I believe this ministry is important, because everyone should be able to worship God, and everyone needs hope.
“We are also providing a safe place for an emotional release. Tears flow freely, even in the boys’ service.
“During the prayer time, there is permission to cry out to God.
— The Rev. Dr. Owen Ross on the ministry he and other church folks from the Dallas area are doing with kids in detention on the Texas border.

The United Methodist Church at its best: A team of dynamic United Methodist pastors and leaders are working with other Dallas church folk to hold worship and prayer services with hundreds of detained children in Tornillo, Tx.
Speaking of border kids down in Texas (see yesterday’s post)…
The Texas Methodist Foundation* has a terrific interview with the Rev. Dr. Owen Ross, a friend of mine from the United Methodist Church’s North Texas (Dallas Area) Annual Conference.
A Texas native and (let’s hear it, Aggies!) graduate of Texas A&M, Owen is something of a legend in North Texas for his lifelong ministry with the Spanish-speaking poor. He now holds a special church development office as a member of the Dallas Bishop’s cabinet.
So I invite you, and urge you, to read an interview the aforementioned Texas Methodist Foundation had with Owen about the weekend ministry that he and a team of church or church-related ministers are doing in Tornillo, Tx., the now famous (infamous?) tent home to children being held by the Trump Administration.
Here are a couple of excerpts, including ways for Christians to respond to the crisis:
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Interviewer: What exactly are you doing and what is involved? How are the teenagers, who participate, responding?
Owen: Each week we go into the detention center and lead a worship service at 10 am for about 340 teenage boys. Most are unaccompanied minors, but some arrived with their families and were separated. Then we have lunch and an afternoon worship service with about 35 teenage girls. We seek to find songs they know and songs that are relevant. When they are singing a song they know, they fill the room with their voices and sing with abandon. They see God as their only hope; worship becomes very powerful when people have a deep hunger and a very present need for God to intervene on their behalf.
When we go into communion and prayer time, most of the team goes around the room to reach teens who want personal prayer. I believe that is the most important service we are providing. The #1 prayer request – Pray for my case. The #2 prayer request – Pray for my mom or other family members. They are afraid; they are afraid of being sent back to their country of origin,after they have been on such an arduous journey. They are afraid for their family members who are left behind, and they are scared to discover what will happen if they are deported.
Interviewer: What are the best ways for a church to respond to the current crisis at the border?
Owen: There are four categories you can fall into if you arrive at the border as an immigrant. (1) You have a spouse, parent or immediate family member who is the US; (2) You have extended family here, like an aunt or an uncle; (3) If you are a minor, you have a family friend who has been authorized by your parent to receive you and that person has passed a background check; (4) You have no one to serve as your sponsor.
Some of the youth at the detention center in Tornillo do not have sponsors in the US. However, Church World Service (CWS) is working right now to help find sponsors. Churches can identify as sponsors and help people get out of detention. Individuals can serve as sponsors, too. If you or your church is concerned about the crisis at the border, you can take action right now through CWS and you will be an answered prayer for someone who is stuck at the border, if you do.
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*Please go here for pictures and the entire interview, and more about the great work the Texas Methodist Foundation does.