by Tina Stoltzfus Schlabach (June 2000) with additions by editor J. R.Burkholder (December, 2004)

"Armando's" story

(as transcribed by friends in Arizona, soon after his arrival in the USA sometime in 1985)

"I am indigenous and I am from Guatemala - I speak an Indian dialect, Kanjobal. It is good to tell you why I am here in the United States - because in my country we are not wanted; they have taken our dear lands from us, our lands where we sow corn and beans and a little of tomatoes, onions and chiles - this is how we live. And we work, making things which we sell and with the little that we earn, we buy a bit of bread and salt. This is our life, how we lived. But the soldiers came and burned our house, our house where we had a little bit of corn and beans and where we stayed - we fled into the streets - the government orders that we be killed. They think they can do this to all of us but they can’t. We are many and have organized the revolution because the army has assassins who kill our brothers and sisters without compassion. They kill us as if we were animals but we are human and have the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins. It is so, my brothers and sisters. I also came, fleeing, from the mountains because the soldiers wanted to kill me. If I go to Guatemala, they can kill me. I am not saying that I forget my country, no, someday I will return to my land that I am always mindful of...

I want to tell you that when I left Guatemala it was very sad for me. I was risking my life entering the mountains alone - and thinking that the soldiers were able to find me in the mountains - but such is the effort that I made, walking on, and further into the mountains I met a family who was walking and I was okay with them. It was very difficult to find the Mexican border, but I met some others along the way and I traveled with them, coming to Tapachula, looking for some place where I would be safe and also looking for work. I was feeling so anxious for my family that I had left in my pueblo, wondering if something would happen to them.

Little by little, I found work in the coast where there is cotton and I gave thanks to God that I found work - cutting cotton and they were paying 2 pesos per kilo of cotton, and it was the last cutting and difficult work to even make 10 kilos a day - hard work, but I was able to make a little money and sent some to my family because they had no money to even buy food.

After this, I went to another place to cut tomatoes and I worked and sent money to my family and they were able to come to Mexico and we were reunited. Now they are in Mexico, working and making very little - it doesn’t go far nor last long at all, the food is so expensive. My brothers and I are living here now, in the United States.”

The Mission Group story

It was stories like this that compelled us to get personally involved in Central American refugee issues. Armando and many others from Guatemala and El Salvador left their homelands and ways of life in the early 1980’s to seek refuge and a way to make a new life in this country, each with their own unique situation and story. North American churches struggled to respond to what was happening. Many of us strongly disagreed with our government’s interventions in Central America and tried to work for change in these policies. At the same time movements arose to provide hospitality to the refugees - such as the national Sanctuary movement, which began at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona, and the Overground Railroad, a ministry of Reba Place Community in Evanston, Illinois.

During these years some of us at Assembly Mennonite Church began wondering if we had a role to play in providing some kind of refuge for displaced persons from wartorn El Salvador and Guatemala. Along with wanting to be of help to the refugees, we also were pained by our government’s role in aiding the repressive armies of these countries, as well as the U.S. military support of the “contras” in Nicaragua, who were trying to unbalance and ultimately overthrow the new Sandinista government. Our grappling with these questions would lead us, in May, 1986, to host Armando and two of his companions in Goshen, and to try to support them.

As a church, we had a personal connection to El Salvador through Mario Lopez, his wife, Anna, and their children Laura and Mario, members of Assembly. Mario, Salvadoran, carried concerns for his country’s situation, and also for his extended family still in El Salvador. In May of 1984, a refugee committee was formed to try to be of help to Mario and his family in bringing others from his Salvadoran family to Goshen with the support of the congregation. However, the family decided not to come at that time.

On February 10, 1985, a group of people met at the Assembly apartment, (which Tina Stoltzfus and Kathy Meyer shared at that time) to talk together about the potential of Assembly’s involvement in Central American refugee issues and needs. Present at this first meeting were Tina Stoltzfus, Sue Burkholder, Ann Gilbert, Tim Wyse, Mario Lopez, Chuck Gibson, Linda Miller, Ann Weber-Becker, and Becky Stoltzfus. Each person present was asked to share about: 1) their personal interest in Central American refugee work, 2) whether they feel Assembly should become involved with refugees in some way, and 3) if Assembly did become involved, whether they would have time to commit to the project, and for how long. The meeting resulted in the decision to gather information about both the Overground Railroad movement, and the Sanctuary movement.

