Ep 288 | “Start with Welcome” with Bri Stensrud

Latasha Morrison
And we’ll get started. Ready? Ready?

Briana Stensrud
I’m ready friend.

Narrator
You are listening to the Be the Bridge…. (rewind noise)

Latasha Morrison
But wait a minute. Wait. Before we get started. Pronounce your last name again?

Briana Stensrud
Yeah. I can’t even do it. Pretend like it has a z in the middle. And then an e at the end. So just say Stenz Rude.

Latasha Morrison
Oh Stenz.

Briana Stensrud
Stenz Rude.

Latasha Morrison
Stenz Rude. Ok.

Briana Stensrud
Yeah!

Latasha Morrison
Okay.

Narrator
You are listening to the Be the Bridge Podcast with Latasha Morrison.

Latasha Morrison[intro] How are you guys doing today? It’s exciting!

Narrator
Each week, Be the Bridge Podcast tackles subjects related to race and culture with the goal of bringing understanding.

Latasha Morrison[intro] …but I’m going to do it in the spirit of love.

Narrator
We believe understanding can move us toward racial healing, racial equity, and racial unity. Latasha Morrison is the founder of Be the Bridge, which is an organization responding to racial brokenness and systemic injustice in our world. This podcast is an extension of our vision to make sure people are no longer conditioned by a racialized society but grounded in truth. If you have not hit that subscribe button, please do so now. Without further ado, let’s begin today’s podcast. Oh, and stick around for some important information at the end.

Speaker 1
Okay, Be the Bridge! Be the Bridge community, you know I’m always excited to bring a new voice to you. And today we have Bri Stenroos.

Briana Stensrud
Close enough! Just leave it.

Speaker 1
(laughter) Hold on. Let me get it right. I will jack your name up. Listen. Leave it to me, you just told me. And I know it. It’s in my head.

Briana Stensrud
It’s fine. It’s fine.

Latasha Morrison
Okay. Be the Bridge community, I am so excited. Today we have a special guest. I’m always excited to bring a new voice to you and then also a topic. A topic that challenges you and that will hopefully enlighten you. So I have Miss Bri Stensrud here today. And she is the author, a human dignity advocate, and the Director of Women of Welcome. She has authored two books, and one of them is called Start with Welcome: The Journey Toward a Confident and Compassionate Immigration Conversation. And a children’s book, The Biggest Best Light: Shining God’s Light into the World Around You. Bri holds a Master’s of Biblical and Theological Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. And her voice has been highlighted across news platforms. Even as we speak just a few weeks ago, Bri was in a USA Today article. Tell us a little bit about the article. And I know you took a group of people down to the border. Can you tell our audience a little bit about those trips, those trips that you do to kind of really broaden people, educate people around immigration?

Briana Stensrud
Yeah! So the USA Today piece was a bit of a surprise. I had been interviewed all week long, extensively. And so I was just kind of told, “Oh, we’re just going to put this on an, you know, an online article.” And then Monday morning, I get a call from one of our staffers, and they’re like, “Do you realize we’re on the front page of USA Today?” And I was like, “No, I did not realize that.” So we’re like, oh, my gosh, a positive news story about Christians on the front page of USA Today about immigration! You gotta be kidding. Like, only God. Right? So we were all a little, we were excited about that. And, you know, it’s like, I think that what’s cool about it is, is that evangelical Christians are excited to see something positive about them in the media. Like, I mean, we’re not all bad. You know? And so it was good to see a positive story about a really controversial issue. Right? And so part of our work at Women of Welcome, which is the community that I direct, it’s an advocacy community. It’s a nonpartisan, Christian women’s advocacy community about what does the Bible say about immigrants and refugees? And how do we, like you guys do so well, how do we build bridges to people in communities of faith to enter into this conversation, not from a politically partisan perspective, but from the perspective of their faith? What does the Bible say about how we are to think, feel, talk about, and treat, and seek justice for this vulnerable population? So part of our work, just one small aspect of our work, is taking proximity trips down to the southern border. And when we do these trips, these are not missions trips, these are not service trips. These are what we call immersive experience trips, where we are going down to the southern border to entrust ourselves to the people who are living, breathing, working among this vulnerable population, and who have something to share with us and that we have really hard truths to learn, that are going to make us really uncomfortable. But we all know that the power of proximity makes things personal for people. And so we take these trips, and they’re listening and learning trips, you’re going to hear things that make you uncomfortable, you’re going to see things that you didn’t expect to see. And we’re gonna walk away changed by the grace of God by the people who are doing this kind of work along the border. So that’s part of what I do.

