A 2,000 mile plus journey

About two blocks from the Covenant church in Ixtepec, Mexico is the train track that runs from Central America through Mexico. This photo show how many people get from the Guatemala/Mexico border to the U.S./Mexico border---a journey of over 2,000 miles. These people are undocumented Central Americans.

This photo was taken on the railroad tracks that go through the city of Ixtepec. I was in Ixtepec last week at the Covenant church and for the first time I walked to the albergue, or shelter, for these undocumented people that is around the corner from the church.

This shelter is run by the Roman Catholic church and once inside the shelter, the people are safe from the Mexican authorities. Some people that have been injured on the rail trip from Tapachula, at the Guatemala border, stay. Some of them have fallen off the top of the boxcars, some have had limbs amputated when they tried to jump from box car to box car and were crushed by the cars, some are here just to rest awhile before continuing the journey.

There was an art exhibit in front of the shelter. An exhibit that depicts the hunched bodies and burdened shoulders of the people making this trip. Their faces are covered and therefore they are unknown. Indeed many times when someone makes this trip, they die and no one knows who they are.
This is the sign in front of the shelter. It says "Here is constructed The Chapel, Refuge of the Immigrant, property of the Catholic church."

People in the U.S., people in Mexico, and people in the originating Central American countries have differing opinions about these immigrants, differing opinions on what should be done or shouldn't be done. In each of the countries for every person that holds one opinion, there is another person in the same country that holds an opposing opinion. Yet these often unknown people-- men, women and children-- are known by God and He care for them.