A little faith and a little (mustard) seed money

ATLANTA – “Today, my children are studying and have what they need thanks to the kindness of the Comunidad de Paz Haws. My children are happy to have attended the Christian camp and my baby has had what he needs since his birth.”

This testimony of Patrice*, a single mother from Guatemala, speaks to the importance of local churches opening their doors to receive and offer help to migrants who have endured hardship and sometimes horrific circumstances to ask for asylum in the United States.

Comunidad de Paz Haws was developed by Haws Avenue United Methodist Church in Norristown, Pa. In 2023, the congregation received a $2,000 Mustard Seed Migration Grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to expand its ministry in an area with a large Hispanic-Latino population.

A year after Patrice’s husband was killed in their village, she began to receive threatening messages that her children would meet the same fate. She packed up what she could and headed north with her children through Mexico and into the United States. They, like many immigrants crossing the U.S. border in the last three years, were received by the U.S. Border Patrol and loaded onto a bus. They did not even know where the bus was going.

Two young men from Nicaragua welcomed by Comunidad de Paz Haws described how they suffered from hunger, cold and mistreatment in a refugee camp at the border. They arrived in Pennsylvania in the middle of winter with nothing but a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. They came to the church seeking clothing and some food.

The Rev. Lisa DePaz, pastor of Haws Avenue UMC, describes her church as being an aging and small church that lacks the financial resources to help alleviate the economic needs of arriving immigrants. “It has been a barrier to actively demonstrating God’s love,” she said. “This grant has helped fulfill the goal of reaching out to this community.

“As a result of this project, anxiety, loneliness, misinformation and a sense of not belonging have significantly decreased among the 11 refugees and immigrants we served.” Haws UMC provided assistance with rent and bus tickets for transportation to job interviews. Single mothers, the majority of the recipients, received necessary supplies for their babies.

While some congregations can meet and interact with migrants in their communities, others are restricted by state or federal laws. The Somerset UMC congregation in Massachusetts wanted to help new arrivals.

When the project started, Jane Larsen, the church’s Staff-Parish Relations chair, networked to find ways to get supplies into the local hotel where Massachusetts was housing the migrants.

“Due to rules and regulations, we were not allowed to have direct contact with the migrants. All donations were given to them by the National Guard who were stationed at the hotel. Only the National Guard and our Town Health had access.” A key strategy for the congregation was to make friends with the health agent and members of the National Guard. This turned out to be the best way to serve those inside the hotel.

The state provided minimal supplies to arrivals to help with basic needs. Through the grant money and donations from church members, additional items, such as winter clothing, could be provided. In addition to supplies and food items, seven car seats were purchased so families could take their children to doctor’s appointments and other places.

In late December, the migrants were moved to better accommodations in Raynham, Mass. The church continued to deliver supplies to Raynham. The families were aware that the donations were given by members of Somerset United Methodist Church and through an UMCOR Mustard Seed Migration Grant.

Maple Grove United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio, set up an English conversation ministry to help more migrants with basic English skills.

But they also used their grant to focus primarily on one family, to help them through a complicated asylum process. The family, with a teenaged girl and a baby, fled from Ghana to Brazil to spare the young woman from the practice of female circumcision and the stigma and harassment of refusing to accept the practice. They made their way up the continent into the United States to ask for asylum, but then discovered attaining asylum is not easy or straight forward.

The family from Ghana was sent from the southern U.S. border to New York City, where they began their asylum request. They knew of a large Ghanaian community in Columbus and moved the family there. But that meant starting all over. They decided, on their New York lawyer’s advice, to move back to New York until their asylum paperwork could be finished. It took five months, and all the while, Maple Grove UMC found ways to support them.

Now the family has Social Security numbers, work permits, and state identification, which allows them to work and access Ohio medical and other family support systems. Their asylum case has been transferred to Ohio, so it will take an additional year before they know if they will be granted asylum.

The congregation has accepted this Muslim family, which now comes regularly to church. One member took off work and drove all the way to New York to bring the family back to Ohio because the mother was in her last month of pregnancy.

The Rev. Patricia Wagner, pastor of Maple Grove UMC last year, says the family became part of the congregation. “That they are Muslim, and that they dress in traditional style with head coverings, seems to make no difference to anyone anymore,” she noted. “When the family returned to worship, the congregation applauded. We had a baby shower for the mother in the next week, and soon their son was born.”

Being in community with migrants can be as creative as a congregation’s collective imagination and a Mustard Seed Migration Grant can be the push over the top that launches a new ministry. These three congregations took the chance of starting something new and have given and received the blessings of shared lives and the abundance of God’s grace.

Mustard Seed Migration Grant applications are open for 2024 projects. To learn more, visit https://umcmission.org/story/mustard-seed-migration-grants/.

* Name changed.

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor for Global Ministries and UMCOR.