Three people from First Church volunteered to join three others from different northern Washington UMC congregations to visit El Mesias UMC in Nogales, Arizona. Nogales is on the border of Nogales, Mexico – a town cut in two by the border wall. The team from Washington is helping to paint interior walls in their fellowship hall and learn about immigration and the refugee situation at the border.
The trip started out, unfortunately, with one less person. Cynthia Lockwood was unable to join the team due to an unexpected illness. Please keep her in your prayers. The remaining people on the team, including myself, are: Rev. George Lockwood – Retired Methodist Pastor, Rev. Dan Gerhard – Retired Methodist Pastor, Rev. Ann Jacob from Edmonds UMC, and Rev. Drew Frisbie who pastors Bay View UMC and Sedro-Woolley UMC (known together as Central UMC).
We arrived in Phoenix on Saturday, April 15, picked up a van and drove to Nogales, Arizona. The first sight of the wall curving through the hills and dividing a city in half was an emotional experience. We met Pastor Raul Velazques and his wife Maritza at the El Mesias United Methodist Church (The Messiah). They took us to our host houses. Ann and I are lucky to stay with Pastor Raul’s mother, Maria, a very gracious and generous host. Communication is a combination of awkward attempts, gestures and looking words up on the Google language app. She doesn’t speak English, I don’t speak Spanish and Ann is an enthusiast beginner which results in blank stares, smiles and a few laughs, but an eventual understanding whether in words or by heart.
On Sunday, we had a leisurely breakfast before going to church. Rev. Raul picked up Ann, Maria and I after he finished his Sunday radio church service broadcast. It is broadcast in Spanish throughout Sonora State in Mexico up to Phoenix. Rev. Drew and Rev. George joined the service with songs sung in Spanish. Dan brought frozen salmon to be shared with the congregation in an after-service luncheon. He grilled it and the congregants brought the sides. The congregation includes many people who live on the Mexican side of the border.
After lunch, we drove across the border to Nogales, Mexico. The wall is such an ugly imposing structure with barbed wire at different levels on the US side. It cuts through the beauty of the area but more importantly, it represents the separation of people – families, friends, neighbors. You see people visiting each other through the slats. There are memorials to people who have died along the wall including a young boy, Juan Antonio Rodriguez, who was on the Mexico side and shot by a guard on the US side. The boy had a rock in his hand ‘threatening’ him. We witnessed groups of 25 young adult males who had been caught on the US side with their hands bounds about to board buses to be taken ‘someplace’. Maritza wasn’t sure where but maybe a detention center. About 1000 people a day who have been caught on the US side can be bused from Nogales.
Besides learning about the complex history, social and political situation here, I’m also learning about the broader history of the area. This includes the importance of African Americans and the Buffalo Soldiers who fought here and Charles Mingus who was an important jazz musician born in Nogales. There are also interesting plants to learn about and fun birds to see such as the road runner. Beep Beep!
Blessings to you all,
Sue