a tale of two cities, two placements, two countries, one people

Belfast, where Kendra and I spent our first YAV year, is remarkably different from Tucson and the rest of Arizona. It's wet and cold/mild versus dry and hotter than hot. It's one-hundred shades of lush green versus one-hundred shades of some brownish-yellowish-greenish color. It's the majority of the people I work with having an accent that took a few months to get used to compared to a small portion of the population I serve preferring to converse in a language I am simply a novice at. In terms of my work, both places are very relational. However, my hands get a lot more beat up in Tucson.  But in Arizona there is one striking resemblance to Belfast. 

the border wall in Nogales

The wall pictured above is the border wall that separates Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Sonora. Walls are built out of fear. Fear of colors. Fear of languages. Fear of some other. And it all links in to a fear of the loss of power. And walls inhibit. In a Christian sense, they inhibit us from interacting with our neighbor. They inhibit us from loving our neighbor. Keeping someone out is never loving and keeping yourself in robs the world and its people of the gifts you have to offer. Are there times to be afraid? Yes. But we should never let fear dictate our actions. We should never let fear dictate our relationships with other people, especially as self-proclaiming followers of Christ.  

So today, I hope we seek out our neighbor, whomever we find that person to be.

I hope we question why we keep others out and ourselves in. 

And I hope we decided that fear will not dictate our actions and that Love will.