Would you entrust your young
children to a total stranger?
Would you entrust your young children to a total stranger?
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A Desperate Escape
About ten years ago a young couple fled Mexico with their two small children. Cartel violence in their area had made them fear for their lives.
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To escape their desperate situation, they paid a coyote (smuggler) to help them cross the border.
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When the coyote looked at their two small children, he told the parents that the children would not survive the mountain journey on foot. The terrain was too harsh, the distances too long. Instead, he said the children would be taken across separately by car.
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When the Risk Changed
In that moment, when the parents realized they would be separated from their small children, the nature of the risk changed dramatically.
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The danger was no longer just the mountains. The deeper danger was separation.
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The parents would have to entrust their small children to strangers and hope they would see them again on the other side.
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And yet they said yes.
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Their Only Hope
What must their life have been like for this to feel like their only hope?
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They said yes because staying in Mexico felt even worse.
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For several days the mother and father walked through harsh mountain terrain with a group of migrants led by the coyote. The journey was exhausting and dangerous. At several points, they thought they might die.
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Yet somehow, they made it. Miraculously, they were reunited with their children.
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Today this family is quietly building a life in Wichita, Kansas. Both parents work and pay taxes. They now have several children. Their faith is strong, family is central in their lives, and extended family members live nearby.
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A New Life in the Shadows
Yet many shadows still hang over their daily routines. For example, because they are undocumented, they cannot obtain driver’s licenses. Every time they drive to work, to school, or to the grocery store, they carry the risk of being stopped and deported.
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We know this immigrant family because recently they faced a medical emergency involving one of their children. Since they did not have health insurance, the out-of-pocket cost of treatment was overwhelming.
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When we heard about the situation, we decided we wanted to help. So my wife Margaret, a bilingual friend, and I delivered cash to the family.
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When we arrived, the mother had prepared a meal and invited us to sit at the kitchen table with her. She spoke only Spanish, so our friend translated as she shared the story of how her family came to America.
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Pilgrimage Reframed
Their story has changed the way I read Psalm 84:5:
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“Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.”
(Psalm 84:5 NIV)
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For most immigrant families, pilgrimage is more than a metaphor. It is their lived experience. They have walked through valleys of violence, fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty in search of safety and hope.
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But Psalm 84 also reminds us that we are all pilgrims. Our strength is meant to come from the Lord, and the journey of faith often leads us through valleys before we discover the springs of hope and provision that God provides.
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My own journey into understanding immigration began with curiosity. Along the way, listening to stories like this one has quietly reshaped my heart. Sometimes it takes proximity to gain deeper understanding.
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Pilgrimage sometimes leads us to places we never expected.
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Sometimes it leads us to a kitchen table where we simply listen.
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An Invitation to Walk Further
And sometimes, if we are willing to listen, we discover that God is inviting us to keep walking a little farther down the road toward welcome.
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Stories like this naturally raise many important questions. Questions about risk, law, compassion, fairness, and what responsibility followers of Jesus may have toward families living in the shadows. Explore these questions plus common objections, common misconceptions, and reflections at Wrestling With the Complexity.