This summer, a group of Bluffton students and professor Paul Neufeld Weaver and Laurel Neufeld Weaver traveled to Texas on a cross-cultural experience. While in Texas, students were given the chance to see what life is like at the U.S.-Mexico border and form bonds with migrant families.

Amy Marshall

“When we were working at Brownsville bus station, we saw people coming out of vans and they had shackles on their hands and on their feet and they were tied together. So I think seeing that and then hearing as they cut the chains off of all of them was probably the most impactful. I think that was the thing that nailed it for me.” 

“I would say my favorite memory was when we were at San Antonio Mennonite Church. Along with the church, they own this house that they call the Marion Marta house …We spent a couple of days there, I got to go with two other people in my group and we spent the entire day just playing with the kids…I ended up with one of the girls putting my hair in pigtails while one of the other girls was sitting in my lap watching Frozen in Spanish on my phone. That’s probably my favorite memory just being there with the kids and spending time with them and loving on them. Because that’s really what they needed at the time.”

Luke Hanson

“We spent half of a day talking to two border patrol agents while we were still in Texas. Getting their perspective on what’s going on at the border and their daily routine was really cool to hear.”  

“My favorite part was definitely getting to meet and help with some of the migrant families. We had a whole day where we worked with them and we made lunch with them. We just kind of hung out with them all day. It was definitely impactful to see how much better we have it than they do. We definitely take a lot of stuff for granted compared to their life and ours, and what they had to do to get to where we are.”

Kayla Ferguson

“I loved seeing the border and seeing everything, it was just like holy cow, [it] really opened up my eyes to what this all actually is and how many issues there are around it. It really encouraged me to actually want to do something about it.”

“We volunteered at the South Texas human rights center …We went out to a ranch and set up five different water stations for immigrants who were traveling through the ranch … It was really cool being able to restock and know that I’m going to possibly help someone survive.”