The group continued to meet weekly. As we explored ways to become a hosting congregation to Central American refugees, we decided we would like to continue to "be a group." We wanted to keep Assembly involved, and to support other communities working with refugees. We wondered about becoming a mission group modeled after Church of the Savior, in Washington, D.C. This would mean all of us leaving our current small groups, however.

By June of '85 we had named ourselves the Central American mission group. In time this group would include: Tina Stoltzfus Schlabach, Bruce Yoder, Jenny Dillon, Don and Carolyn Blosser, Chuck Gibson, Karen Miller, Monica Denny, Tim Wyse, Mario Lopez, Saul Murcia, Lois Blosser, Janette and Neil Amstutz, Sue and J.R. Burkholder, Tim Nofziger, and Steve Harnish. Most of us were college students and "twenty-somethings." We valued the experience and wisdom of the two older couples of the group: Sue and J.R., and Carolyn and Don. The small groups we had been a part of released us for the forming of this new group. A few members of the group came from other churches. We used Gordon Cosby’s Handbook for Mission Groups as we tried this new path together. Cosby defines a mission group as:

"a small group of people conscious of the action of the Holy Spirit in their lives, enabling them to hear the call of God through Christ, to belong in love to one another, and to offer the gift of their corporate life for the world’s healing and unity." (Handbook for Mission Groups, p. 54)

We all were excited to form a group which would begin with a clearly understood "outward journey" as well as a commitment to the "inward journey." When we met together we would take turns leading the group in an opening meditation, sharing time, and prayer. Then we would turn to the tasks that we had set for ourselves to work on as a group. We took turns meeting in each other’s houses.

As the mission group continued to meet and to prepare for hosting refugees, we were also active participants in a nationwide effort opposing U.S. aid to the “Contras” in Nicaragua, called the "Pledge of Resistance." Some mission group members, along with others from Assembly and other area churches, took part in a sit-in at Congressman John P. Hiler's South Bend office on the day the House of Representatives was voting to approve $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan rebels (June 12, 1985). Mr. Hiler voted for that aid. After the demonstrators occupied the main work area of Hiler's office for nearly ten hours, politely but firmly stating their opposition to renewed U.S. aid to the Contras, police gave them five minutes to leave or face arrest. Assembly folks who spent the night in jail, arrested on criminal trespass charges, were: Byron and Ann Weber-Becker, J.R. Burkholder, Mary Metzler, Phil Stoltzfus, and Tim Wyse.

On June 16, 1985, the Central American mission group brought a proposal to an Assembly members meeting: "that the Overground Railroad and the Chicago Religious Task Force be informed that Assembly is willing to provide sanctuary for Central American refugees." The proposal included the implications of prosecution for the felony charge of "harboring undocumented aliens." The proposal also outlined the responsibilities that the mission group felt able to take on, in hosting refugees, as well as the support the mission group was asking of the congregation. This proposal was discussed and accepted by the congregation. The mission group agreed to come to the congregation again, once specific refugees were being considered, for the congregation’s discernment and decision.

A major project for the group was planning and carrying out a local fundraiser, the "Run for Refuge." This run happened in May 1986. We mapped out a 5-K route for runners at Oxbow Park, complete with t-shirts and water stations. Different group members were responsible for different parts of planning this event, such as publicity and coordination of the run itself. Runners gathered pledges, which the group used to pay off costs and then to donate to several groups directly helping Central American refugees. There was great excitement the day of the run; it went smoothly, except for one segment of the run where runners got a bit lost before they found the markers again. Pledges were generous, and the outcome was a gain, after costs, of almost $3,000 to give to border and national groups working with refugees.

Also, in May, soon after the run, the national sanctuary movement contacted us about a Guatemalan couple with two young children who needed refuge. A members meeting was called to discern whether we were ready to move ahead with hosting refugees ourselves. The mission group drew up a paper for Assembly elders, detailing background of this family, and what would be needed from both the mission group and the congregation in terms of both people resources and financial resources. At the members meeting, the mission group and the congregation shared information and questions openly with each other. I remember that it felt empowering, as a mission group member, for the Assembly congregation to say "yes" to this "call," and to follow through in support with the church budget, with prayers and many kinds of help.

