7 Minutes for Immigrant Families
June 29, 2021
By: Andy Myers
“7, por favor.”
7. Wow.
That number represents the number of people in Marco’s family. Him, his wife and 5 children. This number also represents the number of scoops of chile con carne that I served to them when I volunteered at the Kino Border Initiative’s Welcome Center in Nogales, Sonora. This is the number that travelled across the entire country of Mexico three years ago fleeing violence and hoping to seek asylum in the U.S.
Marco once had a good job, driving truck-loads of seafood from a port city to restaurants further inland. He was part of the burgeoning middle class in Mexico working for a better life for his five children. One day, a gang “asked” him to drive more than fish and to begin delivering drugs. He declined and was given a month to reconsider. After that month, when he further declined, he was kidnapped, then beaten and left for dead. By a miracle he was found and brought home. He and his family escaped to another town a few hours away hoping they would be out of reach of this murderous gang, but he was wrong. A few months later, they again discovered his whereabouts and Marcos fled with his family north to the border, trying desperately to outrun the gang’s grasp.
They have been repeatedly turned away from requesting asylum in Arizona, so they wait in Sonora, and they hope. They hope that policies for those seeking asylum will change. They hope they will not be discovered by the same gang. Marcos ultimately hopes for a better life for his children in the U.S. In the meantime, ministries like the Kino Border Initiative will continue to provide basic human necessities as well as resources and dignity so that one day their hopes may come to fruition.
My question for you is this: Do you think we have room in this country for 7 more? And not just 7 people, but for families like Marcos’ who desperately cling to hope of a better life free from violence? I do.
Will you take 7 minutes to pray for these families, for their flourishing and for the opportunity for them to find safety and a new life in the U.S.? Will you join me in supporting ministries like KBI that provide migrants with hope?
Andy Myers has been in full-time ministry for over 25 years and has served as lead pastor, campus pastor, interim pastor, and also in student ministries.
He has also led 20 ministry teams to work alongside churches in Cambodia, Guatemala, and India. Andy has worked with a Christian Foster Care and Adoption agency championing the ministry to orphans in and around the State of Arizona. Andy also led a ministry in Phoenix called Flourish Now, a national organization serving underserved populations and underresourced communities in employment through the power of the local church.
He has a passion for justice and helping churches partner together to lift up those in need in their communities and around the world.
Andy and his wife Stacey have lived in Casa Grande, Arizona, for nine years and have four children.
