Shelly Koo is the Associate for Online Content at UUSC (one of UUCSJ’s parent organizations). Her post was originally published on UUSC’s blog.

Update November 30: David has been released and is now reunited with his family in the U.S.

Last month, I had the opportunity to go on a Borderlinks trip with the UU College of Social Justice. For those who are unfamiliar with the program, UUCSJ travels with a group of participants to learn about the injustices that are happening in our very own borderlands, specifically near the U.S.-Mexico border between Arizona and Sonora. Through the trip we were better able to understand why so many are fleeing Central America and seeking asylum in the U.S.; what kinds of injustices happen along the journey; and, for those who are stopped, what happens in the detention centers.

As an employee at UUSC, I’ve learned a lot about Central American refugees. As part of the communications team, I am able to spread awareness about these issues through multiple channels. And prior to this position, I spent almost two years with UUCSJ. These issues were not unfamiliar to me. Yet going to the borderlands was an eye-opening and jarring experience. For five days, the group was immersed in this one very complex issue, meeting our partners, walking the desert trails that migrants have walked on, and even meeting migrants being held in detention centers. We experienced many things and we heard many stories, but one story in particular, I know I will never forget.

His name was David* and he was only 19. He came to the United States from Guatemala eight months ago and has been in detention ever since. Through Mariposas sin Fronteras (Butterflies without Borders), our group was able to meet with some of the migrants who were being held in the detention centers, including David. Mariposas sin Fronteras works specifically with LGBTQ detainees, providing case support, translation, visitation, and other advocacy.

David was working for months in the capital of Guatemala and eventually, gang members extorted money from him, demanding that he pay a portion of his salary every month. One month when he was unable to pay, he was sexually assaulted as punishment. He tried to move to a new area, but the gang members found him and continued to sexually assault him. Fearing for his life, he fled.

David was specifically targeted and discriminated against because he was gay. He told us that being gay in Central America means you have no support system and no rights. He shared a story about how one small neighborhood was hiding and protecting a young gay man and his partner, and the gang found out and burned down that neighborhood. The police are often corrupt and work with these gangs so there is no protection. His story is not uncommon.

David is an asylum-seeker who is now a detained. His mother and younger sister are already in the U.S. His sister is only nine months old and he’s never met her. He’s experienced many terrible things in his life, but this is not his whole story. David is, in many ways, your average teenager. He has a lot of energy, his eyes and smile are warm, and despite his detention and what he has been through, he is hopeful. When asked what he’s looking forward to most when he gets out of detention, he enthusiastically said, “Pizza!” He also loves football, soccer, and basketball and eventually wants to be a fashion designer. He looks forward to being reunited with his family and holding his baby sister for the first time.

I continue to be hopeful for him and invite you to be a part of David’s journey and many others like him. Learn more about this issue, take action with UUSC, or experience this powerful journey yourself with UUCSJ.

*While David said I could share his story in the hope that it would help others, his name has been changed here to protect his identity.

Rev. Carolyn Patierno talks about how her eyes were opened by CSJ’s Border Witness Program and how this helped motivate her congregation’s decision to buy a house for refugee families. For more on this audacious decision see the linked Boston Globe article.

For a brief moment in the fall of 2014 I had the eye-opening experience that was UUCSJ’s Border Witness program, in Arizona and Mexico. It wasn’t that immigration injustice had escaped my awareness until then, but rather that the enormity of the injustice was difficult to comprehend until I was at close range.

That experience has stayed with me these two years since, during which the world has seen the most significant human migration in history.

We know that people only leave their home countries and seek refuge elsewhere because their lives have become so dire that for their own sake and that of their families, they must leave. We have all seen the images of our human kin desperately seeking safety, fleeing all they have ever known. Whether by raft over oceans or by foot through deserts, these journeys are harrowing and offer only a dim promise of home. But “dim” to many is better than dead.

In the fall of 2015 the house that sits next to All Souls / New London came up for sale. The conversation went something like this:

“Should we buy it?  How could we NOT buy it?”

“What will we use it for?”

“We’ll figure it out.  Its purpose will become clear.”

Which, as you might imagine, wasn’t the best sales pitch for a congregation.

Soon thereafter the plight of Syrian refugees began to be amplified in the media. A leader in the Muslim community came to the table at the local clergy association meeting and challenged faith leaders to do something. He challenged us to do something BIG, in fact. And so we set to work. All Souls is working with 7 other faith communities in an effort that’s been named “Start Fresh”.  Since we started last fall, two families have been settled in New London so far – one from Syria and the other from the Sudan.

And very early on in the process, the purpose for the house next door became crystal clear: it would be a house of hospitality for newly resettled refugee families. It would be the first stop in the long road that is resettlement.

The house is currently being brought back to health and life. We hope it will be ready to receive at least two more families by November 1.

Every day, the faces of the “tired and poor masses” float through heart and memory, whether they come from Central America and across the harsh desert, or from Syria and across the dangerous sea. Systems of injustice and perpetual war need to be dismantled and until they are, we bought a house, put our hands to the task and responded to the challenge the broken and beautiful world has laid at our feet: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [our] God.

Or, as Edward Everett Hale said:

I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Amen.

To see what All Souls New London is currently doing or to see pictures of the House of Hospitality, check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/allsoulsnewlondon/