• By RJ Walters, Editor •
Just as the Word became flesh when God became man, the theme of the 2011 Detroit Annual Conference became flesh when 19-year-old Jasmine Franco told her story and the church responded joyfully.
With Franco standing behind a podium adorned by a sign that read, “I was a STRANGER and you took ME in,” a video by United Methodist Communications detailed her story of being a stranger in desperate need that found life and an abundance of grace in the Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church.
Franco is the American-born daughter of illegal immigrants from Guatemala who decided to bring their family to America in 1991 for more educational and work-related opportunities.
Franco was part of fairly normal working-class Ypsilanti family doing whatever was need to get by prior to November 2008, when immigration agents stormed into the family’s trailer.
By January 2009, Franco’s mother was deported back to Guatemala and her father and sister voluntarily headed back to their homeland to be with her.
Franco decided to stay behind.
She was adamant about finishing her high school diploma at Huron High School, even though it meant working 5-11 p.m. for minimum wage every day after school and fighting hunger and exhaustion at times.
Then her counselor at HHS, Stephannie Ruzicka, contacted the Education Project for Homeless Youth at the Washtenaw County ISD and along with school supplies and bus tokens, Franco found a saving grace — a relationship with the Rev. Melanie Carey, lead pastor at Ypsilanti FUMC.
“I did not even know the church, I did not know the pastor at the church — she just found out about (my story) through an organization and she was really interested in immigration and she got a hold of me,” Franco said. “They welcomed me with open hearts.”
Eventually Carey and her husband took Franco in as part of their family and the church fully embraced the young woman whose dedication and drive inspired them.
With their prayerful support and financial backing she graduated from HHS in 2010 and she is currently in her third semester of college, studying to become a physician.
Ypsilanti FUMC provided her with money to visit her family “who is still living in poverty” in 2009 and Franco has aspirations of bringing her sister Jennifer — also an American citizen — back to the states to live with her.
Franco now lives with a pair of empty nesters who attend Ypsilanti FUMC and she works on the weekends, sending money to her parents whenever possible.
For the complete story, courtesy of AnnArbor.com, click here.
Franco said she shared her story at annual conference to “say thank you to the wonderful people of the church”, but also to give people a different perspective on the volatile issue of immigration.
“I know not a lot of churches are open to the topic because it’s a very difficult subject, but I believe churches can help people…families are being separated every day and we’re sitting over here right now and I feel like if we all came together as churches we have the power to change that,” she said.
Franco received a standing ovation from the crowd, as many people wiped away tears and stood in awe of Franco’s courage and strength.
Later that day Carey took an impromptu “Ziploc bag” offering to give to Franco.
More than $2,500 was raised and when Franco — who had to leave conference to go to work Saturday afternoon — learned about the generosity via a text message from Carey, her heart was filled with gratitude.
“I can’t express the feelings I felt when Melanie texted me saying that all of you had taken a special offering for me,” she said in a note that was read on Sunday. “I was shocked and I felt the love from my family.”
She said she plans on visiting her family again soon thanks to the offering.
Franco’s story was a perfect parallel to the preaching of Desert Southwest Conference Bishop Minerva Carcaño, who proliferated on “opening ourselves to all means of grace, including the poor and hungry” in several reflections on immigration and ministry with the homeless.
The nudging of people’s hearts at annual conference did not end with the offering to Franco.
Twenty-five medicine kits were collected to send to Haiti, nearly $3,900 was collected for SPLASH — a youth initiative to provide fresh water to people in Liberia, gently-used children’s books were donated for schools in Zimbabwe and food and goods were collected for a food pantry in Adrian.
