A Spirit-Led Meeting at the UN

Peter Vander Meulen had no idea where the conversation would go when he sat down and talked with Elvis Garcia Callejas at this week’s United Nations Refugee Summit in New York City.

Vander Meulen soon learned that Callejas, who works with the unaccompanied minors program in New York City for Catholic Charities Community Services, has deep connections to the Christian Reformed Church and Calvin College.

In fact, said Vander Meulen, Callejas asked him to say “hi” to Roland Hoksbergen when he returns to Grand Rapids, Mich. Hoksbergen is director of Calvin’s International Development Studies, the program Callejas majored in as a student at Calvin. He graduated in 2013.

Speaking with Callejas helped put a face on the complex issue that the UN is addressing this week.

“It was a chance meeting, but I got to see how the church can work in the lives of people—and to hear some of his story,” said Vander Meulen, who is attending this week’s first-ever Summit for Refugees and Migrants on behalf of the CRC.

Vander Meulen, coordinator of the CRC’s Office of Social Justice, says that for 40 years he’s worked for and represented the CRC in relief, development, and social justice ministries.

“I've seen lots of humanitarian crises—up close and personal—but I have never seen the levels of suffering we are now seeing as 65 million people, including many women, children, and teens, are forced from their homes to become refugees, migrants, trafficked, displaced,” he said.

But in the midst of this crisis come experiences of serendipity and hope such as he had this week with Elvis Garcia Callejas, he said. In their conversation, Vander Meulen learned that Callejas was 12 years old when the gang violence in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the murder capital of the world at the time, became too much for him.

“It was either die, kill as a gang member, or leave. He made it as far as Guatemala, was caught, and was turned back. He was only a little older when he tried a second time,” said Vander Meulen.

“This time he made it to El Paso, Tex., where he survived as a street kid until he became too homesick for his mother and siblings and turned himself in to the border patrol.”

He spent a night in the “ice box” and then was turned over to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, which placed him in a detention center.

“He was asked if he knew anyone in the U.S. who might take him in while his asylum case was in process. He had met a family from Chicago, once, in El Paso. The family was called. Amazingly, they agreed to be his foster parents,” said Vander Meulen.

A few years later, he attended high school in Chicago and heard about Calvin’s Entrada program, which offers ethnic minority high school students the opportunity to experience college learning and living while earning college credit.

He tried it, liked it, and enrolled full-time at Calvin, said Vander Meulen.

During his years at Calvin, Garcia volunteered at Bethany/PARA, the refugee resettlement organization with which OSJ partners to resettle refugees within U.S. CRC congregations, and he mentored other unaccompanied minors in foster care in Grand Rapids.

“What an amazing series of events for Elvis—from likely death in San Pedro Sula to a life of service in New York—with important stops in Chicago and Grand Rapids!” said Vander Meulen.

Reflecting on the encounter in New York and how Callejas was affected and inspired by the CRC, Vander Meulen said: “No matter how often it happens, I still am amazed by how the Spirit works and uses us all—institutions and individuals—for good. The joke is we think nothing much is happening . . . but then we see that it is.”

Vander Meulen said the CRC is deeply committed to the cause of both immigrants and refugees.

“The CRC has been faithfully working with refugees for decades, and that involvement is only increasing. We are continuing to resettle refugees and advocate for just and compassionate refugee and migration policies in the U.S. and Canada," he said.

The CRC has various resources addressing the refugee crisis and the Canadian and American immigration systems. Among them is the Blessing, Not Burden campaign, which focuses on the U.S., and the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue’s refugee work, which operates in Canada in partnership with World Renew’s refugee resettlement office.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Public Dialogue and OSJ have been sharing short stories on Facebook of congregations who are welcoming and who have been blessed by refugees.

To read more about the CRC’s long-term work with refugees, see this Do Justice post by Rev. Kate Kooyman.