Sejana's reflections from the border
Overview of the Summer Internship Program
By Anyra Cano
Fellowship Southwest kicks off a new pilot program this summer to invite college and graduate students to 1—Serve alongside our experienced partners who work arduously to provide hospitality and welcome to migrants. 2— Learn about immigration policy and advocacy. 3—Empower new networks of students to be advocates, storytellers, and witnesses of Fellowship Southwest's work of compassion and justice.
At the end of May, we welcomed our first cohort of interns in San Antonio for orientation, who will serve for five weeks. Two are serving in Brownsville, with Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville, and two with Primera Iglesia Bautista Piedras Negras in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Each intern has already impacted our ministry with the gifts, talents, networks, and willingness they bring to Fellowship Southwest. You can see what they are doing through our social media and newsletters. They will be sharing videos, testimonies, stories and blogs. You will hear from Sejana Yoo in today's newsletter.
Pastor Carlos said about the interns, "They are doing excellent. Wow. I'm very impressed. They do everything. I mean everything." Pastor Israel shares, "The interns are providing the children and youth with something to do during the day, such as bible studies, games, and activities that keep them busy as their families wait for their CBP appointments. Can they stay longer?"
Please keep Sejana, Maria, Christina, and Zoe in your prayers. We know that they are making an impact in their assigned places of service and at home, where their communities are excited to learn about their experiences.
Generous donors make programs like these possible; thank you for partnering with us.
An Intern’s Reflection: One of Four
By Sejana Yoo
Let me first admit that I hate that I don’t have all the answers to share with you about the people that we are interacting with and about these families who have been staying here with us. I work as a Chaplain at a major hospital, so I hear many stories all the time. I like to think that my strength is listening. But here, limited by my language skills, I have so many unanswered questions. I’ve learned to adapt and rely on other life skills and the Spirit to get me through. I’m here to see and each day, I pick up on something new about the system, the effects of the law on the people, the inner workings (and difficulties) of this work of ongoing care for the people who migrate through here, and the mini connections with these families from various countries, and the people in this church and ministry who support them. I’ve had several unexpected difficulties to navigate through with others but in which God ultimately showed me more of myself. As I look at all that is happening all around me, I feel that God is inviting me to see and to ask questions. As a person of faith, I know that God is very aware of all that is happening here and beyond here in the physical realm but also in the spirit as well. Allow me to share a few stories with you with hopes that it might offer something for you to consider as well in your journey.
What generosity is and is not
A 12-year-old female staying with us here in the Casa Golan (Golan House), in gestures and using foreign-to-me words indicated she wanted a phone charger- not the cord, but the brick. Instantly, what flashed in my mind was that I actually had one on me in my fanny pack, but it was the nice one (the fast charging one). I decided to look around for one owned by the house and didn’t see any. I knew that her mom, 6 months pregnant, was staying here with her so I resigned and went into our room and grabbed one of the other phone chargers I had on me. She gave an audible sigh of relief that I had one and promptly gave me back the cord. She just wanted the charging brick. When I gave it, I made gestures and said, ‘this is mine so when you’re done with it, can you give it back to me?’ She understood. Then I left to do a task. When we came back and I sat down to eat, I noticed the charging brick sitting on the table. She had given it back. That’s when I scolded myself inside my mind. Why didn’t you just give it to them? You know that you can just go and get another one. You have a car, you have resources, and you have 3 of them on you- why didn’t you just give it to her? So later when I saw her in the common area, I gave it to her. Well, I tried giving it to her. Later, she gave it back to me again. I said, ‘you can have it- keep it.’ She said, “no” and moved on with what she was doing. She didn’t want charity. She didn’t want to keep it. She just wanted to borrow it and she made sure to give it back. I saw that I am not generous with my things.
My behavior contrasts greatly with the Pastor we are working alongside here. For context, let me share that I arrived here to Brownsville June 1st with several donations from my community and networks. (You can read about that and see photos on my social media if you like.) I met Pastor Carlos Navarro of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville and of Ministerio Golan (Golan Ministries). My car was unloaded almost instantly by several hands and it was placed into various rooms in the church with other items they already had which were organized.
I saw how items my communities gave had been sorted by a few people over the next couple of days and then I heard the Pastor choose which items to give away as we loaded for each event. They included several of the items that I just came with as I noticed that they weren’t held onto. If it fit the context, it was immediately given out to those who could use it. That happened again and again. Pastor didn’t hold onto things for ‘a better time’ or for ‘some other day’ in the future. The time was ‘now’ and that’s how he operated again and again. Even Minister George, Pastor’s Assistant, shared using different examples over time that whether it’s bras, socks, coats… whatever the ministry was generously given but could not use, they returned it to the organizations or they found another local group (a ministry, a school, etc.) who could use it. This quickly stood out to me. They didn't reserve items or worry about tomorrow; they quickly gave what they had to those who could use it with priority going to those who were migrating and then to those who were homeless. It seemed that what was needed somehow comes again and again through the actions of other people.
