, pain, and struggle of doing the latter, there is indescribable peace and purpose. God calls us to love the orphan, the oppressed, the stranger in the land, not because he needs us to, but because it will make us more like Him.

My DREAM for Change

The DREAM Act. What is it, officially? It's a Bi-partisan piece of legislation that would provide paths to citizenship for young people who meet a specific list of requirements. What is it to the thousands of undocumented youth working their butts off with little to no payoff? It means a future. It means opportunity. It means hope.

Let me break it down for you.

Over the last 2 decades, when migrating to the US became the response to poverty and oppression in Mexico and Central America (other places too, but most undocumented immigrants are from this region), parents would uproot their entire family and make the difficult journey here. Many of the children were very young. Upon settling in the US, parents would enroll their children in school and they would begin their pursuit of the American dream. These children grew up, learned English, assimilated to American culture and slowly detached from their home country. Their memories of their life in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador became few and far between. They said our pledge of allegiance at school, learned about our government on the news, were entertained and integrated into our pop culture, and sang our national anthem at sporting events.

They were becoming American in every way except on paper.

Many didn't even know they were "Illegal" until they noticed all their friends getting driver's licences or applying for part time jobs and asked their parents why they couldn't do the same. And after high school? Well many of these students went on to college, working as babysitters, house cleaners, tutors, construction workers, painters, gardeners just trying to pay the ever growing fees for tuition and books. Many did not make it past the first year in college. Some gave up on their education because it was just too difficult. Others were left with little options, forced to work more and study less until they stopped classes altogether.

But some made it through.

Some toughed it out and found an inner strength that can only be understood when witnessed first hand. Those that graduated with their BA, their masters or even their PhD, defeated all odds and got through college with NO LOANS, NO FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID, NO WORK STUDY, and in some cases NO IN-STATE TUITION.

Now what do we, as a responsible country, do with these nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers who are not able to put into practice the education they worked so hard for? Even more importantly, what do we, as a community of Christ followers, do with the dreams of thousands who wait in limbo? I only see 3 options.

1. Deport them all.

2. Let the status quo remain.

3. Create paths to citizenship.

I don't think Jesus is for mass deportation. The group of people we are talking about are innocent. They did not chose to break the law in coming here. They have worked hard and want to be apart of this country. In many cases, they do not know or remember much of their home country. Would it really be right to rip them away from everything they know and send them back to a a place that really is foreign to them? I look at scripture and who Jesus is and I can not seem to reconcile this option with my faith. I'm really not sure how anyone could.

The status quo does not work. We have thousands of people living life in limbo who have little to no rights. I'm not sure about your Jesus, but mine is not ok with that! He is the defender of the weak. He stands up for the oppressed. He calls the Church to do the same. I can't settle for sitting back and doing nothing while so many are suffering. My faith won't allow it.

So this brings us to the 3rd option. What if we created a comprehensive path to citizenship for these young people? What if we invited these determined, hard working, intelligent, good people to come out of the shadows and live in their full potential? This is exactly what the DREAM Act would do. It is not amnesty, rather a way for deserving young people to earn their legalization. This is more than a piece of legislation. This is the future of countless young people. We need to do what's right.

Now let me take a minute to address the critics. There are far too many lies and misconceptions going around about the DREAM Act. It is my opinion that most of these false statements are rooted in one of two things: fear or entitlement. Many are afraid of what this might do. They are afraid it would encourage future illegal migration. They are afraid these students, once given citizenship, will then sponsor their families to become citizens, and so on and so forth. They are afraid it will cost too much money...the list of fears could go on and on. Many also feel entitled to their rights and privileges as American's, which means there has to be someone who is NOT entitled. They say things like, "Well what if they take the spot of an American citizen student in a university that is already difficult to get into?" or "Those are MY tax dollars, why should someone else benefit from that?" The attitude is that these undocumented students are less deserving of rights than American born students are. I would be very careful about this mentality...it is pretty blatantly anti Jesus.

Besides, there is very little legitimacy to these statements of fear and entitlement. I could write for days about all the myths out there and address just about every single one with factual statements proving this really is the only option for our country. You can find some of that here.

