Email: Leisha Reynolds

Dear Friends and Family,

“¡Presente!” There I was, my first couple of hours in Douglas, Arizona, standing on the Pan-American Highway at the tip of the city, leading directly to the port of entry at Douglas and Agua Prieto, Sonora, Mexico.  “Mª Jesús González,” the person next to me shouts from the sidewalk into the street, to everybody and nobody at the same time. “Presente!,” those around me respond in unison, myself included. It’s my turn. I grab a splintery white cross from the shopping cart, carry it to the next spot on the sidewalk, and take a thoughtful look at what the cross has written on it in black marker faded by the fate of time:

28-09-75
A G U S T I N A  L O P E Z  V .
12-7-02

And so it goes. I share, “Agustina Lopez.”  In response, all cry, “¡Presente!” And then a moment of silence, a time for me personally to consider the life of this young woman, only four years older than me at the time of her death, crossing the desert in Cochise County, Arizona. I consider how her story is so far from my own personal reality, yet so in line with the stories of many others, so many without a name, without a face. NAFTA. Economic crisis. The need for jobs. Separation of families. Construction of a physical border; a fence, a wall, a barrier between “them” and “us.” A migration to the “outskirts.” Hope found, hope lost. Rising numbers of deaths in the desert. Hence, this prayer vigil every Tuesday evening on the Pan-American, and a part of my new reality. All human beings deserve a face. All deserve a name. With this belief, my year as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) begins.

I have wanted to be a YAV for as long as I can remember. Mostly having considered the PC(USA)’s Latin American sites, during my junior and senior years of college I felt what might be considered a calling toward the U.S.-Mexico border. So close to home, yet still so far, one might say. The Tucson/Borderlands site provided that opportunity to be connected with both sides of the border. Immediately taken in by my first conversation with site coordinator Brandon Wert, I became a part of the YAV family, now considered to be “Team Tucson.”

We are eight young adults passionate about sharing God’s love with one another and with those living on the margins of society today, coming together in covenant community focused on simple, ecologically-friendly, sustainable living, the sharing of resources, and serving those in greatest need: this has become my family for the year. One of my families, anyway.  I make up the eighth person, the “binational.”  This means I live in Agua Prieta, Sonora (Mexico), just over the border from Douglas, Arizona, and work on both sides of the border. Many times during the year I will be returning to Tucson for our “Volunteers Exploring Vocation” (VEV) sessions with our spiritual director, Teresa Blythe. We’ll also be having various retreats during the year, opportunities for reflection upon our year of service and to allow room and space for continued discernment and personal growth, as well as opportunities to discuss the various aspects of living in covenant community with one another.

My placement is with Frontera de Cristo (“Christ’s Border”), one of the seven Presbyterian Border Ministries on the U.S.-Mexico border. I’m responsible for the Migrant Resource Center, which is located just behind Mexican Migration immediately after crossing into Agua Prieta. The Center provides food, water, coffee, socks, clothing, blankets, information about migrant shelters and resources in Agua Prieta, basic medical assistance, a place for temporary rest, and more, to migrants who have just been deported or repatriated back into Mexico. Most of the migrants who come to the Center have never been to Agua Prieta and feel disoriented not only by a new place, but are also tired due to a long journey through the desert and baffled by the question of where to go and what to do next. Volunteers from both sides of the border welcome the migrants as they pass through the little plaza in front of the Center, ushering them in, assuring them that all services are free and that we’re there to serve them.

Many on the U.S. side, particularly in Douglas, where the Frontera office is, are baffled by the idea of an American girl like me living on the Mexico side. Customs and immigration officers at the port of entry into Douglas enjoy drilling me with questions about why I’ve “really” been in Mexico, and what brought me here all the way from Missouri. And people in Agua Prieta have just as many, if not more, questions. They’re quick to question what kind of place I live in, if it’s a big house (no) or a really nice apartment (no, but it’s good enough for me). Many have also questioned why I might be spending my time at a place like the Migrant Resource Center in Mexico (as opposed to the beaches of Mexico?). And others in Agua Prieta have admitted to having their minds changed a lot about Americans just by working with them at the Center, or being served by them at the Center. They find that not everyone in the United States supports a wall or a fence being placed between us and our neighbors. They find that not everyone wants to beat migrants down, throw them into a truck, starve them, or leave them to die in the desert. Hearing of this change in mind by some of my Mexican co-workers has been encouraging to me.

I’ve been bothered by a question we YAVs were asked by a young man, about high school age, we met at the Center for Repatriated Minors in Nogales, Sonora, where he’d been sent after trying to cross into the United States to see his family: “¿Por qué no nos dejan entrar en tu país?” he asked. Why won’t you all let us enter into your country? The “you all” in that question bothered me. To many, Americans and the U.S. government, are one in the same. What good will it do to explain to this young man that it’s not us, it’s the government, when all his life, all around him, he’s only seen the contrary? Actions speak much louder than words; for all of us who remember this being told to us around first grade, it’s true. People on both sides of the border have lots of questions. I’m not sure how many I’ll be able to answer at the end of this year, but I do know that within that time frame I will be doing an incredible amount of learning.

September passed by too quickly, and saw me going from here to there and back many times. After a Borderlinks trip with the Hollywood and Tucson YAV sites, we took off on a road trip to Ghost Ranch in New Mexico for the national YAV orientation. It was a time to meet and share time, presence, conversation, and worship with all the national YAVs, and gain a better understanding of the YAV program as a whole, and the similar (and still different) circumstances in which we will all be finding ourselves.

It was also an opportunity to begin to answer (or at least consider) the questions that we were charged with from the beginning of the orientation: “Why are you here?”  “Where are you going?”  I found it funny that the more time and space I was given to consider these questions, the less I was able to come up with concrete answers. Hence, the beginning of a year of discernment. Seminary has been on my mind a lot, but so have several other things. But I am learning to accept the question marks of life and be fully present in the everyday experiences I encounter.

To my friends and family, I thank you for your constant thoughts, prayers, and support. Financially, I am here because of you all, but it isn’t just through financial means that you’ve helped get me here. For every person who’s said “you can do it!” and “follow your dreams!” to me in the past 22 years of my life, I thank you. You are really how I got here. I pray infinite blessings upon each of you, that you are all finding peace and justice in your own lives, within your own selves, your families, places of worship, and places of work. I also request continued prayers and thoughts for me here on the border, and for all the YAVs serving both nationally and internationally, in communities of need. Pray for understanding. Pray for endurance. Pray for open minds and open hearts. Above all, pray for peace; it’s something this world could really use a lot of.

Que la paz de Dios sea con Uds. (May the peace of God be with you all),

Leisha Reynolds