US-Mexico Border
Hope Springs in the Desert
Editor’s Note: During this spring season, lay missioner Mary Liston Liepold, OFS recognizes how hope springs in nature and in her ministry sites. March 25, 2025 In DC, my home for most of my adult life, the cherry blossoms are blooming in the rain. El Paso typically gets about 9 inches of rain each year,…
Read More
A Poem for World Day of Migrants and Refugees
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Kim Wagner recognized World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday, September 29, 2024. She wrote this poem as she reflected on what she learned from serving at Annunciation House. As I watch the children laughing and screaming with joy run past me, I faintly hear the women staying with Annunciation…
Read More
Day 6: Waiting
Editor’s Note: On the 6th day of our Advent blog series, “Following the Holy Family in Solidarity,” lay missioner Kim Wagner reflects on how God is with us during our various seasons of waiting. As I sit at the front desk at Casa Papa Francisco, a shelter for immigrants in El Paso, Texas, and wait…
Read More
The End is Only the Beginning
Editor’s Note: As she concludes her time serving in the US-Mexico border region, lay missioner Julia Pinto recalls an encounter with a young woman at the airport and how this encounter prompted her to reflect on how she’s grown during her time on mission. Sitting at the Tucson airport waiting for my flight, I noticed…
Read More
Trust in the Midst of Change
Editor’s Note: In preparation of her move to El Paso, lay missioner Kim Wagner reflects on the various changes that she experiences on mission and how each change is an opportunity to trust in God. As I ended my shift last Thursday at The Migrant Resource Center (MRC), I gathered my belongings, said goodbye to…
Read More
The Slow Work of God
Editor’s Note: In the Patient Trust prayer, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin talks about how we mature gradually and require time and grace to become our better selves. That prayer comes to mind for lay missioner Julia Pinto as she starts to wind down her time on mission, reflects on her year volunteering at Casa Hogar,…
Read More
Having Hope in Times of Hopelessness
Editor’s Note: As she serves in the US-Mexico border region, lay missioner Kim Wagner reflects on how she finds hope during a seemingly hopeless situation. As I finish setting bowls and spoons on the kitchen counter during my shift at El Centro de Recursos para Migrantes (The Migrant Resource Center), I check my watch one…
Read More
Thoughts to My Desconocido/a
Editor’s Note: As a reflection while participating in the Migrant Trail Walk, lay missioner Julia Pinto shares what she would say to her desconocido/a–an unidentified person who passed away while migrating. June 5, 2024 The Migrant Trail Walk is an annual 75-mile journey on foot from Sasabe, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to honor the lives…
Read More
Holding Privilege on the Border
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Kim Wagner recognizes a privilege that she has as a US citizen and realizes how she can use her privilege on mission at the US-Mexico border. As I leave the Centro de Recursos para Migrantes (Migrant Resource Center) in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico after my volunteer shift, I walk along the…
Read More
All Aboard to Tucson: Facing My Fears. Mission Accepted.
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Julia Pinto reflects on how God strengthens her to face her fear of driving so that she can serve migrants at her ministry site. March 13, 2024 Lengthy disclaimer: When you go on mission, especially to do some hot-topic work like humanitarian aid on the US-Mexico border, people often act like…
Read More
An Ending and a Beginning: Reflecting on Life and Death This Lent and Easter
Editor’s Note: During her first season of Lent on mission, lay missioner Kim Wagner relates Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to her reflections on the life of her mother. I can still recall the day like it was yesterday — March 31st, 2020. Upon waking up in my bedroom in my Dad’s house, I felt…
Read More
When Plans Change
Editor’s Note: As she returns to her ministry site after spending Christmas with her family, lay missioner Julia Pinto reflects on three strangers whom she encounters along the way. After being away for two years, I gratefully soaked in every moment I could with loved ones over the Christmas holidays. My heart was full as…
Read More
Waiting Through the Seasons
Editor’s Note: As Kim Wagner anticipates beginning her time on mission, she relates her waiting to the liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas. As I have worked to unpack my bags in my new home in Douglas, Arizona, I have begun to reflect on the past month and a half at home and the Advent…
Read More
An Appeal for Prison Ministers Everywhere
