Various community churches came together along Interstate 70 near downtown Kansas City, Missouri, to inaugurate a billboard promoting hospitality. The project was funded, in part, through a grant from the New Sanctuary Movement.

Volunteering in Christ’s Sanctuary

One of the most painful issues in the barrio comes from children who fear deportation of one or both parents. This fear can last for years while their parents seek legal status as contributors on the public-tax rosters.

In my work as a Hispanic minister, I have chosen to respond by volunteering with the Immigrant Justice and Advocacy Movement (IJAM) in Kansas City, Missouri. Pastors and religious leaders compose IJAM. They’re concerned with the treatment of immigrants and itinerant laborers who seek to support families suffering the effects of free trade.

Although these people are devalued as “aliens” or “illegals,” I prefer to call them sisters and brothers in Christ. My fellow religious leaders are finding satisfaction in volunteering service as a signal community to these families.

Our greatest concern is for families in danger of being separated through deportation. Currently in the United States, more than five million children have at least one parent in danger of banishment (see www.nclr.org/content/policy/detail/54478/). Such deportations create suffering for families and traumatize children left behind.

The IJAM has conducted various public events where the plight of parents facing deportation is an ongoing concern.

The children learn to live invisibly as silent citizens and cope with this fear to avoid separation. For these families, spiritual sanctuary is the only remaining choice.

We spend our time finding ways to express Christ’s sanctuary, such as public prayer vigils that affirm the worth of these families. IJAM holds listening circles in various churches and gathers stories of profiling, intimidation, and abuse by people with authority. We try to find ways to heal deep spiritual wounds caused by public discrimination. I know that Christ is making peace in our community between these families and the ancestors of people who settled these lands in the 1800s.

The Community of Christ, through its Human Rights Committee, has shown ways people can volunteer to help these families (see www.CofChrist.org/immigration/immigration.asp). I have benefited greatly from the Christian volunteer community across the United States as it affirms the worth of vulnerable immigrants through Christ’s sanctuary. I hope you will share this blessing, too!

—John Glaser reporting