Lights = Lives

Despite all of the negative attention on México right now, crossing the border into this country is not hard for me. Becoming a part of families lives, becoming a part of their story however, is gut wrenching. It is difficult to walk into need, into brokenness, into despair and willingly stand in the midst of it.

It's much easier to be a passerby; someone sitting silently on the sidelines seeing only beautiful lights from a safe distance on the other side of the fence. But the reality is that those aren't just lights, those are families living in poverty.  They are women and children, fathers and grandparents, they are human beings with hopes for a future for today and for tomorrow.  Those are children that will fall asleep tonight hungry and freezing.  Those lights represent faces and those faces have names.  And once you cross that border, once you know their names, they are almost impossible to forget.  

I am learning about the importance of presence; that it is not my responsibility to have all of the answers but rather the willingness to enter into their lives.  The willingness to see and hear what breaks their hearts and to have the strength to let my own heart break along with them.  And I am learning to trust in my own faith as I pray with tear filled eyes, knowing that I am not their savior, but to cry out to the one that is.
-Brittany Girle

Lights of El Paso, TX and Juarez, MX at sunset