New Beginnings

When people hear the word "borders," they may think of the struggles that many Latinos experience at the southern border of the United States and the accompanying controversy. Or maybe the ever-shrinking Bolivian border that no longer includes a coastline after losing it to Chile in 1904. And while these physical borders may be what first comes to mind, there are also many other types of borders not so concrete. For example, the borders between the Ferguson community and its police officers are strong enough to cause protesting and even rioting in the area. These borders are caused by a larger set of borders that have historically been placed between those of different skin color that many people still have a hard time breaking down.

The title of this blog, "Without Borders" can refer to all of these different types of borders, but my inspiration for this title came from the song "Oceans," by Hillsong United (Click here to see the song and lyrics). The bridge of this song goes like this:

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever you would call me.
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior."

This song has been an inspiration for me throughout this past year, when for the first time in my life, I had no idea what my next step would be. I looked into grad schools, jobs, and volunteer and missionary programs because I wasn't sure where God was calling me. All of this uncertainty about the future definitely taught me that my trust is NOT without borders, and I have a really difficult time trusting God with my life. This is one way that I hope to grow in this next year as I head to Bolivia to work at an orphanage as a Salesian Lay Missioner (SLM). True, there will be many physical borders in place for me. The country borders that dictate that I will reside in Bolivia for a year, not the United States where I have lived most of my life. The language borders that will separate me as a native English speaker. The borders of cultural differences between Americans and Bolivians. The borders of the parts of my life that I will trust in the Lord and those other parts that I hold on to.

However, part of my mission this next year is to break down these borders. My training to do this started during SLM orientation, when during the first few days, all of us SLMs broke down all of our borders with each other by opening up and sharing our testimonies and accepting each one of us where we were. Because these borders had been broken down, the twenty of us were able to become so close within just a three week time span. Close enough that we were able to get through and even laugh and sing during our week of service with sixteen hour days that started at 5:30 am. Close enough even to do ridiculous things like perform Don Bosco Style (to the tune of Gangham Style) for an audience of priests and brothers (apparently I'm not technologically savvy enough to figure out how to get a good quality video on here, so if you want to see the song/dance, I will refer you to Father Mike's blog). I'm excited to see how each and every one of them is going to break down the borders where they are serving, whether it be Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, South Sudan, or here in the U.S. of A. in Florida. I know that none of us will be able to do it on our own and that we will all make mistakes during the next year, but with God's help, anything is possible.

This year's class of SLMs after our commissioning mass