Speaker 1
Yeah, I had an opportunity to go with you to Oaxaca a couple of years ago. We’ll talk about that, before the world shut down.

Briana Stensrud
Oh yeah.

Latasha Morrison
We will talk about that. But I do want to say, you said something really important. And you said, “What does the Bible say about this? And what does Jesus think about this?”

Briana Stensrud
Yeah.

Latasha Morrison
And I think that’s just two questions that, as Christians or people of faith, evangelicals, whatever you want to call this group of Jesus followers, if we’re following Jesus we should be mimicking his compassion, his mission. Lifting up his voice. And so it’s just something right there. Like, that convicts me when you say that. There’s a conviction that comes in how I treat people, even if you know, from ideology of politics or partisan, may not agree or understand, there is a conviction that I have and why I do what I do and why you do what you do. But what, like, I think a lot of this is discipleship, and we have to re-educate people and point them in the right way. What does the Bible say? Let’s remind people. You know? What does the Bible say about immigrants? I’m studying the Gospels right now. I’m also in seminary. And I’m taking New Testament and Gospels and Acts class. And just in studying the Gospels, I’m like, What are we doing?

Briana Stensrud
What are we doing here?

Latasha Morrison
Sometimes I read and I’m like do we read this?

Briana Stensrud
We don’t read this much. Do we?

Speaker 1
What kind of hermeneutics do we have in church going on today? Like, because I don’t know how you equate that to that. So there is a major discipleship issue.

Briana Stensrud
Disconnect.

Latasha Morrison
So like, you know, tell us a little bit about how you pick people to go on the trips, what the Bible says. And I want to, like, what do you do on those trips?