For reasons I do not remember, the family of four did not come to us. Instead, we were asked to consider hosting three single Guatemalan men. Single men were generally more difficult to place with congregations than families. The mission group and the congregation said "yes" to this request, and we put our energies into finding and preparing a house for them to move into. We rented a house in north Goshen, and supplied it with necessary furniture and kitchen supplies.

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 1986, Lois Blosser, Saul Murcia and J.R. Burkholder drove to Markham, IL to meet Chuck and Bonnie Neufeld. After discussing their work with refugees as part of Sanctuary movement, our team met the three Guatemalans who used the assumed names Tomas, Armando, and Alejandro. Upon arrival in Goshen, Tina, Becky, and Jenny were waiting to welcome the men to their new home.

"Armando," "Tomas," and "Alex" spoke Kanjobal (one of the hundreds of the indigenous languages of Indians of Guatemala) as their first language, and Spanish, more haltingly, as their second. English, their third language, came fairly quickly for Alex, who was a young teenager, more slowly for Armando, and not at all for Tomas, who was partially deaf. From the very beginning, this experience for the mission group was a huge cultural stretch, as it was, much more profoundly, for the Guatemalan Indian men. The Guatemalans, or "the Guats," as J.R. came to nickname them, were warm, loving, and did their best to adapt to this very different world they now found themselves in. Alex had a great sense of humor. Tomas was very quiet and reserved, and showed us his beautiful embroidery handwork that he sewed on blouses and shirts. Armando found himself in the role of "head of household," as he was the most able to secure work in local factories.

In the time all three Guatemalans were with us there were many challenges for them and for us. We came to understand that the most pressing needs for Tomas and Armando were to make money to send to family members still in Mexico and living in poverty. This weighed especially heavily on Tomas, who had young children there. I believe they found themselves much farther from Mexico than they had really wanted to go. In less than a year, Tomas decided to return to the Mexican border town to his wife and children. Armando stayed at least two more years, and was joined after about a year by a young teenage girl, Maria Ester, his Mexican companion. Alex went to school at Bethany Christian, where Rhoda Keener shepherded him through high school. One year Alex was invited to tell his story about leaving his country to the Bethany student body during a chapel service.

Our mission group went through many adventures and crises with our Guatemalan brothers. After about two years, we accepted Armando and Ester's decision to return to the southwest/Mexican border region. Alex, courageously, decided to stay in Goshen. Sally and John Weaver Glick, with David and Beth, opened their home to him for the first years after Armando left. After graduating from Bethany, he looked for work to support himself. For much of the next decade, Alex made his home with the Tim and Margaret Thut family. The Thuts and others worked with Alex through the long process of obtaining a green card as a legal immigrant, finally made official with his birth name, Luis Francisco. Traveling with Dan Thut he was able to visit Guatemala in 1999.

Alex-Luis now lives and works in Philadephia and maintains contacts with Goshen friends, especially the Thut family. We know that his early traumatic experiences in a violent land have left their scars. In one visit with him a few years ago, he told me a little about the loneliness he feels in not belonging quite anywhere.

Summing up

Most of us "twenty-somethings" who began the Central American mission group moved away from Goshen in the late 80's and early 90's. Ours was not a mission group for the long haul. We made mistakes, and perhaps, speaking now for myself, motivation may have come more from my need to DO something about the terrible things happening in Central America, than from certainty about God's call. And yet... I believe we were faithful in our desire to unsettle our lives by our involvement with individual Central American people, and to learn from them, and from our encounters with them. I also have very positive memories of being part of a small group with an outward focus - a mission - and of how we worked together, prayed together, and shared together. I will always feel a special bond with all my fellow mission group members, even though life has scattered us.

Alex-Luis, may God bless you and guide you as you make your life here in the USA. Tomas and Armando, and Maria Ester, I don’t know where you are; may God bless you and protect you. I hope you have had what you needed. Even though I am not sure that coming to Goshen was the right thing for you, I am grateful that we touched each other’s lives, and that we have a God who works for good in all things.