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Mari Snyder describes her experience serving in prison ministry and encourages others to perform this corporal act of mercy. I’ll miss climbing up into Norma’s white pickup truck and heading north 7.5 miles, speaking with my friend in my best “slow and halting” Spanish. We can stop shielding our eyes from…
Read More
Day 6: Multitude
Editor’s Note: For day 6 of our Advent series “The Day of Joy Drew Near,” lay missioner Mari Snyder uses an acrostic, a poetic device in which the first letter of each line forms a word, to describe the diverse people whom she encounters at her ministry site along the US-Mexico border. On a pilgrimage…
Read More
Breaking Down Walls
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Julia Pinto, who serves in the US-Mexico border region, describes an encounter with a woman whom she serves both physically and emotionally at the Migrant Resource Center. We had months of attending to very few people at CRM, the Migrant Resource Center. The number of people I attended to in my…
Read More
All Great and Precious Things
Editor’s note: Inspired by a quote from John Steinbeck, missioner Julia Pinto reflects on what loneliness is teaching her while serving on mission in the US-Mexico border region. She shows up and greets us in the crowded gathering, office cubicle, family home, jail cell, big city, small town. We often ignore her, distracting ourselves with…
Read More
What It Was Like on the Border When Title 8 Sunset Title 42
Editor’s note: When Title 42 was ended in May, missioner Mari Snyder and the organizations where she serves were preparing to support an influx of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. She shares her reflections on the experience. It’s been just a few months since the May 11th reinstatement of Title 8, with the end of…
Read More
Memorials on the Migrant Trail
Editor’s note: Each year, an organization called The Migrant Trail in Arizona leads a solidarity walk across the US-Mexico border and through a well-traversed valley, giving walkers a chance to experience the region and bear witness to the place where thousands of people in migration have lost their lives. This year, missioners Mari and Julia…
Read More
Video: Life as a Franciscan Missioner on the US-Mexico Border
Editor’s note: Lay missioner Julia Pinto takes us on a journey through her daily life and ministry as a Franciscan missioner on the US-Mexico border. Question for reflection: What part of daily life as a missioner on the US-Mexico border surprises you? Where do you see God at work in Julia’s ministry?
Read More
Humility in Franciscan Mission
Editor’s note: Missioner Mari Snyder reflects on how she is learning humility, a key Franciscan value, through her ministries in the US-Mexico border region. Experiencing humility on mission is an oh-so-very-frequent occurrence. The words minor and lesser and to live on the margins of society are words used within the Franciscan community to describe –…
Read More
Learning from Children
Editor’s note: Julia Pinto, a missioner in the US-Mexico Border region, shares how the children she meets and teaches at CAME, a migrant shelter in Agua Prieta, teach her how to be loving, welcoming, and intentional. “Maestra Julia, what words would you like to learn in Spanish? We can teach you.” That is my best…
Read More
Pressing Questions
Editor’s Note: Lay Missioner Mari Snyder reflects on the hardships of migration as she follows a trail through the Sonoran Desert on the U.S.-Mexico border. I invite you to look at the following picture and note your very first thought before reading further. Yes, the Sonoran Desert and its mountains are simply stunning; they’re a…
Read More
A Feast Day for Our Wholly Human Families
Editor’s note: Reflecting on the recent Feast of the Holy Family, missioner Mari Snyder shares the mission statement, written during FMS Formation, that grounds her call to serve. Her experiences serving at the Migrant Resource Center this year have only deepened her call to serve “wholly human” families that she meets on the Border. Early…
Read More
Day 6: Heal (or Not to Heal)
Editor’s note: On this sixth day of our Advent blog series “His Light Would Not Go Out,” returned missioner Rhonda Eckerman shares the profound healing she experienced once she left her burdens at the altar with Christ. I came to FMS in August 2020 heartbroken as I had recently lost my mother and my family…
Read More
When You Say YES to God
Editor’s Note: After two years of mission in the U.S.-Mexico border region, Overseas Lay Missioner Rhonda Eckerman shares her favorite memories of service and recounts the joys that come with saying “yes” to God. Two years ago I said yes to Franciscan Mission Service and to a move to the U.S. – Mexico border taking…
Read More
The Transient Southwest
Editor’s Note: Overseas Lay Missioner Julia Pinto shares glimpses, through poetry and prose, of the ever-changing nature of accompanying migrants on the U.S.-Mexico Border region. Few people around, fewer things to do and see, Why do attachments here Seem to form so easily? Neighbors, volunteer friends, confidantes, It all feels in vain. Mucho dolor…
Read More