Briana Stensrud
Sure. Well, let me answer that first question. What does the Bible say about immigration? So like every other kind of human dignity issue that is swirling in our culture, it has become incredibly political. Right? And so what we want to do in our Women and Welcome community is we don’t want to talk about partisan politics, we want to talk about people. And we don’t want to talk about the big I of immigration. Although we know that in today’s world in American culture, there’s really no way to love your neighbor well, without engaging in public policy and politics. And so we because we know that policies affect people and their flourishing. So we do acknowledge public policy, but we’re not going to engage in partisan politics. And that’s very different. So we’re not going to talk about this big I immigration, but the small i immigrants and refugees, individual image bearers. That’s what we want to get to, because all of those individual image bearers have gotten lost in all of the political circus that exists in this country. And so let’s go back as people of faith, the Bible is our main authority. Not some, you know, platform, not some kind of political pundit. They are not, they should not be the leading voice on how we think, feel, talk, and act and advocate for individual human beings. So if we go back to the scriptures, I will guarantee you, the Bible says nothing about US immigration policy there. Just say it right there. But the Bible has a ton to say about God’s heart for the immigrant and the refugee. And then that’s starting in Genesis all the way to Revelation. And what we don’t really realize reading kind of Scripture with Western eyes is that every major biblical character that we know and love and repeat their stories were immigrants. They were either going someplace because God forced them to go or because he asked them to go or because they needed to go for their flourishing or because there was a takeover, a civil unrest was happening, there was a famine. So migration is a very key theme throughout the entirety of scripture. But if we look at just the Old Testament, first, we always Have to start with Genesis 1:27. Right? So each and every person is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore they have immeasurable worth and value and potential to contribute and create in our culture, in our world, regardless of citizenship, status, ethnicity, whatever that is. We have to start with that we are all image bearers. Right? And then when we move from that we look in the Old Testament and the Old Testament, the word “ger” is a Hebrew word for the word foreigner, stranger. And it’s used over 90 times throughout the Old Testament. And in that you see the Lord legislating, creating rules and commandments for the Israelites to follow that take care of really four unique, vulnerable populations. And it’s really the quartet of the vulnerable. Nicholas Wolterstorff, is a theologian who mentioned this grouping that continually shows up in the Old Testament together, and it’s the poor, the sojourner, the widow, and the orphan. And so God is constantly reminding his people, these are the vulnerable among you. If anyone has to be elevated because of their vulnerability, it is these people. People who are not going to have land of their own, don’t speak the language, the culture who looked different than you, these people are uniquely vulnerable, and you are supposed to appropriate land to them so that they can flourish. And that they can develop wealth, you are to treat them as if they were native born, you’re supposed to seek out their justice, you’re not supposed to mistreat them. And if you do do these things, I will bring down wrath upon you. And so you have to think about how much God repeatedly commands His people to look out for to legislate, to activate, and to advocate for this particular vulnerable population. And some of our like, beloved stories of like, Daniel in the lions den and Ruth and Naomi, like, these are immigrant people, Daniel and the lions, and he was, he was an immigrant to Babylon, and he was thrown into the lions den for his faith, he was being persecuted in a foreign land for his faith, Ruth and Naomi, we think it’s like the greatest love story that ever existed in the Bible, but it’s actually about two immigrant women who are stepping into and flourishing off of the guidelines and the rules that God had for his people to take care of sojourners in their land. So the Bible has a lot to say, in the Old Testament. And then of course, when we get to the New Testament, it’s like, Jesus is like, you should not have a non-neighbor list. Everybody, you’re supposed to love me, and then you’re supposed to love others. So when you think you’re doing a pretty good job about this, like that young lawyer was and he’s like, I’m, I’m doing pretty good. Well, who exactly is my neighbor, and then he makes this guy’s enemy, the hero of the story. Jesus is trying to deconstruct for us and detangle for us, all of that ingrained, feeling, thought process temperament that we Have towards other people who don’t look like us, or who don’t show up like us. And he says, “You’re supposed to love them as you’d love your own children, as you’d love your own self.” And so we have all of these verses in the New Testament, talk about Jesus’s proximity to people who are vulnerable and how they are important neighbors to love and love on and so you just, it’s hard to ignore the theme of migration and the vulnerability of sojourners throughout the entirety of Scripture.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah, it’s so funny, I was just reading about Ruth in, you know, they were in Moab, because of a famine and then returning, you know, to Bethlehem. So it’s just like, we see it all over scripture. And, you know, the Bible shows us the posture we should Have, you know, but I realized that in this work that we do when you talk and talk about dignity advocates that this has to be led through a conviction. And, there is a disconnect, and I think we people have made gods out of partisanship. Oh, you know, and so therefore, you can’t see. There’s spiritual blind spots that we have. So it’s like organizations like yourself and ours are trying to call people back into right relationship with God as it relates to how we treat the other, right, you know, and so.

Briana Stensrud
Yeah, and our compassion has somehow become political. But as Christians, we know that our compassion is not political. It’s meant to be prophetic. And so if we think about how our compassion is not a sign of weakness, it’s actually a sign of God’s kindness to people. That actually then attaches confidence to the compassion that is God given already. We Have this God given compassion, and yet everything has been co-opted by this political circus. And they say, you know, if you have compassion, then you’re a bleeding heart. You’re weak, you don’t understand the complexities. And you’re like no, no, no. I might not understand everything that I need to understand. But what I do know is that I’m a Christian first and foremost, and that my compassion is not going to be co-opted by some political jargon. No, I am to be prophetic in this space that is so jacked up. I was supposed to be leading in a different way and you can’t call my compassion, a worldly thing, because Jesus says that my compassion makes me more like him. And that it’s supposed to lead people into repentance in Christ’s likeness. Yeah, so let’s go with that and make it.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah, we’re making a mockery out of compassion, you know. And that’s the sad part. And that’s when, you know, that we are just inundated with spiritual blindness. And I think, you know, when we lean into that even a little bit more even having compassion for those who are spiritually blind, and so a part of the compassion is what you’re doing. What, yeah, what you’re creating, what you’re developing, the Bible studies, the, you know, immersion trips, the proximity trips, you know, all of those things. And so, when you went down there, you guys went in the fall. Tell us a little bit about what you do. And how do people get to go on those trips? And then I want us to talk about the trip that I was on.

