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VIRGINIAN PILOT (
Group's mission is to help E. Shore migrant workers
By
Nancy Young
EASTERN SHORE
On the first day of the mission, they already have a plan for the last.
"Leaving is really hard. It really makes you want to cry when they see
that you're not coming back," said Bracey Parr, who's president of
Suffolk Christian Church's youth group and a rising junior at
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.
It's Sunday. The group of about 20 teens, and their chaperones, has just
gotten to Kiptopeke State Park, which will be their base all week for
the mission on the Eastern Shore to help migrant workers.
They have unpacked their food for the week - they'll be having spaghetti
for dinner tonight - and they are getting settled. They haven't seen any
of the children yet.
They wonder whether they'll see the little girl they met last year - the
one who, when they first asked her for her name, said, "Hannah Montana."
Her arms were covered in bruises, but they got her help, and they hear
she's now in a home where she's not being hurt.
Children's bikes are waiting for them on the porch, waiting to be given
out on Thursday, the last day, when maybe that'll make the goodbyes
easier.
This is the third year that Suffolk Christian Church's youth group has
helped migrant workers on the Eastern Shore.
They've been to Bible study camps over the years, many of them. They
were great, but it was all "teaching, teaching, teaching," said Meredith
McLaughlin on this first day of her third mission. After a while, it was
like, "I have been taught all this. What do we do with this?"
Lisa Rath, their youth group leader, offered that, when she was a kid,
her church did mission work with migrant workers on the Eastern Shore.
We should do that, they said three years ago.
Still, there were doubts. They knew that some of the migrant workers
were here illegally. Meredith, who just graduated from Windsor High
School, said that, before her first mission, she was "all Border Patrol,
Border Patrol, Border Patrol."
Not now.
Same with Logan Masters.
"I was kind of skeptical. 'Is this really what God wants us to do?' "
Logan, who's 15, said as she sorted clothes at Casa Esperanza-Alyson
Jolly House of Hope in Wachapreague, a place that offers free food,
clothes, even car seats, to those in need. Mostly, it's migrant workers
who come.
Logan is playing peek-a-boo with a couple of children who are using the
clothing racks as a playground. Sometimes, instead of peek-a-boo, she
says, "Hola."
"This is what He gave us to do," Logan continues. "This is what we have
to do. We can't stop."
"Hey, baby!" she says to a toddler. "I see you."
The teens
believe that if people just knew about the tough lives of the migrant
workers, they'd have to help.
"I really think that politicians should come down and see," Bracey said
angrily. "These people work the jobs Americans don't want. People think
they live off of us; we live off of them."
The teens want to see Carmen Colona, a missionary who runs Casa
Esperanza, get more help. She needs more space. The building is in poor
shape.
"Working with the migrants, working with the kids and seeing their
faces, just to see how much they need," Logan said. "I cannot understand
how they go through this. God must be with them every day just to get
them through this."
It's Thursday,
the last day with the kids. The last day for games and crafts and Bible
stories at the labor camp.
They haven't seen Hannah Montana; she moved to another camp.
Jesus, though, has been keeping everyone on the run, usually wanting
piggyback rides. He's about 7, the teens guess. They've been watching
him grow over the years.
It's Bracey's turn to give Jesus a piggyback ride. He asks Jesus if he
wants to be interviewed for a newspaper article. OK, Jesus replies, but
only if they get running already.
What has been the best part of the group's visit? "When they have toys.
Run!" he orders Bracey.
Making matters more urgent, Jesus is playing keepaway with one of the
teens' flip-flops and she is fast approaching.
This year, Bracey says, Jesus has been preparing for the goodbyes, each
day asking if this was the last.
But, they were right. The gift makes things easier.
On the dirt road out of the camp, Jesus, grinning, races them on his new
bike.
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