REFUGEE AND BORDER MINISTRY

The Refugee and Border Ministry takes literally the words of Jesus in Matthew 25 to welcome the strangers in our midst. At St. Francis we have special opportunities to carry out this mission to serve both refugees and immigrants, following the guidelines of the Episcopal Migration Ministries office. Because of our location near the border with Mexico and because Tucson has several agencies that work to settle political refugees through The United Nations and US State Department programs, our ministry has been particularly active in carrying out this mission.

One of our big projects has been working with the Lutheran Social Services Refugee Focus program to resettle an Afghan family of four sisters and their elderly father who fled Afghanistan many years ago and had been living in Iran before entering the US Immigration Resettlement Program. We provided all the resources (both material and emotional) to resettle this charming family and continue to consider them part of our parish family. 

We also support Central American and Mexican asylum-seekers and deportees at our border, primarily through our support of the Kino Border Initiative and Cruzando Fronteras. We provide financial assistance and collect needed supplies from diapers to flip-flops (a list of current needs can be found here), and teach some beginning English to those waiting in Cruzando Fronteras shelters as part of an English as a Second Language (ESL) program.  In addition, we provide a monthly meal to residents at the KBI Comedor (dining room) in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. 

Please join us in our efforts; there is much to do!