Who is my neighbor? A lawyer asked this question to Jesus after learning that the two greatest commandments in the Bible are to love God and love your neighbor. We all ask this question at some point in our lives. Who should I be helping? Who deserves my time and attention? Who does not? Jesus provided a clear example throughout his ministry of what loving our neighbor looks like. He fed the five thousand, even when the disciples said “send them home.” He offered the woman at the well living water, regardless of her past. And he asked the Father to forgive his killers, “for they know not what they do.” He showed us that our neighbor is not just the person who we know, love and understand. Rather, every person in need is our neighbor.
Across the Texas border, just an hour and a half flight away from the DFW airport, a crisis is occurring. Thousands of people from all over Central and South America have left their homes and culture behind in pursuit of a better life, but they have come to a standstill at the border between Mexico and Texas. They are not allowed to enter the United States without clearance, but this can take months or even years to receive. Meanwhile, the Mexican government has done very little to provide relief, besides telling them to temporarily set up camp in tiny plazas within the city.
One of these plazas is located in a city called Reynosa, just outside of McAllen, Texas. It has become the landing place for over 1,500 people, many of them whole families who have traveled long distances together. New arrivals to the plaza typically have no food, no fresh water, and no shelter. Local ministry organizations have provided the people with hundreds of four-person tents which are haphazardly squeezed into the plaza. Access to showers and electricity is very limited, so people are forced to bathe their children with soap and cold water in the gutter. In the communities surrounding the plazas, drug cartels are so powerful that even the town governments cannot make decisions without their consent. Thus, crime is rampant, and only four or five police officers are present at the plaza to protect the 1,500 people from robbery, attacks, and sex trafficking.
When a person in the plaza gets sick, they are moved to a church compound run by a local pastor. This facility is clean, well run, and provides the people with food, shelter, and medical care through donations from area churches. After visiting the compound, a Gateway Global ministry partner remarked, “As soon as the door opened, you could feel that the Holy Spirit lived behind those walls. Walking through, the pastor, Hector, had kids running up to him with these wonderful smiles, like he was their rescuer.” At this church compound, people stay in neatly organized rows of tents, and Pastor Hector makes sure to keep accurate records of who is there so that they have a better chance of being processed in a timely manner.
However, the church compound, the plazas, and the local detention centers have all reached maximum capacity, so many people are left with nowhere to go but the sidewalk outside of these facilities, waiting for a chance to enter when others leave. The ministry partner observed full families–husbands, pregnant wives, and young children–who had made their beds on the concrete, completely exposed to the elements and lacking all necessities. Nobody has the resources to take care of them, so they are left to fend completely for themselves.
The situation at the border is dire. According to God’s word, these people are our neighbors, not solely based on proximity but based on their need as fellow humans. Many local churches and organizations have pulled together to provide the migrants with food, water, and shelter, but resources are still very limited. As the body of Christ, let us unify together in prayer and intercession for the migrants and the local organizations and churches attempting to ease the gravity of their situation.