Remember the 12-year-old who asked me for the charging brick? She spoke to me in a language foreign to me but also foreign to her - Spanish. She is from Haiti. She speaks Haitian-Creole and French. Her mom allowed her to walk with us to the store the evening before we took them to the airport. She shared with my peer who is bilingual Spanish and English that she learned Spanish from their time in Mexico as they were stuck there for several months. Her dad is still there now as well. I’m not sure why they couldn’t travel across the border together, but her mom is very pregnant. Maybe that had something to do with it?
I continually hear about the immigration laws and ongoing changes and exceptions to the rules for certain gates of entry (like Brownsville and El Paso for example) that greatly affect the people who are trying to legally navigate through the immigration system to come into the United States. Family after family who stay here at this house share how they spend several months in Mexico- just waiting- after traveling for miles and through different countries to get there. When they finally get authorization to come in, they are grateful. They are hungry. They are watching and looking out for those who might be a help to them and not exploiting them. They are trying to get to a destination, and they are hoping for a better life for them or for their child. (Note: In this house where we are staying these 5+ weeks, we serve families, those with special needs, and pregnant women here. This house has 4 rooms for people who are migrating, and my peer and I are using one of them. We see many other people also through interactions when we go to where they are to share basic humanitarian aid and when we go to pick up and drop off people at the airports. I also see many unaccompanied minors who are transported to our church through arrangements with their care providers in a special section of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville (no photos are allowed of them). We celebrate their home country and any birthdays as the entire service is spiritual food for all of us. I have been moved by seeing so many of them here with us.
Observations at the Laundromat
I can’t share everything here due to space but allow me to close with a recent observation. Each week, you’ll hear from each of us interns about our experience so stay tuned! Yesterday, my peer and I in Brownsville were able to wash our personal clothes for the first time. We could have done it earlier by hand if we wanted to, as I saw some of our other guests here doing in the laundry room sink, but we chose not to. We had resources to go to a laundromat and wash our clothes there for a fee, so we did. If you’ve ever been to a laundromat, you know that you need one of those rolling cart baskets to move your clothes around from your car to the washer, from the washer to a dryer, from the dryer to the table to fold, and then back to your car. We secured one of those and moved our things from the car to the washing machine. It was my first time in this laundromat, or any laundromat in Brownsville, and it was surprisingly very nice on the inside.
This facility was very well lit, had large tables, comfortable chairs, and these lounge areas for people to sit together or apart as they waited on their clothes. There were many clean white folding tables available as well and even a kid’s gaming area and several televisions on the ceiling. I recalled going to the laundry mat when I was young with my mom and one of the first things she did was go to the coin machine to change out her bills into a giant cup of quarters. Well, there were no coins in sight in this place as these machines used a card which you paid for using cash or your credit card through a touch device. It’s a nice and clean place.
Everything was going great until I happened to go to the front for another card and someone asked me in English (which surprised me because the common language is Spanish around here in this border community in southern Texas). She asked me while pointing, “are those the dryers?” “Yes, they are all along the wall” (lining the back of the building). We were standing at the front of the building by the washer and she asked, “how do I get my clothes all the way over there?” I explained she needed to grab a basket. She indicated there wasn’t one. I quickly looked around and could see they were all being used but I spotted one lady’s basket was almost empty, so I pointed to it and told her, “see that woman down there? Go ask to share her basket.” This seemed normal for me because I remembered how this worked as a youngster. She went over but came back frowning saying that the woman was still using it. I frowned with her and looked over but saw indeed she was still using it and unloading another machine as she had multiple loads. I then realized there was an empty basket behind us with the person at the counter but it has a “Office use only” sign. I ask the employee for help with the basket situation saying, “this woman needs a basket to move her things but there isn’t one?” The employee says, “we only have 5 baskets. She can move her laundry over” gesturing for her to use her hands. Annoyed and surprised, I gestured sympathetically to the woman and walked away to tend to my things all the while eyeing all the baskets to ensure they were being used.
As I’m walking to the back where the dryers are, I noticed my peer was able to just then, perhaps with excellent timing, secure a basket by speaking the shared Spanish language with someone else. I explained to my peer that the lady over there needed a basket but there wasn’t any. I said that to her because I was about to ask my peer if she could wait to get her clothes out the dryer and let that woman use the basket, but I noticed that the woman had decided to hand carry her wet clothes and walk them across the building from the washer to the dryer. She was picking up her dropped items from the floor and shaking them. But then I looked over again after explaining more about what was happening with the woman’s situation to my peer and I noticed that now she had use of the cart with the sign attached to it that said “Office use only.” I guess the employee felt bad for her. But why did this business that had everything else, not have more than just five baskets for their customers?
