A thank-you note sent to IWC by a young girl.
This month, let’s listen to each other! What about our work inspires you and keeps you coming back to the bus station, the airport, the backpack team, advocacy? Is there a moment in your work when you felt utter gratitude to be where you were, doing what you were doing? Let’s listen to each other’s stories!
- Was there a time when an encounter with an immigrant made you smile or laugh?
- Have you been present when a person’s compassion really shone through. An asylum seeker, perhaps? Another volunteer?
- Have you experienced an encounter that broke your heart?
- Have you experienced a moment with a child or adult which felt almost sacred?
- What small moment pops back into your mind repeatedly?
Example from a volunteer:
A few weeks ago, I was working at the bus station. A group of families with lots of children had just arrived on one of the buses from Brownsville. None of them had tickets to travel onward and all needed to go to Centro de Bienvenida. I seated them and handed out sandwiches and water while I worked on arranging their transportation to the shelter.
As I was moving from the seating area to the area where we stage our supplies, a Greyhound passenger stopped me. He said, in slightly accented English, “Thank you for what you are doing for them. That was me about 13 years ago. You don’t know what it means.”
Thank you for thinking about these moments! Keep your story to about three minutes or less and know that your story can help all of us gratefully remember that we are doing the important work of welcoming the stranger, feeding the hunger and comforting the children—together.
The General Meeting of IWC takes place by Zoom on the second Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. If you receive this newsletter, you will also receive a meeting invitation with the meeting agenda and zoom address.
- Slides presented at the July 2023 meeting are available here.
- Slides of earlier meetings are available on the IWC website here.
Each 90-minute meeting consists of a speaker from a collaborating organization, a report of current immigration/detention news as covered by the media, reports from IWC committees and ministries, a financial report, info about the number of people served by our various ministries, and any other current issues which affect our volunteers and supporters.
