Pilgrimage is a tradition in all faiths. It is both an inner and outer journey of engagement with places of historic and spiritual significance. The pilgrim is invited to be open to discovery, to learning and to prayerful reflection.

My journey with twenty or so other pilgrims on January 18-19 was a total immersion in the present, in the past and in the hope for a new and better future.

We began our journey meeting at the wall with Border Church, a congregation that gathers every Sunday to host a binational worship service. Seeing and touching the wall made it real to me. I touched the vertical steel beams and reached through to touch the razor wire on the other side. We heard stories of those who risk their lives to scale the wall and jump from the top. I felt tense and hypervigilant as we watched the coming and going of Border Patrol vehicles with their masked occupants. My body registered the experience. I felt exhausted, totally spent.

Later that evening we met for dinner at Imperial Beach United Methodist Church and learned from their pastor, John Griffin-Atil, about the Neighborhood Center project soon to break ground, a ten-year effort to raise funds and support. An inspiring and hope- filled story, this project promises sanctuary and healing for a wounded and broken place in our world. We pilgrims had a time of singing and sharing that evening, a balm for the soul.

The next morning, we met at the Tijuana River Estuary. What a welcome respite to walk in this place of quiet beauty even though the river continues to be one of the most toxic, polluted, and endangered in the US. The natural beauty and serenity held a sense of hope and possibility and, for me, balanced the intensity of the previous day.

We left the border and travelled north to Chicano Park. We learned the story of Logan Heights, its early existence as a middle-class neighborhood, one of the largest West Coast Mexican American communities. The story of what happened to that neighborhood is infuriating and sad. It has experienced land loss, betrayal, and efforts to erase its identity. Yet it continues to resist, to find hope and rely on community for its resilience. It offers a lesson in perseverance in the face of continued injustice.

Lunch together at a neighborhood restaurant was the perfect end to our pilgrimage.

Please join us this coming Sunday, May 3 at 11am as we pilgrims share more of our experience in Wisdom at Westwood. We look forward to your presence.