Mutual Liberation

As someone who is in the ‘helping profession’, I am often in the perceived position of giving rather than receiving. However, at Tierra Nueva we often experience mutual liberation. As I encounter ‘the other’ I am encountered anew and changed. As I seek to help, I also receive. I delight in the friendships that have developed over these past years, no longer ‘social worker’ and ‘client’ but walking alongside people on the margins in advocacy and friendship. Recently I have experienced a number of beautiful moments of celebration and gratitude. The below stories are tastes of some unexpected gifts I have received this past month...not quite mutual liberation, but definitely blessing & teaching me! 

Bethany Presbyterian Church & Farm Festival!

The past two weekends, I’ve hosted two different groups from Bethany Presyterian Church in Seattle. Both were an immense blessing to us in various ways: helping with the farm’s vegetable harvest; painting our tall stairwell at the TN building; completely renovating our clothing closet, library, and kids room; and painting some old picnic tables for the TN garden.  It was great also to re-connect with these friends from Seattle. 

A highlight was an amazing farm festival! The BPC family group planned various craft & activity stations. There was face-painting, watermelon seed spitting, hat-making, balloon animals, dress-up station, water balloon toss, fishing for prizes, and the great surprise--a huge blow-up slide that the kids (and adults) climbed up and down for a delightful 4 hours! Mallard’s ice cream donated a huge tub of vanilla, which we handed out in overloaded ice cream cones topped with fresh-picked farm raspberries.  

A number of kids and parents kept exclaiming, ‘this is free?’ and ‘I can go on that too?’ People were incredulous that everything was free (well besides some tamales that I had a family make to sell for their profit).  It really was an incredible community gathering, bringing about 100 people together from our faith community, the Faith House, migrant ministry, gang initiative, and farm…in a delightful play day!  It was such a gift to be able to invite families I know to a fun event…and not have to plan and provide for the activities!  Thank you Bethany Pres Church!

Sacrificial Generosity
  Exhausted yet happy, I took 3 kids back to their parents who were visiting my young friend Celia who had just had a baby. We sat in the hospital, the kids running around telling their parents, grandma and aunts about the festival. It was this family I had invited to make tamales, both because they are delicious and because I know they could use the money. Some are working 2 jobs right now, yet have been out of work or skipping to be with Celia having a baby. To my shock and apology, her sister-in-law Elizabeth, a young mom of 2, had ended up making 175 tamales by herself, between midnight and 11:30am. Even still, all was laughter in the hospital and they seemed grateful for the money made from the tamales. At one point they all started talking in Mixtec and then before I knew it, money was being shoved back into my hand by the elderly Elena, saying ‘por su gasolina’. In confusion, at first I resisted, telling them that this was their money they had made from the tamales. The whole family had stopped and were looking at me, as Elizabeth clarified, ‘Bethany, we want to give some of this money to you, for all you do for us.’ I couldn’t believe it, and although attempted refusal in the end I knew I needed to receive it.  More than the actual gift of the money, the family’s earnest and sacrificial generosity continues to bring tears to my eyes.



Blueberries Galore!  
Blueberry harvest is in full swing for my farm-worker friends, and I am getting to taste the fruit of their labor (literally! ;). Yesterday Marcelino and his family came to our worship service with a huge bucket of blueberries to share. Today a young couple Sara and Eleazar brought their buckets straight from work to TN for Salvio and I. It was a quick stop, Sara checking out the clothing closet for some new items, Eleazar getting their mail that comes to TN, and they were on their way to their kids’ doctors’ appointments. They are regular visitors at TN and friends that I have enjoyed visiting in the camps for the past number of summers. Marcelino and his family are among few who still migrate to California in October. So their kids start school in Skagit, transfer in October, and then again in May or June when their family moves back up here. A regular pattern.  Sara & Eleazar on the other hand, stay in Skagit in a nearby apartment, to which I am a frequent visitor.  Eleazar might get some work, but otherwise they will join many others who buckle down and try and make it through winter on little to no income.