Migrant Missions

Here's the group after beachfront worship one night

In case you’re wondering why June had so few blog entries, with help from many, I arranged and took the New Smyrna Beach United Church of Christ’s Senior High youth group (Teens in Action) on two mission trips this month.

The first trip was to an area in southwestern Florida called Immokalee, where we helped repair a roof for a very sweet lady whose roof had been damaged in Hurricane Wilma (2005). Her roof had been repaired by a friend, but has been leaking for two years. We were joined by 35 youth from United Church of Christ Churches from all over Florida. She was living in a suburb of Immokalee. The trip into Immokalee was an eye-opener for me; we saw terrible living conditions - the farm- workers were living together in very old, small, sometimes rusting trailers and paying $50 a week each. There were reports of some trailers housing up to 12 men at a time. Some of the workers are documented and some are not. All the workers I talked to were here to work and they are not afraid of hard labor. Almost every one of the single men were working here to send money back home to their families. Hearing their stories was heartbreaking. Most were not aware of what they would find once they got here. Some saved up for years to pay someone to bring them across the border. One lady who had paid to come to America, tells of once getting here, being sold. Some came, went back and then went through proper channels to become citizens. One man I talked with told the story of coming to Florida for a vacation after graduating high school. He was able to attend school because of the money his father was sending home. While visiting his father, he came and worked a week (since that was the only way to spend time with him), went back home – found conditions in his village worse than here and came back.
IMMOKALEE GROUP (MINUS CHRIS AND MARTHA)!
Immokalee is a town that fluctuates between 200 and 1000 residents depending on where the ripened fruits and vegetables are. In Immokalee, farmworkers pick tomatoes, watermelons, citrus fruit, squash, hot peppers and more. It is a very fertile area of Florida, near the Everglades.

And it is HOT! I was so proud of the kids who were up on the roof with no shade and no complaints (and I am talking about teenagers here!). After our first day of work, there was rainstorm that evening and Margarita, the mother, told me that her little girl (going into 3rd grade), got out her Barbie doll and waited for the bowl in the living room to fill up so she could play with Barbie in the pool – she was disappointed but Margarita was ecstatic. It felt good to help someone who was in need. Margarita works at a nursing home and her husband was on the road picking. She has five children, three of them live at home and after work each day, she baby-sits her grandson so her son and daughter-in-law can go to work at night.

We stayed the First Baptist Church in Immokalee and along with some members of the community, staff from area farmworker ministries and staff of the UCC, we spent a day learning about the lives of workers and residents of Immokalee. We saw and heard from people whose children had been born deformed and with disabilities becausethe farms are using pesticides - some that are illegal. We picked oranges off of the ground and tried to lift the bags the workers carry up and down 10-20 foot ladders – very few could lift the “medium” bag which holds up to 90 pounds. The workers who picked the oranges and grapefruit were very proud of their skill at picking the right fruit, knowing how to hold the bags, their strength and their abilities to climb a ladder, pick the fruit and place it in the bins so that they will not get bruised. It was heartbreaking to think of the lack of pride so many Americans have in their jobs and see these people making less than $10,000 a year so proud of their work.

We also visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who has been instrumental in getting big corporations to pay 1 cent more per pound to the farmworkers for tomatoes. The workers have not had a raise in pay in 20 years. With boycotts, letter writing campaigns and meetings with corporations, many big companies have agreed to pay 1½ cents more per pound with 1 cent going to the workers and the ½ cent to the grower to cover taxes. One cent per pound does not sound like a lot, but in most cases, it doubled their income.

We had a community party – complete with piñatas, Spanish beans, rice, chicken, cactus salad (mmm, good) and the most delicious burritos I have ever eaten. About six families attended with the cutest, happiest children in tow. It was here we met families, workers, volunteers and residents of Immokalee. I sat with a man who had been a life long resident of Immokalee, a member of the CIW, a volunteer from AmeriCorps and an undocumented immigrant. We talked with the Spanish speaking through interpreters.
As bad as conditions were here, most of the immigrants I talked to said it was better here than in their villages and back home, where there were no jobs available. I went around the room to ask these people what we could do as Americans for them. And some of the answers I got were: “pray for us”, “vote for immigration reform”, “tell people about us”. I was changed, I had always been aware that we needed to help the immigrants, but was more of a “let’s help the workers who come here legally and send the others back with instructions on how to get here legally”. Not any more! I am convinced after meeting the wonderful people of Immokalee that we are in dire need of a pathway to citizenship or some kind of legal status for the farmworkers. They do not report employee abuses for fear of being deported – and this is not just the undocumented workers who live in fear. Those who are American citizens, fear for their grandparents or parents or friends and are afraid to draw any attention from authorities to their families.

Two blocks from where we stood in a “trailer park” where the men were crammed in like sardines, there had been a conviction of human slavery just two weeks ago. 10 men were chained to their trailers at night and only let loose to pick. And all of this goes on one exit away from Naples, the richest city in America. I asked why people in Naples didn’t help and was told that while there are several from there who are involved with the farmworkers plight, most of Naples wanted Immokalee gone – they wanted the farmlands for developing and expansion for the multi-million dollar homes and stores that are so desperately needed by the richest among us.

On our second mission trip, we went to an area near Ruskin (also in southwestern Florida) called Wimauma. We worked at the Beth-El Farmworkers Mission and La Estanzia Apartments (also called the forgotten community. At Beth-El we dug ditches, landscaped, helped in the food pantry and gave out 275 bags of staples, organized a huge tool shed and painted playgrounds and office buildings. Beth-El is a huge ministry - besides the food pantry, they hold classes on computer use; GED classes; Bible classes in Spanish; sponsor a K-8 school with private funds so that anyone can attend; they ride out to area towns and cities to minister to the migrant communities by bringing food and coffee to the workers who get up at 4:30 a.m. to get the parking lots where the busses come to load workers up and take them to the fields; they provide hot meals, respect and love.

On our last day of work, we held a water party for the children of the La Estanzia Apartments – the kids attend a day care center in the community. This is provided by Redlands Christian Migrant Association. The day care center is staffed by volunteers and most children go home around 1 p.m. We bought two kiddie pools, one with a slide and numerous water guns – we let the kids chase us and get us wet and they were sooo happy. These kids are precious – giggling and running around, hollering "more water, more water”. We worked there last year and it was wonderful to see how some had grown and many had learned to speak better English. We can all be proud of the teens and how they loved, cared for and played with the children.


Lots of Love!

Lots of Hugs!

Lots of Fun!
The second trip was also very spiritual with worship services every night which were put on by college students, complete with contemporary music, personal testimonies and prayer. On the last night, we were asked to throw our earthly burdens in the well and accept the living water of Jesus. These kids are dedicated to making our world a better place and I believe they will! It was very moving and uplifting. I am so proud of all ten of our teens for their hard work, their best behavior and their hearts full of love.

What can we do to help? The problem is so overwhelming that I am not sure – there are so many needs. The few decisions I have made are to honor the boycotts from the CIW, pray for the immigrants, donate money to the organizations that help and definitely find out how the people who I help elect feel about immigration reform.