Briana Stensrud
Yeah, so Women of Welcome takes multiple proximity trips to the border each year. So we take anywhere from like two to four of those trips, where we invite our community members to come down and get in close proximity to people that they likely would never be in proximity to. And the point of those trips is to give you a more holistic picture of how complicated the situation is, everyone knows it’s really complicated, but we’re not, we’re not there to propose an agend. It is not my job to get you from like point A to point Z, or to make you vote a different way. Because frankly, you know, we need people on both sides of the issue of the fence, if you would call it that, right. It’s going to change every four to eight years. So we need people who care about people all the time on both sides, right? So when we go down, what we do is we meet with local pastors on both sides of the border, we meet with shelter directors on both sides of the border, we meet with Border Patrol, and ICE agents, and sometimes US Customs agents. And we ask them, what they need what is so challenging what, you know, we have lots of women who come in, and they love the Border Patrol, and some women who come in and they’re like, the Border Patrol is the enemy, you know, depending on how, what’s your experiences, and who you’re listening to or what’s influencing you about what’s going on at the border, you have these preconceived notions about how people are showing up and what they’re doing along the border. And so we want to give you the fullest picture that we can from all sides and all vantage points and say that your job is not to necessarily walk in with an opinion here. Your job is to listen and to learn from the people who are doing the work. You know, it’s very apparent to me, I mean, you can’t see we’re on a podcast right now. It’s very apparent, I know this about myself. I’m a blond- haired, blue-eyed white girl from the Midwest, what am I doing, leading an organization for a minority vulnerable population, like, that just doesn’t when you get into this kind of work, you know that you need to be centering other voices. And you know, you need to be showcasing people who have less privilege in all kinds of spaces, right? And yet, my job is actually to reach out to really a more conservative faith-based community that says, “This issue isn’t for me, because it doesn’t look like me talk like me think like me, it doesn’t even know what my fears are.” And my job coming up in white evangelicalism – and Women of Welcome is not just for white people – we have a very diverse community. But my job is to say, “All right, I grew up in conservative evangelicalism, I understand what you fear, I fear those things myself.” And yet you can walk in to this conversation, just like I did, just like you and I did when we went on a trip and say, “Alright, bring your fear.” Bring your convictions that you have. But don’t forget your compassion, because that’s also God-given. So just show up as you are. And we just won’t leave you where you are. We don’t have an agenda, but show up as you are, and be a humble, curious learner. And the Lord is going to take you someplace. Bri is not going to take you someplace. I’m very clear that my role is not to be the Holy Spirit. My job is just to present and to bring people in closer proximity to other people who are affected by our broken policies who are doing the work. of serving this vulnerable population, and to really be a trusted translator for a lot of the crazy headlines that are out there, because it’s not, it’s not inviting or welcoming to people of faith when they read the headlines. And you know, it’s like, you know, that’s dehumanizing. You know, that’s not, it’s not the way we should talk about people. But you also don’t know how to have a better conversation. So I know we’re going to talk about this, but this is why I wrote this book, Start with Welcome. It’s about attaching confidence to your compassion. Let’s as Christians have a better conversation about this that holds the tension of our fears, and our compassion that says you can have safe and secure borders, and humane treatment for people who show up at the borders, these things are not mutually exclusive concepts. So let’s hold the tension well, as people of faith, we should be the ones that hold the tension well, you know. So that’s what we do on these trips, we go down there, and we submit ourselves and trust ourselves to the people who are doing the hard work along the border. And they’re amazing, powerful trips where we are not bringing God to that place. We are not bringing dignity to people, we are meeting God in that place, because He is already there. And we are affirming the dignity of those image bearers who are in that place and and stuck there indefinitely. That’s our job. That’s our role.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah. I love that, affirming the dignity that people already have, that God-given dignity. You recently wrote in a post, you said, I have never met anyone who wanted open borders. You talk about how multiple things can be true, just like what you were just talking about. But that open borders isn’t exactly something that is being pursued. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because I think that’s the thing that people don’t know and understand. It’s like, sometimes it’s like, I’m like, you guys, we lack education. You just wrote a whole book on it, go buy the book. Like, it really stopped letting your fear drive you and headlines and click bait drive you and really understand what is happening. And you know how we can be more clear about this. And can you talk a little bit about this? How do we combat this false narrative? In your work. How do you do that in your work? Because that’s the main thing people think is like, Oh, everybody wants – Oh, you want open borders? Like? No. No, like, we understand that we can’t have open borders like that. But can you explain a little more? Go a little deeper?