I, however, am more concerned with the day we all meet Jesus and when He asks us if we loved the stranger and looked after the poor. I want to be able to humbly look Him in the eyes and thank Him for who He made me through this fight. I want to praise Him for allowing me to know Him better through my feeble attempts at loving the stranger and taking care of the orphan and the widow. I want my brothers and sisters to be able to do the same.

We all need to be a lot less concerned with the impacts on us as Americans and focus our energy on being administrators of His justice, grace and love.

If you are interested in helping the DREAM Act get passed as it goes to vote THIS WEEK, click here and follow the instructions to place a call with your local representative.

Once on the phone, say something along the lines of "I am calling to urge my representative to vote yes on the DREAM Act because I believe it is the first step in fixing our broken immigration system. As a person of faith, I feel it is necessary we do what is fair and just for the thousands of undocumented young people who feel just as American as you and me and who deserve the rights you and I have. Please let my representative know that his/her constituents want the DREAM Act. Thank you."

It will seriously take about 2 minutes and our politicians need to know the Church is alive and that we will not be apathetic. Will you join me?

My Purple Prayer Bead

There is a large, purple bead by my bed. It was given to me by a 7 year old and it reminds to pray for all of the girls at the shelter.

Tonight, at the shelter, I met a 15 year old girl. This 15 year old was arrested when her youth leader was pulled over (without breaking any traffic laws) while driving her and other students home from youth group. When asked to show ID, the undocumented youth leader could not so the officer preceded to check the IDs of all in the car. Those without proper documentation were apprehended, including this 15 year old. The youth leader was deported and this 15 year old sent to the shelter. She actually praises God that she is in the shelter because she feels she is there for a reason. This 15 year old feels a calling on her life to love those who do not feel loved. She has found joy in the ugliest of situations and is trying to share that joy with the other girls. She is sharing that joy with her new friend, a 14 year old who also lives at the shelter.

This 14 year old is a mom to an almost 2 year old with special needs. She was repeatedly raped and became pregnant at the age of 11. This 14 year old has come to the realization that she is not capable of parenting her son at this time and so has agreed to let him go live with a foster family while she continues to work on her issues and prepare herself to be the mom she wants to be. She has made an extremely difficult and selfless decision. Fortunately, she has found support, purpose, and friendship in a little 7 year old.

Self proclaimed "best friend" of the 14 year old, this 7 year old has managed to create family amongst a bunch of broken, lonely teenage girls. She can make anyone smile and although she misses her parents very much, this 7 year old is very concerned with how the other girls are doing. She sits through our Friday night Bible studies aimed towards teenagers, I think, because she wants to ask for prayer at the end. She wants prayer for all the girls and their cases. She doesn't have much of anything, but she had a purple bead and she told me that she really wanted me to have it.

Three incredible girls that are no doubt changing my life. I believe we need these girls to teach us about Jesus' unending joy and peace, boldness in Christ, selflessness, grace, community, and the power of prayer.

I pray we do not deport them.

The Real Garnet

So what happens when you have an undocumented family living in a poorly kept apartment complex owned by a greedy and lazy landlord? Well, this is what happens....

The other day, a girl from our teen center, whose family rents the apartment pictured above, came into our office telling us about how their toilet backed up and flooded their entire apartment. An awesome way to start the week if you ask me. We went over to talk to the family and see if there was anyway we could help; it was bad...really, really bad. It smelled like poop and their entire bathroom (the only one in the apartment) was completely unusable. The flooding had gone through the wall and into the closet in one of the bedrooms. All of their clothes were soaked and you could not walk through the hallway without your feet getting drenched with toilet water. It was terribly disgusting. The family called the landlord numerous times with no answer. Finally, later that night, the landlord came and snaked the toilet...but he left the house completely flooded and left part of the snake in the toilet, keeping it from being usable. He said, "You guys clean it up." The next morning, with the apartment still flooded, the tenants were at a loss as to what to do. The single mom can not take a day off work to clean it, the kids have school, and there sure as heck isn't money to hire a cleaning company. I went over to check on them and they asked me to call the landlord to put some pressure on him. When I called, with the most polite voice I could muster up, all I got was an angry man who was clearly avoiding his responsibilities. He quickly changed his tune once we got the City involved...but seriously, what a jerk!!

