OUR MISSION & WHO WE ARE
For too long, our communities, churches, and service providers have borne the burden of helping suffering families – with no end in sight – because of a broken immigration system. Now, we are ready to build a kingdom that honors all children and families. It's time for people of faith to pursue advocacy that heals our kingdom.
MISSION
There are 92 verses in the Bible that call us to welcome the stranger. Some verses remind us that the stranger may be our brother or sister — a member of the same body of Christ, other verses that we tell us that we meet Jesus in the stranger and still other verses that teach us that the stranger may be an angel in disguise (Hebrews 13:2).
There are also a multitude of everyday stories that reveal the ineffective, illogical and inhumane nature of our current immigration system. It breaks up families and ignores the economic and other contributions of immigrants to our country.
For too long, our communities, churches, and service providers have borne the burden of helping suffering families – with no end in sight – because of a broken immigration system. Now, we are ready to build a kingdom that honors all children and families. It's time for people of faith to pursue advocacy that heals our kingdom.
MISSION
There are 92 verses in the Bible that call us to welcome the stranger. Some verses remind us that the stranger may be our brother or sister — a member of the same body of Christ, other verses that we tell us that we meet Jesus in the stranger and still other verses that teach us that the stranger may be an angel in disguise (Hebrews 13:2).
There are also a multitude of everyday stories that reveal the ineffective, illogical and inhumane nature of our current immigration system. It breaks up families and ignores the economic and other contributions of immigrants to our country.
We need an overhaul of the system that respects the sacredness of the family & supports the unity of the family.
There are many concerns about the immigration system and legislation pending in the House to address those concerns – but the concerns of families are largely not being attended to or represented.
We are organizing people of faith to encourage our legislators to live out their calling as Christian policymakers by prioritizing the creation of a just and compassionate system with a path to full legal status for families suffering from the brokenness of the system.
We call on our leaders, not as Republicans or Democrats, not as policy experts, but as their brothers and sisters in Christ who care about their standing before God and want to en-courage them to be a witness to the great love of the One who said “Whatever you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do to me.”
WHO WE ARE
We are organizing people of faith to encourage our legislators to live out their calling as Christian policymakers by prioritizing the creation of a just and compassionate system with a path to full legal status for families suffering from the brokenness of the system.
We call on our leaders, not as Republicans or Democrats, not as policy experts, but as their brothers and sisters in Christ who care about their standing before God and want to en-courage them to be a witness to the great love of the One who said “Whatever you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do to me.”
WHO WE ARE
Maria Karen was born in Mexico, migrated to the US when she was 5 years and grew up in Kentucky. She graduated from Montgomery County as the Senior Homecoming Queen, while achieving leadership honors. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor’s of Arts in International Studies Economic and Spanish. In efforts to continue her passion in activism for undocumented immigrant rights , she pursued her Masters’ in Spanish at the University of Louisville in the fall of 2011 and co-founded the Kentucky Dream Coalition.
Marco Saavedra is an undocumented poet and painter. Originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, he was raised in New York, studied in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Currently he works with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, educating, organizing and helping in stopping deportations. Steve Pavey is an applied anthropologist & missiologist engaged in activist scholarship as a Senior Research Scientist at the One Horizon Institute, Lexington, Kentucky. He utilizes collaborative and participatory research methods alongside activism with communities organizing for immigrant justice. He is a member of the steering committee for the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network, as well as close ally to the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. Rev. Alexia Salvatierra is currently the Director of Justice Ministries for the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She also serves as a consultant (training, facilitating, organizing and leading strategic planning) for a variety of national/international organizations. Her clients include World Vision USA/World Vision International/Women of Vision, the Womens’ Donor Network, Auburn Theological Seminary, Interfaith Worker Justice, PICO, Sojourner’s, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Christian Community Development Association. She is adjunct faculty at the New York Theological Seminary and Biola University, and has lectured at Fuller Seminary, University of Southern California and UCLA. She is currently under contract with Intervarsity Press for a book on Faith-Rooted Organizing (to be published Nov. 2013). |