Briana Stensrud
Yeah. You know, when I first started this work, and I was invited into this work, and when I accepted the job to to do this work, I was, I was prepared. I was like, alright, I’m prepared to hear an open borders advocacy narrative all the time. I’m like, I’m just going to keep my eyes I’m not going to be blind to this, I’m just going to know that somewhere along the way, someone is going to propose to me that the most compassionate approach to the immigration challenges that we have are open borders. And I will tell you, I’ve been in this work for seven years now. And I have been in conversation with the Trump administration, I’ve been in conversation with the Biden administration. I’ve been on Capitol Hill talking with Democrats and Republicans alike advocates who are incredibly progressive, and some who are incredibly conservative. And what I will tell you is the most shocking thing in all of my work, is that not once has anyone from any side of the spectrum, ever proposed open borders. And it’s because everybody knows, anyone who has any credibility, or any experience in this space knows that it’s not a viable solution. It doesn’t actually provide what people need, which is safety, and the ability to flourish. So it’s not that we advocate for safe and secure borders, just because that’s we want to protect American citizens. If we advocate for safe and secure borders, and a functioning immigration system that allows people to come through legal and effective pathways, we actually provide safety for people on both sides of the border. We undercut the cartel and the huge nefarious activity that’s happening along the border that currently is having a heyday off of our broken system. So you can say again, I can say with all less authenticity, like that’s not even a conversation that’s being had. It’s not even something that’s being proposed, because what we actually really want a safe and secure border so that we can protect people who are coming and needing protection and also protect American citizens. So let’s just like scratch one layer deeper about how open borders wouldn’t even be a viable option for the safety or flourishing for people who are coming. So that’s one thing. There are tons of false narratives in this immigration conversation. And if you have compassion in this space, then you’re obviously a softy. And you want to, you know, you subscribe to extreme policies about unconditional welfare and open borders and all of these things. And what I would say is no, that’s a completely false narrative. And that is just a way to increase click bait and profits. And to continue the fear mongering. It’s like your work, there’s a lot of discipleship that has to happen, you Have to be curious enough to want to know, not only what the Bible says about immigration, but what is actually happening in the lives of immigrants and refugees that are around the world and here in the US. I mean, right now has historic numbers, as far as over 100 million forcibly displaced people roaming around the world right now. 35 million of which have been deemed by the UN, as persecuted people, meaning refugees, and they are needing a soft place to land to start over. And when you think about those kinds of numbers, nothing is ever as simple as a headline. Nothing is ever as simple as a headline. And so there is a discipleship, and there is a discipline about being part of a community that is going to hold you accountable for speaking in humanizing and constructive ways, and also helping hold the tension well. You know, it’s like super hard to read the headlines of this girl in Georgia who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant. And then you also know that with over 2.5 million people showing up at the border in the last year like it, that is that is to say that that would be a minority issue in the fact that like, it rarely happens to the person that happened to it’s their whole entire world. So you can’t, it would be very disingenuous, to just point to the fact that and the truth that the vast majority study after study of people who are foreign born in this country commit crime rates at drastically lower levels than American citizens, that’s not helpful to what just happened to this person’s whole world. So you have to acknowledge that’s hard, that person slipped through the cracks, we need a functioning immigration system, we need to support our border patrol and have safe and secure borders, we need to have thorough vetting, and hold the tension and say that is horrific and awful. And that person should be brought to the highest extent of justice in our system, right? And also, we need to be seeking justice for those who are truly showing up on account of persecution, and needing flourishing and protection of the US that are fleeing that exact kind of crime. And so I mean, another one of these big false narratives that we have to combat and that we have to apply truth to is this: Everybody’s very concerned about the fentanyl crisis and drug smuggling and human trafficking. And the truth of the matter is that 90% of fentanyl passes through legal ports of entry, not in between ports of entry with people who are trying to evade Border Patrol. I think it’s like 0.02% is captured in between ports of entry. And that 90% – that’s actually – 80% of that drug smuggling is by US citizens, young men, aged 35, who are coming back and forth across the border, and they are contributing, not immigrants and refugees, right. And then you talk about the human trafficking.

