Tornilla Worship Group
The interfaith team that brought worship to the children and youths incarcerated at the Tornillo, Texas, detention center are (l to r) Xiomara Rodriguez of Forest Meadow Baptist Church; Rev. Gregg Smith of Oak Lawn UMC; Eliana Rios of Elmwood UMC/Wesley-Rankin Center in Dallas; the Rev. Joe Stabile of Highland Park UMC; the Rev. Elizabeth Moseley, Highland Park; the Rev. Owen Ross, director of church development for North Texas Conference; Michael Gomez of Highland Park; and and Beto Rodriguez of Forest Park. No picImam Omar Suleiman, professor of Islamic studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. (Photo Courtesy of North Texas Conference).
Some 400 teen-agers are being given the opportunity to join in interfaith worship at the Tornillo, Texas, immigrant detention center, thanks to the efforts of North Texas United Methodists and other believers.
Amid a highly charged political atmosphere around current U.S. immigration policies, the group focuses on providing worship for the youngsters, said the Rev. Owen Ross, director of church development for the North Texas Annual Conference and leader of the worship team. The group is conducting separate services for some 360 boys and about 40 girls at the detention camp near El Paso, Texas.
In an exclusive interview with United Methodist Insight, Rev. Ross described how the interfaith team was invited to the Tornillo site by its operator, BCFS.
County Judge Clay Jenkins, a member of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, previously had offered housing and other humanitarian services to the Department of Homeland Security at the height of the immigration enforcement separating undocumented families at the border. After Mr. Jenkins’ offer of housing was declined, he shifted his focus to providing faith-based services for the Tornillo camp.
Mr. Jenkins put together an interfaith team with help from the Rev. Elizabeth Moseley, a United Methodist deacon at Highland Park UMC. Then they offered a proposal for worship for the detainees to BCFS. The camp operator invited the team to Tornillo.
Joining in the first trip to Tornillo July 8-9 were Rev. Ross and Rev. Moseley; Xiomara Rodriguez and Beto Rodriguez of Forest Meadow Baptist Church; Rev. Gregg Smith of Oak Lawn UMC; Eliana Rios of Elmwood UMC/Wesley-Rankin Center in Dallas; the Rev. Joe Stabile of Highland Park UMC; Michael Gomez of Highland Park; and Imam Omar Suleiman, professor of Islamic studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
'Awkward at first'
Rev. Ross described the worship service for some 360 boys ages 13 to 17 as “awkward at first.”
“How do you lead worship for 360 Latino boys who don’t know you?” he asked.
The answer came from team member Eliana Rios, a Latinx church planter for the North Texas Conference: “Open with great joy!”
So the group began by singing "Si tuvieras fe" (“If You Have the Faith of a Mustard Seed”) which is accompanied by body movements imitating moving a mountain, as in Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed.
The group’s welcome from the youths was almost comical, said Rev. Ross. “We were treated like any outside group of grown-ups trying to lead teen-agers in songs with movement.”
However, when the worship team launched into its second song, “Our God Is Almighty,” the tent exploded with sound as the boys responded to the well-known Spanish praise song.
“The thunder of their voices and their clapping hands filled the tent,” Rev. Ross recalled. “We invited them to keep singing and we backed off the microphones. They sang with such hope that an Almighty God can deliver them from their current circumstances.”
Crossing the desert
As an interfaith service, worship included prayers from Imam Suleiman along with Hebrew scriptures, readings from the New Testament, and Spanish songs. Rev. Ross said one song particularly moved him.
“It’s called ‘Submerge Me in the River of Your Spirit’ (Sumérgeme en el rió de tu espíritu),” Rev. Ross said. “There’s a line in the song, ‘A desert I have crossed and been left without strength.’ The chorus goes: 'Submerge me in the river of your Spirit. I need to refresh this dry soul that is thirsting for you.' They’ve already crossed a desert, and now they cry out to God to submerge them in the river of the Spirit.”
Tornillo Tents
A view of the tent structures at the Tornillo, Texas, immigration detention center for children and youths. (Photo Courtesy of Owen Ross).
Although the team wasn’t permitted to touch the youngsters physically, such as giving hugs like often happens in worship, they could speak directly with them for prayer.
“We asked them to raise their hands if they wanted prayer, and we fanned out among the crowd,” Rev. Ross said. “It wasn’t pastoral counseling, because we aren’t providing chaplain services.”
Unsurprisingly, the top prayer request among the youths was to get out of detention. The second most requested prayer was for the welfare of their mothers or another family member, Rev. Ross said.
The worship service was appreciated not only by the detainees, but by the staff as well, Rev. Ross said. “The day after we were there, the staff was asked if BCFS should bring us back and they erupted into applause.”
Tenuous future
Although apparently successful, the Tornillo mission’ status is now tenuous. BCFS had a federal contract to operate a 30-day emergency shelter, and now the contract is being extended week by week. Consequently, the worship team’s invitation also is being extended week by week, Rev. Ross said, so he’s in the process of developing local partners who may be able to continue providing weekly worship.
“I’ve spoken with the El Paso district superintendent (Rev. Eddie Rivera), the New Mexico bishop (Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe), and Western Hills United Methodist Church in El Paso,” Rev. Ross said. “We’ve gotten a grant from Texas Methodist Foundation and we’re getting donations in case this turns out to be a long haul.”
The July 14 worship service has been moved to Saturday, which will enable the team to fly down early in the morning and return the same night to help keep costs down. However, it may return to Sundays, depending on how the camp’s schedule proceeds, said Rev. Moseley.
Rev. Ross praised Rev. Moseley and Highland Park UMC for their help: “Highland Park UMC is running all the logistics – working with American Airlines to get us humanitarian rates. They’re handling donations. They bought crafts. We couldn’t do this without Highland Park’s help.”
Deacon reflects on worship
While the political situation around U.S. immigration policies and the detention of minors remains sensitive, Rev. Moseley reflected on the worship team’s first visit on the North Texas Conference website:
“… Day in and day out, throughout the various activities and their routines, they are just waiting. They wait to be told where they’re going. They wait to talk to their families. They wait to know what their future holds.
“We moved from tent to tent throughout the day, as we went from activity to activity ourselves. A worship service with the 340 boys, then lunch, then craft time with 35 girls, then craft time with 20 boys (the others had chosen to play soccer), and finally, another worship service, this time with the girls.
“They loved it all. They loved making the prayer bead necklaces and bracelets. They loved receiving the little paper notepads, pens and pencils. And then the worship – the worship! As piercingly bright as it was outside, nothing was as bright as the light in these children’s faces as we worshipped together.
“They sang the songs loudly, with abandon. They knelt, stood, bowed their heads, prayed out loud, eyes squeezed closed, tears streaming down their faces. They worshipped their God as if their lives depended on it.
“It felt like their lives did depend on it.”
Click here to donate toward the expenses of the Tornillo worship team.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.