Slumlords. We have about 40 of them that own the run down, cockroach infested, cold water only apartments we, along with our friends and neighbors, call home. See, this is what happens when you have people who need a place to live, but don't have a social security number or the first and last month's rent. Add that to the fact that their are countless property owners who are only thinking about how to get the most money for the least amount of work, and voila, welcome to the American slums. Undocumented Immigrants are the perfect market for Slumlords in the US. After all, they have no rights or at least they don't know their rights. Even if they did, they are too afraid to speak up. Who would listen anyway?

Unfortunately, this story is not an anomaly. It's funny how I asked my landlord for screens on our windows and their was a guy installing them the next day, but my neighbors (who live in the same complex) have been asking for screens for years and have yet to get them. They look at me and assume I will assert my rights, but when they look at the Mexican family, they think, "Ha, what are they going to do??" Something has to change folks, so our friend from the teen center doesn't have to go to sleep to the smell of sewage, so my neighbors can eat dinner without a hundred flies swarming their food, and so the hard working single mom can take a warm shower when she gets home from work. It just ain't right people, it just ain't right.

For the Love of Soccer

There are few things that make me happier then when things in my life overlap. I love when old friends meet new friends, when my parents come to visit my neighborhood or when friends celebrate holidays with my family. Since the day I started going to the shelter, I kept thinking how awesome it would be for some of my neighbors to come and hang with these kids also. Well my dream has come true in the form of a little indoor soccer league. When my contact at the local immigration shelter asked if I would get together a team of teens to play in a league with the kids from the shelter, I agreed right away! How fun...3 things I love dearly: my teenage neighbors, the kids in the shelter, and soccer! What I didn't expect is the impact this could actually have. When I first approached a small group of boys from our teen center and asked if they would be interested in forming a team, I was surprised at how excited they were. I explained to them a little bit about the kids we will be playing against and shared that this will not be about losing or winning, but about building relationships with the boys that are no different than them, other than their circumstance. I told them this is their opportunity to be apart of something bigger than themselves. It is usually like pulling teeth to get these boys to commit to anything, especially something that is not about them, so I was skeptical about them even showing up.

But they did. Early.

Just about every Sunday over the last month or so, we have woken up to my team knocking on our door about 45 minutes before I told them to come over. I rush to make breakfast and entertain the 12 boys occupying my living room while we wait for our assistant coach Stricker (aka Striker or Bob Bradley) to get there, on time. We load up our mini vans (yes, we own 2 mini vans) and drive our neighborhood team to the local YMCA for some good ol' competitive indoor soccer. But there is something special about what is happening. I find our team asking more and more questions about the boys on the other teams, pointing out when they are "building relationships" and making it a point to slap hands with every other boy before they leave the field. My heart is warmed. This experience has been so special to me on so many levels. I have loved hanging with my assistant coach and seeing his heart for the kids. I have loved spending quality time with the boys from Garnet. I have loved walking through the neighborhood and hearing, "Hi Coach!" I have loved seeing the boys from the shelter NOT think about their complicated immigration cases or the trauma in their lives, even for just the 50 minutes they are on the field. Mostly though, I have loved watching how God is using the love of soccer to draw us all closer to Him. My prayer for this whole thing is that the boys from Garnet will grow a passion to think outside of themselves. I want them to taste God's Kingdom, experience what it is all about, and join in. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I want them to join the fight. I want them to care about their neighbor so deeply that it leads them to do something. I have been reminded of how, although my role in this is to fight for justice for the kids in the shelter, it is just as much my role to invite those around me into that fight. I keep thinking I need to engage the influential pastor's or rich Christians...but I am realizing more and more the power and potential that is within the group of boys on my team.

What a blessing to have two important parts of my life collide in such a beautiful way.

Oh, and not to mention, our SWEET team shirts we ordered through Solid T! If you are

interested in supporting Solidarity and the work we do in the neighborhoods and at the shelter AND you want to look super cool, order one of our team shirts for only $15.

Available in Black, Olive Green, Cranberry, Asphalt, and Lapis Blue.

All Shirts are American Apparel.

