Go and Do Likewise

Go and Do

Likewise

Christians put hands and feet on the gospel when they minister to the physical, social, legal, and spiritual needs of their immigrant neighbors. Here we profile a handful of faith-based efforts to love the strangers among us.

born with her back to the county jail upon her hospital discharge. It is situations like these that JFON wants to see redressed and reduced, but when they occur, JFON seeks to help immigrants understand and navigate the complex American legal system.

Potential clients call a phone number and in confidence tell a volunteer what kind of immigration issues they are facing.

They are then invited to the next clinic, where they meet with a counselor and fill out a simple form detailing their situation.

The clinics last three to five hours, with childcare and hospitality provided by church members. Clients then talk with an attorney who explains to them their options under the law and makes a commitment to work with them during the course of any future legal proceedings. This free legal work is worth an estimated $10,000, an otherwise insurmountable barrier to justice for these poor, undocumented workers.

By this summer, JFON Nashville will have moved into its office in Belmont United Methodist Church, and Esquivel will have hung out her shingle as the church’s first full-time lawyer. This will allow them to increase from one clinic a month to three. They plan to host the clinics in several of the state’s largest cities, thereby easing the travel burden for the immigrants. Unfortunately, as Esquivel notes, in Tennessee all immigration cases are heard in Memphis, which sits on the far western border of the state. One Hispanic church in Chattanooga used their church bus to allow members to travel together to their hearings and to support each other.

While the clinics are open to all immigrants, the majority of those served are Hispanic, primarily from Mexico and Guatemala. Many have been in the United States for one or two decades, but because of a 1996 change in immigration law, they have become increasingly vulnerable. With the latest push to enforce these laws, hundreds of immigrants are being rounded up in workplace raids or through routine traffic stops.

While the focus of the ministry is to serve the very pressing legal needs of immigrants, Esquivel points out that church members of all stripes who get involved have their hearts changed in the process. JFON gives Christian advocates for

Advocacy: United Methodist Committee on Relief’s “Justice for Our Neighbors” National Network b y T odd L . L ake

It is one thing to wring one’s hands about the plight of undocumented immigrants, but quite another to actually do something to help them. Since 1999, the United Methodist Committee on Relief has fostered the creation of a national network of legal aid ministries that provide high quality, free legal counseling and services. Known as Justice for Our Neighbors (JFON), this network also engages in advocacy work on issues of immigration, often in partnership with likeminded community organizations. JFON is currently composed of 22 programs scattered across the country.

The newest of these programs is just getting off the ground in Nashville,Tenn., thanks to Harvard-trained lawyer Katherine Dix Esquivel and her fellow Belmont United Methodist Church member Jan Snider. Snider began dreaming about how to help undocumented neighbors in 2007 after filming a story about a JFON program in Michigan.The two women contacted several United Methodist churches, formed a task force, brought in speakers for informal talks, and in 2008 began monthly clinics with the help of three local Methodist congregations.

The vulnerability of undocumented immigrants — and the all-too-common lack of a humane, measured response by authorities — made front-page news last year in Nashville when Juana Villegas was stopped for a minor traffic violation on the way to a prenatal visit to her doctor. She was arrested and taken to jail, where she began to have contractions. She was not allowed to let her husband or three children know that she was being taken to the local hospital where she was cuffed to her bed.Two male police officers stood guard as she delivered a son; she was not permitted to take the nursing new-

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Orientation: World Relief-Miami

immigrants the chance to share a biblical understanding of God’s attitude toward “the alien and the stranger.”Theological reflection at Nashville events has been provided by two Vanderbilt Divinity School students who founded “Strangers No More” to help their fellow Christians understand how we can better live out God’s command to love our immigrant neighbors as we do ourselves.

The JFON network is coordinated by a national staff in Silver Spring, Md., a great resource for advice on how other denominations and congregations might begin a similar program in their churches. The road to a world marked by a biblical vision of justice and shalom is long and imposing, but it doesn’t get any shorter by our sitting and doing nothing.

Starting a free, professional legal clinic for immigrants is one small step along the narrow road upon which we are all called to travel. n

b y D aniel M edina

World Relief was established in 1944 as many churches in the United States focused their attention on war-torn Europe.

Since then, World Relief has served countless numbers of refugees and immigrants fleeing from war, persecution, dire economic circumstances, and famine.

For 28 years,World Relief-Miami (WRM) has been serving the most vulnerable in South Florida. Although most refugee arrivals have been Cubans, WRM has also resettled Vietnamese, Haitians, Liberians, Sudanese, Burmese, Bosnians, Iraqis, Colombians,Venezuelans, and refugees from the former Soviet Union. In 2008, WRM was able to serve 400 people.

The need to welcome the stranger continues to be both a pressing and a controversial issue. Many of the arguments for or against hospitality to refugees and immigrants begin

Todd L. Lake is vice president for spiritual development at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

Refugee Offers Refuge in Christ

Chehab says. “That won’t happen for a long time. My goal is to share the gospel,” a task for which Chebab is uniquely suited. “My faith is Christian, but culturally I am a Muslim, like them. I don’t threaten their identity. We don’t shove anything down their throats. We trust God to reveal himself through the Living Word.”

The Saturday worshippers are part of Salam Church, which means peace in both Arabic and Farsi, as well as Hebrew, if you consider the word “shalom.” Peace is a concept that has been elusive for many of the refugees with whom Chehab works, families from Iran, Jordan, North Africa, as well as Sudan and pre- and post-Saddam Iraq.

“I get e-mails, calls late at night. You hear about the tragedies, it breaks your heart,” he says.

Chehab’s main work is holding services at Salam Church and leading Bible studies in Arabic and English at another Lutheran church. He speaks to groups of both Muslims and Christians but doesn’t reach out to staunchly Muslim organizations. He lectures on the roots and development of radical Islam at nearby Wheaton College.

As a volunteer, Chehab translates for Arabic-speaking clients at Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services offices. He makes emergency home visits to quell domestic violence. Most of his congregants live in small, subsidized apartments, and a typical day for Chehab could include coordinating donations of furniture.The families are sponsored by World Relief, which has an office in Wheaton,

A former Muslim militiaman shares the Prince of Peace with fellow immigrants b y N anc y G ier

On a sunny Saturday in early spring, about 25 men and women gather to hear the gospel at Peace Lutheran Church in Lombard, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. Scripture, hymns, a homily, and the Lord’s Prayer are offered in Arabic and also Farsi, the language spoken by most Iranians.

Everyone is invited to return to the church the following day to observe the Iranian New Year.The evening celebration will include ethnic food and music — an event typical of the ministry of Hicham Chehab, who leads this congregation.

Born and raised a Muslim, he is now a Lutheran vicar, working for POBLO (People of the Book Lutheran Outreach), a missionary outreach to Muslims sponsored by the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

“My goal is not to bring them to the Lutheran church,”

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at a personal, visceral level. However, there is no substitute for experiencing the sobering reality of what it means to live like a refugee or immigrant in the United States. Many WRM staff members were themselves once immigrants, and today they serve others as they were once served by WRM. Shared experience makes all the difference in embracing the needs of the stranger as they start to take their first steps in a strange land. WRM offers them personal, direct-case management as well as guidance for obtaining their Social Security benefits, job placement assistance, mentoring, and workplace English as a Second Language classes.

Through the Church Engagement Initiative (CEI),WRM partners with churches across South Florida to help them serve their new neighbors through both financial donations and service. Pastor Carlos Alfaro’s Cristo Fiel y Verdadero Church, a Brethren in Christ community in Kendall, MiamiDade County, is a new recruit. Committed to serving the numerous Hispanic refugees and immigrants in the area, the church is preparing to host a World Relief sub-office where

World Relief-Miami helps new immigrants find jobs, English classes, and mentors; they assist with filling out and submitting immigration and tax documents.

And they train and equip local churches to do the same.

tinued to fight in the streets. He studied the Koran more intently in preparation for a leadership role at his mosque.

But a serious car accident while on his way to preach one night changed the direction of his life.

Both legs were broken. During his long convalescence, he began learning English, reading comic books as well as novels by Western author Louis L’Amour.

Eventually he was admitted to the American University in Beirut, where instruction is in English. He was excited to begin his studies, but during his first semester in 1980, his brother was killed by a Christian militia while attempting to negotiate a truce.

“I wanted revenge,” he recalls. “My brother was only a year-and-a-half older than me. We did everything together.

After he was killed, I bought a gun with a silencer and two pistols. I took classes in the daytime. At night I stalked people, hoping to find those responsible for his death.”

His thirst for vengeance brought him neither peace nor relief from his sorrow. But in a university course that he signed up for in comparative religions, he began reading the Bible as voraciously as he once read the Koran.

“When I was full of hate, I read the Sermon on the Mount,” he recalled. “Christ said to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. I felt as though I was hearing the voice of God. I began to think there was another way, that of forgiveness.”

Instead of stalking enemies, he began sneaking into

and he worries about how they will find jobs in this recession when the financial support ends.

Sensitivity to the Muslim culture is an important aspect of Chebab’s outreach. During the fasting period of Ramadan, he postpones services until 6:00 p.m. so that participants can still enjoy a meal. The celebration of the Iranian New Year is part of his strategy to blend in. “I understand the Muslim point of view,” he says. “I was there.”

A native of Lebanon, Chehab was 13 years old in 1973, when he was given political literature and recruited by Muslim extremists. They told him their duty was to “conquer the infidels.” That was two years before the full-blown outbreak of a bloody conflict that took thousands of lives.

As teens, he and his brother learned to use rocket launchers, mortars, and rifles. In the late ’70s, Chehab was given a long-range rifle and put to work as a sniper in the Christian part of Beirut.

As he matured, he began to doubt that his mission was a holy one or that the fighting was justified. One incident in particular made him reflect on his military role.

“One day as I looked through the scope of my rifle, I could see an old woman running with two children,” he recalls. “I could see the wrinkles on her face. She reminded me of my grandmother. I decided not to follow orders.

I didn’t shoot.”

Chehab went to Muslim leaders with his doubts but was told the violence was justified. Christians and Muslims con-

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Legal Representation: Ayuda Community Center in Philadelphia

a WRN staff member certified by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) will meet weekly with clients to prepare immigration and tax documents. Eventually, a qualified volunteer from the church will undergo the six-month BIA training in order to assist immigrants who face the daunting (and costly) tasks of preparing complex, time-sensitive federal documents for the purpose of obtaining residency, work permits, or citizenship, or of filing income taxes.

The financial support of local churches helps World Relief equip both the church and the community at large for the much-needed immigrant policy reforms clamored for by millions and promised by President Obama and members of his administration. We need to have churches committed, volunteers trained, and resources available to address the challenges we must all face together in the United States, the place we all now call home.

R osario A . D í a z - C intr ó n

Located in North Philadelphia, Ayuda Community Center is a privately funded advocacy organization serving lowincome residents of the Hunting Park neighborhood, of whom 52 percent are Hispanic. Since its inception as a community-based, community-owned endeavor in 1992, Ayuda has facilitated growth within the neighborhood by providing the tools necessary for families to reach their full potential.

Director of Development Ryan Kellermeyer views the work of Ayuda as a holistic response to the community’s needs.

One aspect of their holistic approach is Ayuda’s Free Legal Clinic, whose aim is to shrink what Kellermeyer calls the Continued on page 47.

Dr. Daniel Medina is Hispanic ministry coordinator for World Relief-Miami (tel. 305-541-8320).

Protestant churches in Beirut, unable to reveal his secret to his family, who claims to be directly descended from the prophet Mohammed.

By 1990, the international community had imposed a ceasefire in Lebanon, and Chehab vowed to work for reconciliation. His association with a western Christian organization brought him in 1999 to a prayer service in Washington, DC, where he met other leaders.

Offered a job with POBLO in 2004, Chehab obtained a work permit and moved to the US with his wife and four children. His two older children, a daughter who remains a Muslim and a son who has been baptized in the Christian faith, have since returned to Lebanon.

Rev. Randall Duncan, pastor of a Lutheran church in Michigan and founder of POBLO, calls Chehab a “crosscultural bridge-builder.”“In our post 9/11 world we need clear communication,” Duncan says. “Hicham understands Islam very well, and he also has a heart for people.Your anthropology has to be as good as your theology. Our only agenda is to bring the love of Jesus and healing to others. He understands both sides, and he brings a message of reconciliation.”

Chehab has completed his seminary studies at Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind., and hopes to become ordained.

But making peace with his own past remains difficult. It would be dangerous to return to Lebanon, where he faces death threats. He and his wife have applied for green cards and consulted an immigration lawyer. In the meantime, there is much to be done.

“Everyone is treated with love, respect, and compassion,” he says of his ministry to his Muslim brothers and sisters.

“They are not shedding their skin or losing their identity.

No one feels threatened. I’ve had a few converts. When they are ready, they will ask to be baptized.”

Hicham Chehab, third from left, stands with immigrants from Sudan and Iran after a worship service at Salam Church.

Nancy Gier is a freelance writer living in Wheaton, Ill. PRISM 2009

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fame to record deals, world tours, and appearances on national TV such as NBC’s Late Show with Conan O’Brian.

Personally, his music has opened my mind to the truth that beautiful, wordless music in and of itself can lead one to the throne of God. Listening to Shimabukuro is a spiritual experience, which is weird coming from someone who relies heavily on thoughtful, spiritual lyrics even more than catchy melodies. A tune may be inviting, but my guarded self asks, “What is the singer or band telling me?” before I judge a song to be worthy or otherwise.

Lyrically dependent, I have shown little patience for instrumental music,

unless drum solos or electric guitar interludes amidst long songs count. For the most part, instrumentals bore me to tears.

From classical to Kenny G, it all sounds like elevator music to me. Admittedly, even when he plays softly and sweetly, as he does in some of his songs, I reflexively start yawning.When he keeps the intensity level high, however, lyrics would be distracting (especially since he admits he can’t sing).They would get in the way of the upward journey toward Mt. Zion as one is swept away by the pure sounds of Jake Shimabukuro and his amazing ukulele.

So is there change afoot? My deep enjoyment for what this unlikely virtuoso can do gives me hope that I can in fact

sense the presence of the Almighty by way of wordless excellence. A beautifully played set of chords really can be worth a thousand words.Truth really can be conveyed by something other than speech.

While I suspect I won’t be saying, “Hallelujah! Wasn’t that Schubert piece simply marvelous?” anytime soon, perhaps now the door is ever so slightly open.

Al Tizon wishes at times he could be Jake Shimabukuro. But most of the time, he is quite content to be assistant professor of holistic ministry at Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., director of ESA’s Word & Deed Network, and regular columnist for PRISM Magazine.

a common scenario: divorced with two kids and a mortgage.

She could not afford the mortgage payments, and her house was put into foreclosure. Margarita filed for bankruptcy and hired “justice gap.” In partnership with the Philadelphia Christian the cheapest bankruptcy attorney she could find to assist her in Legal Aid Society, Ayuda provides one-hour sessions with the process, but the attorney overestimated Margarita’s income practicing attorneys free of charge; beyond that, clients can as well as her ability to make her monthly bankruptcy agreebe placed on a referral list and, in many instances, Ayuda ment payments. Margarita’s inability to navigate the legal attorneys choose to provide complete legal representation. system and understand the jargon put her at a grave disadCurrently, Ayuda’s Free Legal Clinic sees between 200 and vantage. The banks could offer her no help, and the attorney 250 cases a year, from home foreclosures to immigration simply stated there was nothing more to be done. assistance. Their client base consists of individuals who canIt was at that point that Margarita stepped into Ayuda’s not afford an attorney but do not qualify for assistance from Free Legal Clinic and met Kellermeyer, who had experience a publicly funded clinic, which is partially based upon with foreclosures. After 20 hours of phone calls, he discovered income. More than half of Hunting Park residents live at 200 that the bankruptcy lawyer had filed Margarita’s papers incorpercent of the poverty line, while 44 percent fall below the rectly; just two days before her house was scheduled to be poverty line. auctioned off, the mortgage company rescinded the forecloRoughly 10 percent of the Free Legal Clinic’s cases are sure, the judge approved it, a restructured file for bankruptcy focused on immigration issues. Of every 10 cases involving was opened, and her payments were adjusted. Two years later immigrants, about three are undocumented and seven docu- Kellermeyer and Margarita still keep in touch. She still lives in mented. One of the primary foci for the undocumented the same house and has been keeping up with her payments. immigrants is acquiring legal status to remain in the United Ayuda’s efforts are time-consuming but unflagging, guided States.The documented immigrants, conversely, want to move by their clear mission statement: “to reveal Jesus’ mercy, restoraon to the next step of maintaining their legal status, for exam- tion, and justice in Hunting Park so that families and neighple, transitioning from worker visa status to green-card status. borhoods are transformed…through community development Other ways that the clinic serves the immigrant population efforts, direct services, and advocacy.” include acquiring benefits for their children, helping families stay in their homes, and attempting to reunite families by bring- Learn more at ayudacc.org. ing remaining family members into the country.

Kellermeyer tells the story of Margarita, an immigrant Rosario A. Díaz-Cintrón works as the administrative and public woman who came to the United States in the hopes of pro- relations assistant to the president of Esperanza, one of the largest viding a better life for her family but ultimately found herself in Hispanic evangelical network in the United States.

Go and Do Likewise continued from page 33.

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