El Paso: Border Servant Corps

The Wall, looking east toward El Paso. December 2016.

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly.


This is the mission of the Border Servant Corps.

I learned about the BSC by chance when I went to a 12-step meeting at Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico. There was a flyer announcing an Issues Night, to be presented by some Catholic sisters who work with people in Puerto de Anapra, just over the border into Mexico.

I saw that - hey! - the Issues Night would occur literally around the corner from my apartment in El Paso.

I'll get to that Issues Night, and others, but for now I just want to introduce the Border Servant Corps.

Border Servant Corps promotes and demonstrates justice, kindness, and humility through the intentional exploration of community, simplicity, social justice, and spirituality in the U.S./México border region.

BSC puts together volunteers-in-residence with organizations that support BSC's purpose. There are one-year volunteers and there are short-term volunteers, e.g. for the month of January or during the summer. The volunteers come from all over the United States (and can come from other countries); they live in one of two communal houses, one in El Paso and the other in Las Cruces.

Happening onto the BSC gladdened my spirit in a time of despondency following the November 2016 election.

The current administration and its modern-day Vichy collaborationists scuttle across the banquet table, biting and snarling and ripping meat from bone, dropping miserly orts to the floor for us ordinary folk, telling us we are eating cake.

The Border Servant Corps - it brings light and succor.

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly.