El Paso: BSC: We Work on the Margins

November 2016


That word, sustenance. On the flyer posted on a church bulletin board. The word whispered to me on a Saturday morning in November. A source of strength and nourishment.

I wasn't familiar with BSC at the time, and when I returned home, I looked it up and, while poking around the internet, found this article by Sister Janet, one of the speakers for this Issues Night: The Face of God's Mercy at Santo Niño.

Luci, Nena, and Sister Janet. Anapra, Chihuahua, Mexico. Credit: Global Sisters Report. Photo: Peggy Deneweth.

She and other sisters and volunteers give service at the Santo Niño Project in Anapra, that colonia just on the other side of The Wall, visible from Mt. Cristo Rey. Some 17,000 hearts beat in Anapra.

Mt. Cristo Rey, El Paso, Texas.

Sister Janet and her fellows know and walk with women, men, adolescents, children there.

But I'm doing a lotta yakking when I could be sharing some of the sisters' sustenance with you. I'll paraphrase.

As sisters:

It is our job to go where no one else wants to go and do what no one else wants to do.

We work on the margins.

We try to live as though there is no border. Those of us who can cross, should cross and behave as if there is no border.

We need to tell the stories to those people in the country who don't have the privilege to live here, on the border.

It's not important to [the mothers at the Santo Niño Project] that we solve a problem; it's important that we accompany them.


~~~~~

In a time this November 2016 when it seemed every day brought new, nasty threats against individuals and groups, it was good to be in the company of the sisters.