Monday 2/25/19, we met with local pastors of churches who were operating shelters – including Pastora Zaida (Four Square), Pastor Jose Antonio Altamirana (Baptist), Pastor Jose Moreno (Nazerne), Pastora Lupita (Disciples of Christ), Pastor Arturo Gonzalez (UMC Mexico). Organizer Sam Perez convened the meeting at EcoParque in Tijuana. Also in attendance were leaders from Global Immersion Shawn and Maria and two other pastors from the US. Together we learned about the programs and challenges that the church based shelters are facing. We also heard about their desire to coordinate efforts. At the end of the meeting they decided to create a google document that would help them curate best practices and share resources. A common thread that everyone at the meeting agreed on was the importance of supporting the Mexican faith community as they navigate the challenges of extending hospitality to the migrants (and not having US based folks tell them how to do it).

Challenges include:

• Overwhelming number of people seeking shelter

• High level of trauma of those people staying in the shelters

• The inadequacies of the church buildings for long term housing of people – laundry, kitchen and shower facilities
• Conflicts that arise within the groups living in shelters and with the members of the hosting congregations.

Resources include:

• Generosity of congregations and communities- converting sanctuaries, construction of sleeping spaces
• Participation of shelter residents in the tasks of cleaning, cooking etc.

Tuesday 2/16/19 Sam and Shawn took the group from the US around Tijuana to visit three different shelters – 1: Espacio Migrante – sponsored by El Comite run by a secular coalition, 2: Camino De Salvacion sponsored by the Baptist church/ Pastor Jose Antonio,

3: Ambassadors of Jesus sponsored by the 4 Square Church/ Pastora Zaida. See photos below.

After visiting the shelters, we met with the UNHCR representative Viridiana Garcia Martignon and learned about her efforts to educate refugees regarding their rights for applying for asylum in Mexico, as well as other dynamics in the Tijuana NGO community.

On Wednesday 2/27/19 the PDA staff was joined by Kristi Van Nostran and Amanda Riley from POP to visit Safe Harbors in San Diego, meet with folks from San Diego Organizing Project,, see the Rapid Response Network among other things. I was not there and can’t speak fully to what they discovered.

Going Forward. Following a debriefing meeting on Thursday 2/18/19 at the Presbytery of the Pacific office ( Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble, Rev. Linda Culbertson, Rev. Laurie Kraus, Elder Susan Krehbeil, Rev. Amanda Riley, Kristi Van Nostran, Vanessa Martinez Saltero and Rev. Alexia Salvatierra (Matthew 25).

• PDA will continue to assess and explore how best to support local capacity in Tijuana for humanitarian relief for the ongoing crisis of migrants at the border.
• POP will continue to focus on creating church based hospitality and support for refugees as they exit detention and have their asylum cases processed. In particular, POP will look to models such as Safe Harbor in San Diego and seek partnership with Matthew 25 and other denominations such as Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopalian toward that end.
  • The current idea is that we could combine resources to hire an Intake Coordinator who would interface with the families in need of hospitality.
  • Participating faith communities, such as POP would then explore the hiring of their own coordinator to organize churches who would be providing hospitality.
  • More to come!