Divinity Pride is raising money for El Jardín de las Mariposas, an LGBTQ+ rehabilitation and migration Center in Tijuana, Mexico. The funds will support the center's growing medical expenses.
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Hi, Divinity Pride and Friends:
As some of you may already know, my field education placement this summer is with La Casa del Migrante, a migrant family shelter here in Tijuana, Mexico. Although I have been busy at La Casa working, learning, and growing, I have found time to be in community with a special group of LGBTQ+ people through El Jardín de las Mariposas.
El Jardín de las Mariposas (Butterfly Garden) is a rehabilitation center and a shelter for migrants and refugees from the LGBTQ community from all around the world. It exists as a space of relief and hope for those who need a home to heal and achieve their dreams. Most, if not all migrants that pass through the center, have escaped extreme violence from their home countries and cities, and have sought refuge with El Jardín I met one Jamaican migrant whose skin is completely burned and in the process of healing. A group of men in Kingston, Jamaica cornered him, pinned him down, and lit his body on fire - - all because he is gay. A migrant Russian couple in the shelter told me that they had to flee Russia because one of their neighbors reported evidence of their relationship to the authorities. If they had not left Russia, they would have been imprisoned or killed. One of the trans migrants from Honduras told me that she was thrown out of the house after she came out as a trans woman. Her parents tolerated when she came out as gay; however, when she came out as trans, she was told to leave and never come back.
El Jardín de las Mariposas provides food, clothes, workshops, legal advice, and mental and physical care. Even more, they are providing a sense of love, safety, and liberation, and are saving and changing lives.
As Pride month ends officially, and its spirit continues in and through us every month, I want to ask our community to take a moment to give charitably to our international LGBTQ+ siblings.
I have thought a lot about borders since I have been here in Tijuana. I have thought a lot about God and a lot about the LGBTQ+ community. The people that I have met, like Jesus, know what it is like to leave everything behind. Jesus was once with us but left this earth to steward love in a new place. The same can be said of our LGBTQ+ siblings at El Jardín. Our faith teaches us to extend out our hands to a God that no longer walks among us. It teaches us to consider what God needs of us, then we go forth and do it. Our faith, in many ways, is without borders. We pray, worship, and act through a love that holds Jesus closely even without his physical presence. I hope that we can share a faithful and borderless love by supporting El Jardín de las Mariposas and our international LGBTQ+ siblings.
I want to challenge our community to donate $2000.00 US. I will start us out with a personal $100.00 donation. The money will go directly to El Jardín de las Mariposas. I have opted to provide them the agency to use the money however they need to. The funds will likely go towards health care expenses, given that nearly 70% of their population is immune compromised.
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