By Grayson Hester
Elket Rodríguez, CBF Field Personnel, and Ruben Ortiz, Latino Field Ministries Coordinator, recently embarked upon a spiritual pilgrimage to the Darién Gap, an infamously perilous stretch of jungle connecting Colombia and Panama.
It owes its fame to its status as the only land bridge between North and South America; in other words, it is the sole route of passage for those people migrating from places like Venezuela to the United States. It owes its infamy to the sheer number of people who die while attempting to cross it. Dense jungle, dangerous animal and plant life and, most threatening, ruthless bands of people who take advantage of the refugees’ desperation and precariousness. All these combine in making the Darién Gap internationally known as a place of lethal fate and loss. Christians are called to these kind of places.
“Standing at the Darien Gap, I realized I am a spectator in a story of human suffering and exploitation, where migration has become a business that feeds on desperation,” Rodríguez said. “Yet, as a follower of Christ, I cannot remain silent or detached. This crisis offers us a sacred opportunity to respond with faith — advocating, serving and giving as tangible expressions of our call to ‘walk alongside.’”
Indeed, his and Ortiz’s pilgrimage was not simply a “spiritual” one; it was a journey like Christ’s traveling through hardship and danger toward a goal of justice.
This was not the kind of “mission trip” to simply provide mere charity in the form of construction or education or other necessities—noble as these efforts may be. It was a true ecumenical, multifaceted, faith-filled attempt to understand the root causes of the South-North human migration —and to see that issue from the viewpoint of seeing those migrants as beloved children of God. As Rodríguez said, they were called to walk alongside them, not to preach to or take pity upon them.
The “As Born Among Us” (CNEN in Spanish Red Como Nacido Entre Nosotros) Network is a Christian initiative, founded in 2020 with Ortiz as a CBF representative and member of the organizing committee, is composed of almost 90 churches and organizations — among them Tearfund Latin America, Mennonite Central Committee and Church World Service Latin America, to name just a few. It is this Network, that traveled straight into the heart of this story of suffering.
“CBF’s Latino ministries and its fAMILIA Network are opening up opportunities for dialogue with the Global South by expanding relationships with our leaders and pastors across the continent,” Ortiz said. “That is why it is so important that we participate in these experiences together with the Como Nacido Entre Nosotros Network. It is not only about the migrant church, but also an essential ecclesial and missional component; these are the new faces of the Church serving in the places where humanity passes. It is Christ Himself, who walks in the footsteps of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. We do not welcome migrants in the name of Christ, but we welcome Christ himself when we receive and serve one of these little ones”.
As Born Among Us Network aims are multifaceted and geared toward promoting the integral and spiritual well-being of people in the midst of mobility, with especial interest in the following areas:
- Raising awareness
- Spiritual formation and capacity-building
- Mobilization of local, regional and global actors
- Political advocacy
- Research and systematization
While this was not CNEN’s first trip to the Darién, it was the first labeled specifically as a pilgrimage and the first to primarily seek the mobilization of church leaders to Darién; the formation of contact with migrants and some realities in their transit; and growth in sensitivity, commitment and cooperation for their integral welfare and defense from various forces.
If spirituality is the bringing into wholeness and community all the disparate parts of ourselves, our communities and our world, then the trip’s goals were holistic to the point that nothing short of the word “spiritual” could be accurately used to describe it.
It involved advocacy both in the halls of Panamanian power and the bloodied paths of the Darién. It involved meetings with church organizations such as the Evangelical Alliance of Panama, and with the Church that was in the flesh in people fleeing oppression. It involved organizing scores of local volunteers and pallets of donations to address immediate needs. It included international efforts toward addressing the forces which precipitate those needs. And it required both prayer and perseverance, contemplation and tenacious work. It is a need so great, an injustice so dire, that anything other than full-scale mobilization and fully embodied spirituality would fail to rise to meet it.
At its peak, in 2023, the Panamanian government estimated that 520,085 migrants attempted that most perilous of journeys – annually. While the numbers have dropped since then —288,855 in 2024 — the scale of misery and human need remains incalculable. And the call for people of faith to be the hands and feet of Jesus to address that need remains unchanged.
It is not solely a story of suffering or despair, at least not when told through the lens of resurrection. It is a story of life, justice and hope, those things to which this pilgrimage — has oriented itself.
“We deliberately called this trip a ‘pilgrimage,’” Ortiz said. “Understanding ‘theoretically’ the cause of migration is not enough. For those of us who come from our comfort zones, it is easy to take several biblical verses and speak on behalf of migrants. But it is quite another thing, even if only briefly, to meet, talk, see them come out of the river, give them water, shoes and food on that shore of temporary rest that are the relief camps after the Darién in Panama. A church that does not experience suffering firsthand will be unable to respond sacrificially to human needs, and we, as Latino leaders in the U.S. need that knowledge.”
It is a story of hope expressed in serving 1,200 people directly in the reception camp of Lajas Blancas. It is a story of justice expressed in workshops and meetings, in 16-hour days and nights where rest cannot be found. It is a story of life because life – abundant, full, resplendent life — is what Jesus —Himself a refugee, experiencing human mobility, subject to systemic domination — promises us. And it is nothing less than that.
To those who have no other choice but to flee societal collapse, it is abundant life. To those whose options are either to risk death in the Darién or invite certain death in their homelands, it is abundant life. To those who reach the U.S. border only to be demonized and named “enemy,” it is the indelible name of “beloved.”
These promises are our prerogatives. They are the agenda of the Kingdom and therefore our itinerary. Whether in this trip or the ones that will follow, Christ has no hands but ours, no feet but ours. And through the support of CBF, the money raised through faithful donors and the unceasing prayer of churches all over the world, seeds of life, justice and hope are being planted — in even the most inhospitable and deadly of terrains.
“Walking through the Darién Gap is not just a journey; it’s an encounter with death—in body, soul and spirit. The stories of families lost, children’s innocence shattered, and women’s dignity violated are a chilling reminder that migration is often less about seeking a better life and more about fleeing an unbearable existence,” Rodríguez said.
“The choice to cross reflects a desperation that should move us all to action. The challenge for Christians is not just to see migrants as neighbors but to see them as angels we are called to host, as Christ commands us to love without limits.”