Enriched in mission by children and youth

University students on Border awareness trip. Photo: Missionary Society of St. Columban, USA

Sitting in my office at the Columban Mission Center in El Paso, Texas, I felt something was missing. It had been a busy morning so far on that hot day. We still had about half of the 30 migrant families that immigration authorities had brought for us to shelter. Some of our guests might stay with us for up to three or four days as they wait for the volunteer drivers from the area to take them to the airport or one of the bus stations in town.

A group of teenagers were chatting together on the front steps. The mothers had gathered to share their stories in the large dining room, and one seven-year-old child was by himself in the lecture hall next to the dining room, not far from his mother, and bored.

I was catching up on correspondence that morning and had a pile of deskwork ahead. However, I thought about this smart little boy, all by himself, from Honduras, who had been helping with housecleaning and pulling up weeds outside to the best of his ability. It was too hot to work outdoors now, though, in the great Chihuahuan desert where El Paso, Texas, Juarez, Mexico, and other towns of this region were located. I decided to help him pass the time since no one else his age was around to play with him.

So, we invented a game with some toys and items in the lecture hall. I found two “Hot Wheels” tiny cars, and we built a ramp from a narrow board, putting one end on top of a half-dozen hardcover books on top of a folding table about six feet long. Then we placed seven dominoes at different points at the other end of the table, standing them up, and I got a paper and pencil.

Taking turns letting each of our two cars run straight down the ramp and hitting one of the dominoes, we kept scoring according to the dots on each fallen domino until the first one to score more than 50 points won! We both knew it was a silly game, but we got into it, and the boy was thrilled. His mother told me afterwards that it meant a lot to him to be paid attention to like that. Curiously, it also did something for me; after about an hour of play, I returned to my deskwork. I began to reflect on how we, as adults, take many things so seriously and need to get in touch with the value of play for a sense of balance in our lives. Not for the first time, I felt thankful for one of many lessons I learned from migrating people.

Many U.S. universities would send groups of about a dozen students each year to spend a week under our guidance at the U.S.-Mexico border, where they would hear, see, and reflect upon their experiences.

One of the most gratifying effects of this Border Awareness Program offered by the Columban Mission Center was when I followed up with such groups afterwards and found out about the important decisions the participants made once they returned to New York, Chicago, Omaha, or wherever. Immigration lawyers, government leaders, social workers, and, yes, even cross-cultural missionaries like us emerged as the new career choices of some of the participants. I saw the same thing happen in many young people while I lived and worked in Chile, during the dictatorship, too, years before and marvelled once again at how such activities of solidarity and accompaniment of vulnerable populations altered their life decisions.
While in El Paso, I helped young visitors witness the suffering of migrating people, inspiring them to change their lives. Now, in Bristol, I offer Sunday Mass to around twenty students at Roger Williams University. The Catholic campus ministry had difficulty securing a regular priest, so I volunteered to help.

It’s humbling for me to see how, once again, accompanying young adults enriches my life with their example of devotion during the Mass and willingness to live their faith in their lives and in preparations for their careers. Some students volunteer at a nearby parish, helping refugee families by moving donated furniture. We also organized a towel donation drive on campus and gathered over 50 towels for the refugees.

Children and young adults have interrupted and run laughing through my life’s plans, projects, and schedules, much to my wonder and delight. They still do, no matter where Christ’s mission has brought me over the years. I thank God for the grace of these breaks in my routines and for the part of me that gets invited to come out and get some exercise, games, and fun! The profound wisdom of Jesus’ teaching gets clearer and moves my heart more deeply as time goes on, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

Columban Fr. Robert Mosher lives and works in Rhode Island.

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