The images of terrified children & the sounds of their cries have spurred a country into action. When families experience forced separation, it is not a partisan issue, it’s a human one. With that said, there has been an avalanche of people and churches asking, “What can we do to help?” Having been rooted in this region and engaged in this issue for years, we believe there is a helpful way to engage and there are ways that can actually hurt. In this webinar, we will get an on the ground briefing from the director of one of the most impacted migrant shelters in Tijuana, be given tools for engagement practically and politically, and ask the bigger questions of how we become the kind of people who don’t just react to crisis, but give our lives to stop it before it starts.
Tuesday, June 26th – 10am PT/1pmET
Panelists
Alejandra Ortiz- Regional director for Compa (Christian university ministry) for the Northwest region of México
Alejandra Ortiz is from Tijuana, Mexico and works as a Regional director for Compa (Christian university ministry) for the Northwest region of México. She is passionate about helping students live out their faith in the whole of life and use their studies to serve their local communities. For the past 6 years Ale has been leading students from Compa and other groups with The Global Immersion project, from all over México and the U.S., on learning and exposure projects to understand more about life on the border and immigration issues. She is a bridge builder between churches, students and local NGO’s. Alejandra, her husband and their young daughter have recently started a home church in Tijuana, living communally with others and seeking to join God’s Kingdom work in their local area.
Father Pat Murphy – Director of Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, BC
Read more about Father Pat’s work and Casa del Migrante here and here.
Bethany Anderson – Immigration Initiative Director for Solidarity
Bethany has spent the last 11 years living and learning in a small immigrant neighborhood with a community of believers and nonprofit organization called Solidarity. She currently serves as the Immigration Initiative Director for Solidarity, helping to mobilize and equip the Church to engage the issue of immigration from a Biblical perspective. She also is the founder of Camino Immigration Services, an initiative of Solidarity that provides quality legal counsel in immigration matters to the North Orange County community. Through her years living intentionally in her neighborhood, Bethany has become very passionate about the Church aligning with God’s heart for the immigrant because she knows from personal experience how engaging “the other” can transform you to be more like Jesus. She served as a Church Mobilizer for The Evangelical Immigration Table from 2013-2014 and remains engaged in legislative ministry and advocacy.
Facilitator
Jon Huckins – Co-Founding Director of The Global Immersion Project
Jon is the Co-Founding Director of The Global Immersion Project; a peacemaking training organization helping individuals and communities move toward conflict equipped to heal rather than to win. He writes for numerous publications including USAToday, Red Letter Christians, Sojourners, and RELEVANT, and has written two books of his own; his latest being Thin Places: Six Postures for Creating and Practicing Missional Community. His upcoming book, Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World, releases September 2017. Jon has a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in theology and ethics. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Jan, three daughters (Ruby, Rosie & Lou) and one son (Hank) where they co-lead an intentional Christian community seeking to live as a reconciling presence in their neighborhood of Golden Hill.
Connect with him on Twitter, Instagram or his personal blog jonhuckins.net