Latasha Morrison
Repeat that, repeat that again, because that is something that we definitely have the wrong narrative about. You know, when you say that, just like you know, even like in human trafficking, like we think about who it is, but when you look at statistics is like, you know, average, you know, 36 year old, white Christian here in Atlanta when they did the statistics. So I guess it depends on, you know, where you’re living, but that’s not what we have in our head.

Briana Stensrud
Yeah, I mean, drug smuggling is happening at legal ports of entry, according to Customs and Border Patrol data. And it’s happening by US citizens. It’s not happening through immigrants and refugees. And when you talk about human smuggling and human trafficking, what you think about is, is that some people are needing to be smuggled across the border, because we don’t have effective pathways for people to come and their situations are so desperate that they submit themselves to Coyotes that exploit them. And then sometimes as after they’re smuggled across the country, then they are exploited and connected with traffickers to pay off debts. And so our lack of advocacy for effective pathways and legal pathways for people actually contribute to the exploitation of people who are vulnerable and seeking a new life. So not everybody who’s coming to the border should be allowed to enter. I mean, right now there are so many people coming to the border trying to come the only legal way they can, which is through the asylum process, and not everybody’s gonna apply. Because economic hardship is not, it doesn’t qualify you for persecution. And so you’re gonna have 50% (right now, that’s what the stats are) 50% of those asylum seekers who are submitting themselves to the full vetting authority of the US government and saying, “Hey, fine, here I am. I’m not trying to evade you. I’m coming in. Vet me, know my story.” 50% of them don’t know that economic hardship is not a level of persecution that warrants asylum. So they’re going to be repatriated. So all have these things, you kind of just hold in tension, right? But closing the border is not going to work. Because we essentially did that during COVID and what we found was a well-documented several years of child trafficking, and kidnapping and murders on the south side of the border. And so we know that when we sit silent, in the face of brokenness and injustice – you and your audience know this so well – people are further exploited, and pushed into incredibly dangerous and violent situations that they never should be in in the first place.

Speaker 1
Yeah, that goes to you, you also said – I think you mentioned this in your book – you say that the southern border is a sacred space. Wow. Like, yeah, people who are listening, you know, I know, they’re like, “Okay, now, how is that a sacred space?” I would love for you to share with our community and what you mean by that?