When it was time to get my clothes out the dryer, I found myself walking around trying to find a basket. There were none available. So, I grabbed a chair from the front tables and walked it over to the dryer and used that to fold my clothes right there. I wasn’t about to drop my clean clothes all over the place trying to move it by hand. I noticed once more that my peer somehow finds a basket. I also noticed how people kept possession of the basket that wasn’t theirs and folded their clothes directly from the basket because it was possibly convenient so that they didn’t have to go looking for another empty one again. The considerate thing to do would be to put your clothes into the basket and then dump them out onto the folding table so the basket could be free for others to use, but that is not what was happening. The way was somehow to secure a basket for yourself by placing your stuff into it- like your empty bag or your laundry soap and you keep it with you until you need it again. You aren’t aware of the struggles of those without the use of the baskets at all, because well, you don’t have that problem. You have all you need. You have a basket. It’s an enjoyable experience for you to chat with a friend and fold your clothes. But right in that same laundromat, there is more happening.
I didn’t have a basket either, but I made-do. Truthfully, I didn’t want to beg for the use of a basket when I could see people had staked a claim on each one. But why didn’t my peer realize this that it was inconvenient for me? After all, I was folding clothes out of the dryer onto a chair.
I don’t explain this story to shame anyone. I’m using it to point out that unless you are the one in the situation, you probably don’t even realize what is going on with someone else. And one might say, well, why didn’t I just speak up and say what I needed? Well there might be several reasons for this- I know there was for me. One reason I shared earlier. But also, I don’t like asking for help or handouts. Everyone needs a basket and so I can just figure something else out to solve my own problem. I’m glad I had the means to try something different but what about those that don’t have the means? Or the language skills? Or the support? What do they do?
Thinking further about my laundry folding situation and seeing all that was happening around me, I thought about my peer again. Why didn’t she/they see my situation and offer? “Oh, you don’t have to do that- here use my basket.” Well, that didn’t happen. In fact, it might have looked like I had no problem with anything happening because I didn’t complain. I didn’t say anything about it. In fact, I just went along with what was happening and even joined in conversations because I told myself, I don’t need a basket. It’s too much trouble. I should just be grateful I have this chair- and I was.
But seeing parallels to the immigration system here in America, I thought about where does the responsibility lie? Is it on me to articulate what I need of others, advocating for myself when I could plainly see that these baskets were available to everyone and anyone? Was it on the management to allow the use of their one reserved cart? Was it on the people/ the customers to learn how to share? Was it on the system since they only purchased 5 carts for this entire facility? What if I learned that the facility had previously purchased 20 carts but now, they were down to only 5 for various reasons, does that mean the facility did their duty?
I saw that the laundromat had not posted guidelines about basket cart etiquette or helped to enforce the public use for all. It was an ‘every person for themselves’ situation. Perhaps there was an unspoken preference given to those who could speak the language and were from this community because they were able to get what they needed. I don’t know but it could look that way too (which could lead to bitterness). I saw all of this in the laundromat.
I wondered, ‘whose fault is this’ and ‘whose responsibility is it to address these issues?’
They don’t affect a lot of people, true, and there wasn’t a riot going on here, but it was a noticeable issue. At least it was for me- because it impacted me. I didn’t see it until it affected me, nor before the woman asked me for my help when she asked me about the dryers.
As I am here, only 13 days now in Brownsville, I have met so many people from various countries who mostly do not speak English, but many can get by with Spanish. They are not from this area. They aren’t really complaining but they don’t have what they need. The system is not set up for all these people although many people and this church and ministry, for example, are generously doing what they can for all they need. Even the city is helping, although many say the city isn’t doing enough. What is enough? Were 5 baskets enough for the laundromat? I don’t think so. The system was set up for us to have to figure it out on our own and I can plainly see that the people who are coming here are not equipped to do that for themselves. They need advocates and they need people who see them and are considerate towards their situation. They need better systems that consider all who come. I am very aware of the ‘fend for yourselves attitude’ that is in all of us- even me. I can see more needs that I didn’t know of before. I had no awareness of these things before- but I certainly do now.
Sejana’s bio
Hello! My name is Sejana Yoo. For the past 2 years, I have lived in Temple, Texas, with my husband, two teens, and our cat. We are a military family so we’ve lived all over the world. I am finishing up my MDiv at George W Truett Theological Seminary in Waco and should graduate this August! I’m looking forward to this time and to see what God will show us through being together alongside others. I’ll be in the Brownsville location. I’m on IG @sejanashines if you use that and want to connect. My blog is www.sejanashines.com. Blessings and peace.