$15.00 - Black (S) $15.00 - Black (M) $15.00 - Black (L) $15.00 - Black (XL) $15.00 - Olive Green (S) $15.00 - Olive Green (M) $15.00 - Olive Green (L) $15.00 - Olive Green (XL) $15.00 - Cranberry (S) $15.00 - Cranberry (M) $15.00 - Cranberry (L) $15.00 - Cranberry (XL) $15.00 - Asphalt (S) $15.00 - Asphalt (M) $15.00 - Asphalt (L) $15.00 - Asphalt (XL) $15.00 - Lapis Blue (S) $15.00 - Lapis Blue (M) $15.00 - Lapis Blue (L) $15.00 - Lapis Blue (XL)

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Our lives have forever been changed by a new, yet extremely deep relationship we have built with an 18 year old undocumented immigrant.

His story will break your heart.

For the sake of his privacy, you will have to take my word for it.

But I would like to share a small part of his journey and ways you can join the fight by praying for this young man.

I spoke with this friend, I will call him G, last night after returning from a long meeting with a lawyer from CAST. His case has been moved from organization to organization, since it is extremely complex. Finally, CAST got a hold of his files and is willing to help him. Unfortunately, the laws are extremely difficult to maneuver and there are very few ways for someone in his circumstance to receive asylum or citizenship. After this meeting, he seemed extremely discouraged and when I asked about it, my heart felt more entangled and connected to the issue of Immigration then ever before. G has been given 2 choices.

The first, cooperate with the Federal Government, testify against those who have taken advantage of him, and receive a visa. There is a catch to this first option though; he must publicly participate in the conviction of these people...which almost guarantees some sort of backlash. Those who took advantage of him know exactly where his family lives back in his home country and are evil enough to redeem G's actions in the cruelest of ways. Basically, this option would risk the live's of his family.

The second choice, voluntarily deport himself. The catch to this one is endless. By going back he will almost certainly be destined to extreme poverty, working daily just to eat. As he put's it, "In my country, you work so you can eat that day. If you don't work that day, you don't eat that day." There is no higher education easily accessible. There are no social services to help him and his family get ahead. He knows that returning would seal his fate of a life with no opportunities.

So what does he do? Does he chose to stand up for what is right, convict the monsters who held him hostage while putting his family in extreme danger? Or does he protect those he came here for in the first place and return to what he explain's as a life of nothing?

I don't know about you, but hearing this makes the choices I stress about seem utterly ridiculous.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Stuck between sacrificing his family's well being for opportunity or sacrificing opportunity for his family.

This 18 year old will have to make a decision most of us will never have to make in a lifetime.

Will you join me by praying for G?

Pray for wisdom. Pray for protection. Pray for his family.

Freedom

I spent the day with a bunch of boys from our Garnet Teen Center...always an adventure, to say the least. As we were driving home from a day at the beach, one of the boys read the sign as we got on the 405 south...towards San Diego. He said, "I'm not aloud to go there!" I reassured him that we were, in fact, going home and that he had nothing to worry about. Although I chuckled a little when he said that, it also struck me as kind of sad. See this young teen does not have papers...he is "illegal." He recognizes his lack of freedom.

I spent a long time talking to a friend of mine tonight. He is also undocumented and is in the middle of a messy court case trying to legalize his status. He has been in immigration detention for the last 2 years where he had to basically do whatever people told him to do. Now that he is out of custody, he has no idea what to do or how to make choices for himself. He is just waiting for time to pass, is how he explained it to me. He doesn't trust people around him and even more, he does not trust in himself. He has no control over what his future holds, as he is at the mercy of a pretty harsh immigration judge. He knows that even though he is out of custody for the time being, he could be apprehended and deported at any time. He recognizes his lack of freedom.

I have spent the last 4 years working along side a young man from my neighborhood. He came here as a young child but now is 19 and trying to sort out his life. He has some college credits and is planning on continuing, but is struggling to pay for the classes he needs. The words, "What's the point" too often come from his lips as he expresses his frustration with his life. Even if he can find a way to pay for his classes and graduate from college, he can not legally work. He could go back to Mexico but his whole life is here: his family, his community, his girlfriend, his ministry. His memories of Mexico are few and far between. So he stays...hoping for a miracle. In the meantime, he daily recognizes his lack of freedom.

Galations 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Tonight as I go to bed, my heart is heavy, as it often is after blogging. But tonight, I hold on to Christ's promise and I pray His truth over my beloved friends, with the hope that they can one day recognize the freedom He offers.