Briana Stensrud
Sure. Well, when you go to the southern border, and you’re there in close proximity, nothing is ever like what you expect. People always say, I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I didn’t expect this. And I thought I was gonna see people climbing over the walls. And I thought I was going to see Border Patrol, like pushing people back into barbed wire fences and things like that. And you do see some troubling things, like people being caged in between squares of barbed wire and walls and things like that, but you’re not seeing the Border Patrol being overrun by a horde of people. And what I when I say that the the border is a sacred place, it’s because you have to think about who is showing up at the border, and what they’re bringing to the border. So I’ll give you a perfect example. I was on the Juarez side, the Mexico side of the border, and we were visiting part of the border wall. And really the border in Texas is the Rio Grande River. And, the wall is actually on the other side of the river so that US Border Patrol can patrol up and down the wall without actually crossing into Mexico. So you Have the Rio Grande, and then you have like a little bit of no man’s land. And then you have our border wall. And I’m on the Mexico side, and we’re kind of observing the wall, and its stature and all of these things. And I see a family in the brush alongside the Rio Grande on the bank. And it’s a man and a woman and two small children, and they have backpacks on and they’re hiding in the brush. And they’re talking to each other. And I’m sitting there and thinking, I’m watching their go moment. And like that’s a hard thing to watch, when you see a family hiding themselves in the brush on the banks of a river and staring like you can see hope through those slats of the wall. Like you’re that close. And so when you think of what people are, who’s coming, and you think of what they’re bringing, they’re bringing everything they own is on their back. And they have the thing that’s most precious to them. And the thing that likely was the thing that motivated them to make it all this way in between their arms, and they’re probably praying to God. All right, yeah, we’re gonna cross this river together. We’re gonna pray we get over the river. Because we’ve heard hundreds of horror stories of people drowning in this river. This is our family’s go moment. Here we go. And it was such a sacred moment because I was thinking, what if that were me and my kids. And if that were you and your kids, if we’re thinking about how Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, again, we’re not talking about open borders, we’re not talking about everybody that comes should be let in. What I’m talking about is the individual human being, who is approaching the most powerful nation on the planet. And what should I, as a Christ follower, be advocating for our welcome to look like, for our mercy to look like? It was such a vulnerable and tender moment with a family, the humanity of that is so raw. Now there was another time I was at the border wall, and I literally saw people on the 30 foot wall, climbing over the top of it, and were getting over the top of it. And it was, it was another one of those moments where you were like, this is incredibly dangerous. There has got to be another way for people to begin their desperation to to get to hope to get to safety and of course, border patrol. mediately rushed over one guy fell off the wall. I mean, it was haunting, because you’re watching people’s entire livelihoods be dependent on their treatment and their ability to get to that wall. And I remember meeting a woman in a shelter in Mexico and she just said, you know, I came to the US to be safe. And I was fleeing violence. And yet, when she was talking about her experience in US detention, because she had submitted herself to Border Patrol. And she said, but I was treated like, I wasn’t human. I was fed frozen food. And I wasn’t allowed to have a bottle for my baby. And I don’t understand, like, I’m a human being. And yet I was deported. And I was I was treated and talked about as if I wasn’t a human being. And, you know, for me, being a whole life pro-lifer, you know, from womb to tomb, the things that she was saying, she was just like, talking about how people don’t talk about her as human, that she didn’t have value, enough to be given a decent meal. And that she was talked about as if she, you know, weren’t human and that she didn’t belong. And I was thinking to myself, Man, these are the same kinds of narratives, these are the same kinds of things we talk about in the preborn space. When we talk about other human dignity spaces, this narrative resonates. And she said to me, “You know, what people don’t realize is that everybody pays.” I said, “What do you mean by that?” She said, “When you are approaching the US, everybody pays.” And she said, “The cartel runs every territory along the border lands. And so many of us have run out of money by the time we get to the border.” And I was confused by that. And she was like, “So you either pay with money or you pay with your body. And many of us, most of us have run out of money by the time we get to the border. And yet you can see hope right through the fence. So you do what you can to get your kids to the fence so that you can get yourself to that border patrol agent.” And so when I say that the border lands are a haunting and holy place I mean that because so much violence happens because of our broken system. Because of our indifference to this subject matter this inability to have a good conversation about this. People are finding themselves in very haunting and then also just in these very holy moments where they are submitting themselves to the Lord. And they are submitting themselves to a government they don’t know or understand. And, this is where people find themselves in the Borderlands…

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Hello, listeners. Welcome to the Be the Bridge community. This is Latasha Morrison, and I am the founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization, Be the Bridge and the author of the book entitled Be the Bridge and the host of this wonderful podcast. I am so glad that you are here. You see Be the Bridge responds to racial brokenness and systemic injustice in our world, and believes understanding can move us toward racial healing, racial equity, and racial reconciliation. This podcast is an extension of our vision to make sure people are no longer conditioned by a racialized society. But we are grounded in truth. We have provided this podcast as a resource to help cultivate courageous conversations and equip all to flourish. You will find interviews from a variety of thought leaders, faith leaders and business leaders, as well as authors, artists, activists and athletes. You will be encouraged, you will be challenged, but most of all, you will be changed. So go ahead and subscribe to the Be the Bridge podcast on your favorite podcast players. So you don’t miss out on any of these helpful and hopeful conversations.

