The ministry from Louisville on the border

Julia Hennessy followed a career in the hospitality industry in Boston when she decided to make the 40-hour drive from Boston to the border between the USA and Mexico.

She spent the next four months – from August to December 2024 – her experience in hospitality to welcome and serve migrants in St. Francis Xavier Migrant Shelter, a transition home that was led by the priests of the Augustiner of the Acceptance in El Paso, Texas.

Hennessy comes from Louisville and a Catholic school graduate, said she was active in the Catholic Ministry in Boston, but called myself to give herself in a greater way.

Without the background in migration services or “strong political opinions” across the border, she said that the ministry had “just fallen into the hands” when a friend's father suggested the opportunity.

“Everything just worked. It was a test to trust the Lord, ”she said recently in an interview.

In the migrant center, Hennessy worked with the Augustiners and a few others within sight of the United States and Mexico, in order to cross migrant families too transitionally, which were sent in buses from state-managed institutions on the US side of the border.

The animal shelter only received families who were documented and after the legal process, she said. Most came from Central America and South America, not from Mexico, and almost all of them aimed at escaping cartel violence, added.

The facility allowed individuals to receive up to three days of support, she said. In these three days “we would help you get where you went,” she said. “Many of them don't even know where they are – we would show them where they are on a card.”

When she provides logistical support, she helps to transport the migrants to buy tickets for their final goal or to request money cables for credit cooperatives. “Usually her entire money was stolen on the trip,” she said.

The shelter provided the migrants of fresh clothing, food and toilet kits, she said. And she helped with the “daily operational tasks in the shelter”, such as: B. clean and cook, she said.

Some of the migrant families had traveled to the United States for more than a year, she noticed. When they arrived at the shelter, she said: “You could see her physically relaxed,” as you knew that you were safe, she said.

The families often shared their stories with her, she said and found that many shared their experiences with the kidnapping or rape on their trip to the USA

“I spoke to a father who saw the murder of his wife while his children were present,” she said. “They couldn't pay the cartel, so they came in (the cartel) and shot the mother,” said the father to her.

In order to escape violence, the Asylum family was looking for asylum in the USA, said Hennessy.

The children's trauma was visible, she said.

“Children had markings on the mouth of adhesive tape”, which were applied by their kidnappers, she said and noticed that among the children whose mouth was shaped by adhesive tape were those who saw their mother dying.

Several babies showed physical signs of trauma after they were withdrawn appropriate nutrition and lack of stability, she said.

The conversation about migration is often shared politically, noted Hennessy. But personally with migrant families said Hennessy and said politics had not entered them.

“If you look at all these mothers who try to save their families, I felt like I was loving people like Jesus. It really separated from any political opinions, ”she said.

Hennessy said the experience showed her “size” how she could serve Christ with her gifts and skills. The work in the animal shelter “showed me how much good I can do – how important my gifts are – and how important it is to serve.”

Hennessy has now settled in Louisville and worked in the hospitality industry. She sees her career with fresh eyes.

Hospitality can be a service if it is done for Christ, she said.

“It's so different if it is for Christ,” she added. “In hospitality, it is so easy to separate (from the other person), but they can always serve people as Christ.”