Close to Home

     Something new is happening with our LAUP summer program that touches me at a deep personal level.

     Lucy’s closest neighborhood friend is a girl named Simi. In November of 2010, Simi’s dad went to work doing construction as he did each morning…but he never came home. He hasn’t been home since. Though she was born here in Los Angeles, Simi’s mom and dad were not, fleeing desperate poverty in Guatemala to come work in this country, illegally. Simi’s dad spent 14 months in federal immigration prison in Arizona before being deported in March of this year, and is now living in Guatemala. Simi is 7 years old, and has seen her dad only once—during a prison visit—in 19 months...but she cries over him every week.

     This summer, LAUP is adding a new component of training our students in urban ministry called “borderlands”. We have assigned three teams of students to learn about issues of immigration, to study the Scripture, and to seek God for the right way—as American Christians—to approach this complex issue. These students will be spend the summer serving at the Guadalupe Homeless Project—an undocumented homeless men’s shelter in East Los Angeles—making a trip to Casa de Migrante in Tijuana—a Catholic ministry that provides 12 days of housing for recently deported men—and learning about the issues surrounding immigration from conversations with published authors, seminary professors, attorneys, and community members. Beyond a political position, we are seeking to empower these students to learn about the layers of complexity related to immigration, to learn about U.S. immigration policy, and to wrestle with what it looks like to live by the call of the Scripture to “love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)

      Today, the plan of Simi’s family is to leave the U.S. to return to Guatemala, and then—because the kids are U.S. citizens—to send Simi and her younger siblings back to the U.S. to attend high school and live with relatives. But…Simi’s 11 year-old brother will not go with them: he was born in Guatemala and came to the U.S. as an infant. When Lucy asks me, “Why does Simi have to leave, Daddy? Why is her family being split up?” I don’t have a very good answer.

     From my past year of interacting with judges, attorneys, and Christian leaders, no one has a good answer. As I have spoken to people with a wide range of positions on immigration, no one seems to like the way our immigration policies are constructed. Both President Bush and President Obama pushed Congress to reform federal immigration policies: Congress wouldn’t touch it either time. Through the borderlands project of LAUP, we’re seeking to raise up a new generation of Christian leaders who can transcend partisanship, and can bring the wisdom, justice, and compassion of Jesus into the conversation in a way that feels right, and makes sense.

     As I watched Lucy and Simi playing in the back yard yesterday, I felt a heaviness in my heart. In one month, this friendship will dissolve, possibly forever: suddenly the issue wasn’t a political one, it was personal. I know that the issues are complex, but I feel compelled to seek God for better answers and to invite the borderlands students on that journey with me. Please pray for me and for LAUP this summer as we lead students into gaining God’s heart for the poor, the immigrant, and our country.

     LAUP begins June 24...in just two weeks! Please be in prayer for students raising funds, and that God will prepare the teachers and interns for all that he has in store! I will post regular blog updates during the summer, for those of you who want to stay current, and to pray specifically.