Called to Compassion

This content was originally posted on the National Association of Evangelical’s website and is part of their fall 2025 magazine, which we will be highlighting on our Telling a Better Story blog. Read the original blog post, written by Bri Stensrud, here. 

In 2019, after years of supporting pregnancy centers and adoptive families in the pro-life movement, I was invited to explore a new calling — to get proximate to another vulnerable population: immigrants.

I said yes to an immersive trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, alongside a group of female evangelical leaders who had been invited to learn about migration dynamics south of the U.S. border. During our time together, we met with ministry leaders, government officials and migrants.

One afternoon, we visited a government-run shelter for unaccompanied migrant children — those who had been lost, deserted or separated from their parents during their journey north. As our group dispersed to greet the children, two young girls caught my attention when they came walking out into the courtyard with babies in their arms. A friend and I walked over to greet them. We learned that Maria* and Alicia* were 11 and 13 years old.

Through a translator, we asked where they were from and whose babies they were holding. Since we didn’t speak their language, we simply held their gaze and smiled as the shelter staff and translator explained what we were not prepared to hear. Maria and Alicia were neither babysitters nor big sisters: They were mothers. They were children raising children, without their own mothers beside them.

I couldn’t fully comprehend what I had just been told, but I knew one thing for certain: No child chooses to become a mother at age 11 or 13.

As I learned about the “push factors” that forced these children from their home — violence, poverty and persecution — I realized how common situations like these are for young women and families in the Northern Triangle (i.e., El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras). The threats they face don’t end when they leave; in many ways, the journey north is just as dangerous.

Why hadn’t I heard stories like this before? Why wasn’t I told the full story of what was happening to so many families migrating south of the border? I became convinced that if more people could witness these two children holding their babies and if they could hear what I had just heard, they would be deeply grieved alongside me.

Let’s Not Miss This

Six years have passed since that experience, and my advocacy has grown from traditional pro-life issues of abortion and adoption to a whole-life ethic — including care for immigrants and refugees.  Today, I lead Women of Welcome, a community of over 150,000 Christian women dedicated to advocating for immigrants and refugees.

Over the years, I’ve led over a dozen immersive trips, taking more than 200 Christian women across the border to experience a similar proximity to the issues that changed my perspective in 2019. As we pray with pastors, meet Border Patrol agents and listen to migrants’ stories, we return home with a more nuanced picture of what is often oversimplified in the public.

As a conservative white evangelical, people sometimes find me to be an unlikely voice in this space. But I’ve found that many women are profoundly curious about what to do with their God-given compassion for the strong but vulnerable immigrants we have met.

The politics of immigration remain divisive, but with only 26 percent of evangelicals claiming the Bible is what influences them most on immigration, a lack of biblical knowledge is our true crisis. We must help our faith communities attach biblical confidence to their compassion.

While some might find it a big leap between social advocacy arenas (abortion to immigration), if we’re a pro-life people the jump isn’t far. It’s deeply tethered to our core belief in the imago Dei.

Christians are called to a consistent ethic regarding the dignity and sanctity of human life. We’re not pro-life simply because of our opposition to abortion, but rather out of a biblical understanding of God’s intentional design of human beings made in his image and his hope for their flourishing.

To be truly pro-life is to apply this ethic across the entire spectrum of life, including culture, class, race, age, ability, opinion, and yes, even citizenship. The heartbeat of the pre-born child is immensely valuable, as is the heartbeat of a child at the border, or the one desperate for medical care overseas, or struggling for their next meal in our own backyard.

Loving Your Immigrant Neighbor

When headlines about immigration dominate our social feeds, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are three ways you can begin to engage:

1. Pray

For immigrants and refugees in this country who feel unwelcome and alone. For wisdom on how to show up well wherever God has placed you. For our national leaders who can create solutions for these neighbors.

2. Pursue Proximity

Without proximity to people, nothing becomes personal enough to sustain the complex pursuit of peace and justice for our neighbors. Reach out to a friend or local immigrant congregation. Ask how you can be a tangible support during this time when immigrant communities feel isolated and fearful of the days ahead.

3. Find Your Voice

Wherever God has placed us, with whatever influence we have, as Christians, we must love our neighbor well by speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 31:8). Start with Scripture and let that inspire discussion at home, in the pulpit, and even in the halls of Congress.

Learn more about Women of Welcome 

Hear firsthand stories from immigrants 

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