Sick, Broke, and Locked Up - Part 1 of 2

    “James Taylor and Carol King,” Darci Asche responded. “Country music kinda creeps me out.”

    “Which song?”

    “You’ve Got a Friend. I still sing it today”

I thought,  How appropriate that these archetypical lyrics about friendship are her childhood favorites, Darci is the North Dakota Community Support Services Supervisor for Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, LSSND.  Among other services, the agency provides:

-Immigration Services

-Refugee Resettlement

-Case Management Services

-Refugee Employment Services

-Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program

As Supervisor of Community Support Services, Darci helps immigrants in the New Americans program transition to life in the United States with housing, food, school enrollment, medical assistance, and getting employment.  A contact at the Family HealthCare Center in Fargo directed me to the agency.  See a related story on the New American’s Program http://potluckearth.blogspot.com/2012/11/family-healthcare-center-fargo-nd-part.html. 

 

Darci grew up in Gwinner North Dakota, USA. The small town is located approximately 85 miles southwest of Fargo.  Gwinner, like other rural areas in North Dakota, offered a rugged upbringing. Farmland surrounds the town of about 800. In 1990, the warmest month was August with average temperature of 69 Degree Fahrenheit.  The warmest month in 2012 was July with an average temperature of 74 Degree Fahrenheit. (NOAA.org).  In Darci’s early years, most everyone she knew worked at the one town factory.  It made farm machinery attachments and implements.  Her family lived across the street.   She spent most of her time in school, Church, or at home playing outside with friends and family.  That included lots of time playing in snow.  “When Mother turned on the back porch light, it was time to come inside.”  Food was very basic.  Seasoning involved salt and pepper only.  Sports were important social events.  Memories tended to reference seasonal occurrences, like the 1^st snow.

The Lutheran church kept her active with community service.  Lutherans reference the following in their approach to service: King James Version Bible; Matthew Chapter 25, versus  34-40,  ³⁴Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  ³⁵For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:  ³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?  ³⁹Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?  ⁴⁰And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Those Jesus called “the righteous” helped suitably change or restore the circumstances of other people.  Scriptures reflect that performing miracles, preaching, and holding high offices within religious institutions are meaningless when compared to showing love and compassion to others.  Furthermore, parables like the Good Samaritan appear to indicate one should go beyond one’s personal, social, or religious comfort zone.    

Darci left on her first mission trip outside of North Dakota in 1990.   Layers of stereotypical perceptions peeled away. The mission group took her to northern Saskatchewan, Canada.   “A group of us went to Stanley Mission, where we set up a Bible school for indigenes kids from the Cree reservation. We did that for four years, and made a lot of friends there.  It was always in the summer, when the days were 22 hours long.”

This lifestyle of helping to suitably change or restore the condition of others and to provide companionship took Darci on other mission trips.  She went to Washington D.C. and Chicago where she saw the inner city struggles.   As Darci and I discussed her path to her position at the agency, there was one mission that seemed symbolic of that path, the Border Mission along the American-Mexican border.

This border mission gave Darci a firsthand look at government policy’s direct effect upon a body of people.  In this case, it was a trade agreement of which many purported as removing economic trade barriers and offering opportunities for a better way of life.

Part 2: A real human need developed along the American-Mexican border.

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