The wave of immigrants and refugees at the border has filled the news, and will most likely influence the next presidential elections. But what’s really happening there? And how should American Christians make sense of this issue? In the first of two episodes on this topic, Curtis is joined by Bri Stensrud, Director of Women of Welcome, a ministry that helps American evangelical women understand what’s happening at the border in light of Scripture and current reality. They talk about why Christians should care about the border, the common misconceptions in play, and how opening our minds and hearts on this topic changes us.

This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity. 

CURTIS CHANG: We’ve been talking about what’s happening at the border and the horrific conditions that drive migrants and asylum seekers to sometimes separate from their kids in order to try to get them to a better life. It tugs at my heart. That’s the story of my family life. I’m an immigrant. My parents were able to come to this country to seek a better life for us. And the thought of them being driven to such desperation that they would send us over the border without them… it really undoes me a little. 

Bri, I wanted to shift to the aftermath of these trips in which you take women to the border and show them the human reality of the situation there. You’re giving women this experience that kind of blows their mind – not only with the complexity of the issues but the profound emotional impact from seeing such raw human suffering. I’m sure they experience their own sort of hardship when returning home to communities and families and marriages that don’t see it the way they do. That is also a kind of exile experience. Of course we are not equating the emotional and social exile with the experience of the refugee, but when you come into contact with one kind of suffering, and if you open your heart and mind to it, that suffering enters you in some way. And so these women, as they have opened their hearts and minds to the experience of the exile, now have become exiles themselves. They’re not fully at home even in their own home — politically, socially, culturally, and so forth. What is that like, and how do you help women navigate that experience?

BRI STENSRUD: That’s the beauty of the Women of Welcome community. We’re mostly online, but we do have resources that you can start bible studies and explore with other kind of like-minded, curious friends of yours in your own community. We are over 150,000 women who are in this community and curious about these issues. So you’re not alone, and it’s hugely comforting to meet people. 

I spoke at DBU down in Dallas and a woman came up to me after my talk, saying, “I’m so, so happy to meet you. I have been consuming every resource y’all have put out and I’ve been super active in your private group. I wanted to go on one of your border trips, but I didn’t get selected to go.” And I said, “I know, they fill up so fast. I’m so sorry.” 

And she said, “You know what? I couldn’t wait. So I took a friend, and we went down to the border ourselves. I needed to see for myself what was going on. So we got involved with a church down there and I brought all these resources back to my pastor. I had no idea God could light that kind of a passion in me, and I have been serving and helping resettle families ever since.” 

And so we all hugged her and encouraged her. And then I pulled her off to the side and asked, “How’s it at home?” She got really quiet and said, “It’s been really hard. My family is really combative about it. My husband is really, really right-leaning and politically-minded. My kids don’t understand why I suddenly care about these people who don’t look like us and who, as they would say, are just coming to take from us. It’s been very stressful to my marriage, and my kids don’t think that they know me anymore.” And we just sat there and prayed.

I think of when Jesus was told, “Hey, your mother and your brother are here.” And he goes, “Who? Who is my family? I’m called to do the work of my Father.” That’s so hard to say when your marriage has stress because you have decided to get closer to people in pain. The reality is, coming back from these trips, there’s a huge dissonance. And it can be personal, familial, spiritual. 

Usually when I come back from trips, I have a hard time taking communion at my church. On the trips, we take communion at the wall together. And so when I come back to church I always remember the last moment I took communion. 

I think about the radical welcome Christ extends to us, and how there’s so much noise around welcoming people that it’s hard to be aware of what Christ requires of us according to Matthew 25. What does it look like to really love your neighbor well? Because if you love someone as you love yourself, you see yourself as the woman at the border who’s begging for compassion at our doorstep. Your conscience is shocked, and you see things you couldn’t before. And your comfortable, curated life feels a little out of whack. 

I think that’s a holy dissonance that’s happening. I think the Holy Spirit is waking us up. And I also think it’s very scary to grow in your confidence about the compassion God has given you. Because you will get criticism for that confidence. Some women go on our trips and return to a community really hungry to learn and listen. And then other people will go home, and tell me, “No one’s even asked me about it.” I think that’s on purpose. 

There’s a range of welcome that the church is willing to offer in this country. And we’re no stranger to that.

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash