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Learning about the other.
Other than becoming a CSJ, I’d have to say the call to work with immigrants at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, was a powerful turning point for me. That was in 1986. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, I began working with Spanish speaking people who were in migration. I found a culture I loved, and felt so at home with the elderly Hispanic folks. But a book called Enrique’s Journey that I read in the spring of last year brought me first to tears and then to the Albergue Jesus el Buen Pastor in Tapachula, Mexico. |
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At the Albergue, a shelter on the border with Guatemala, we care for people who have been injured on their journey north. These are people who have had traumatic injuries and amputations. As a volunteer, I do whatever I can to keep the Albergue going. Caring for guests, doing social work, earning income, maintaining the shelter itself. I work for Doña Olga Sanchez Martinez, the founder of the Albergue. I live with her family, too. I don’t know if you would call our relationship a partnership, because I work for her.
I think of a partnership as people working as equals. Each person doing the part he or she is most suited for. We all have a piece to play in this world; we’re all a part of the same story. The Albergue guests are recipients, but at the same time, they serve others with their support and encouragement. They demonstrate to us what can be. There are no pity parties here! There is a lot of loving and caring and expectation that everyone participates in making this work. I feel good when we sit around the table at night and talk about what happened that day and plan for the next day. At those times I see how we’re all interconnected. I’m learning from our guests how to be more trusting and generous, that what I have will be enough for what is needed.
What do they learn from me? I have no idea. I never know what effect I will have. I do know that we learn from each other’s lives. And each of us is not here building the reign of God alone. There is a story of a man who laid tiles for church buildings. When asked what he did for a living, he did not say he laid tiles. He said he built cathedrals. In the same way, by contributing our gifts to the world, all of us do our part and eventually the cathedral gets built. ?
Sister Lilly Long, CSJ
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