Forest Lake Talks

From PC(USA) Mission Co-Worker Mark Adams. Mark serves the bi-national border ministry, Frontera de Cristo. In June, a team from FLPC will travel to the border of Mexico to spend a mission week with Mark.

On February 15, a day when the news cycle was filled with stories of walls and a declaration of national emergency, more than 400 people joined together at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Tucson for a Taste of Chiapas.  The Taste of Chiapas is an annual celebration that we organize to celebrate and educate how the vision and work of the farming families of Café Justo to address root causes of migration has been a powerful instrument of reconciliation.

We celebrate that God has destroyed the dividing walls of hostility and gave thanks to God for Cafe Justo, one concrete example of that reality;

We celebrate that the faith-filled vision of farmers for an alternative to migration is more powerful than fear and hate;

We celebrate that love and friendship crosses borders;

We celebrate that in God's kin-dom we come from North and South, east and west; young and old; Catholic and Mennonite, Episcopalian and Lutheran; Presbyterian, UCC and all faith traditions; people of conscience, conservative and liberal;

We celebrate God's call in our life to love mercy and do justice;

And we commit to pray and work for mercy and justice until all dividing walls of hostility are down.