Latasha Morrison
And I think it’s important for us to really listen to what Bri is saying and if anything that we believe, if it is causing you to dehumanize someone or groups of people to not see them as human to not see them as image bearers, something is wrong, you know. And I know going down there, it’s like it’s things that you cannot unsee. I think we went in April of 2019.

Briana Stensrud
Yeah. A long time ago.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah. Yeah. That was before the pandemic and we went to Oaxaca. And we were part of the documentary. You and I both were part of the documentary that Women of Welcome were actually filming at that time. And I just remember just from that, those conversations, meeting people face to face, in proximity with their stories, their hope, their pain, seeing the youth detention that we went to seeing these kids that were I think one of the youngest ones we saw was like 11 and 10.

Briana Stensrud
11 and 13 year olds and they both had babies, probably their own.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah, exactly and one little girl I’ll never forget, because she had on sparkly tennis shoes with like, they were white, and they had sparkly shoe strings in them with ribbon. And she had a ribbon in her hair. She was 11 years old. And she had just given birth and no 11 year old chooses that. You know, and it’s like, you don’t forget that, you don’t unsee it. We were out there playing games like Red Light, Green Light, and you know, just different things with them. And they were kids.

Briana Stensrud
Yep. We’re not told the reality of why people are pushed out of their countries and what is pulling them into the US. So you know, when you and I showed up as like, kind of like at the end of that documentary. It’s on YouTube. It’s free. It’s a 40 minute-long documentary. It’s called Who Is Welcome Here? And I feel like you, Heather MacFadyen, and I were literally at the end of that document or we look like we’d all been hit by a semi. Like, what on earth? How did we not know? How come? We’ve never heard about these stories that this is vastly more complicated. And that there are so many children that are affected, and women who are affected by what is happening in these countries? And you’re right, I mean, that spun me out, meeting those two preteen moms. I have, I don’t know if I’ve ever really recovered from even the meeting of them.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah, because I remember, a couple of you guys said, “My daughter’s that age, I could not imagine.” But it’s just important that this is why we always tell our community, you have to really interrogate, you know, you have to ask the question, “Why?” you know, and then you also have to look at the history of the why. And I think that’s really important for us to look at the history of the destabilization that’s happening. We see it all around us, we see Haiti now, what is the history of Haiti, that is creating this groundswell that we’re seeing there? You know, what is the history of Venezuela that’s creating this groundswell, you know, that we’re seeing now? And what other potential groundswells are we actively creating now, you know, in the world, you know, through our policies? So I think that’s really important for us to really ask those questions to really dig deep. We are lazy, we don’t like to read (laughing). So I think it’s important for us to read and to lead in, and this is a great book for you to start with, if you’re trying to understand this, you know, from a heart standpoint and an intellectual standpoint, so this is good.

Briana Stensrud
Yeah, well, I was gonna say good, just adding on what you were saying it’s just one of the things we have to realize and I think so many, in the Be the Bridge community have worked through this and continue to work through this courageously and are leading the way in this kind of bridge building, curiosity, conversation-filled lifestyle, is one of the things you have to recognize no matter where you are, is that your comfort is crippling. You know, comfort is crippling our Kingdom-minded conviction. And that is across the board in so many human dignity spaces, but we want to do what we are comfortable doing. We want to curate our communities, we want to say “All right, I want to know an immigrant, but I don’t want to befriend an immigrant. I want to know a black person but I don’t want to be friends with a black woman. I want to know that white woman, but I’m not going to be friends with that Karen over there. You know what I mean? It’s like, we want to curate and create the comfort that we so seek, and that feeds our own desires. But if we think about what is comforting to us, it’s actually quite crippling to what we’re called to do. For Kingdom-minded work for Christ. And so I’m in love with the Be the Bridge community and how you guys cultivate this continuous curiosity. And this conversational lifestyle of asking questions. And hopefully this book is the right kind of feel for your community in this. Like, let’s have some better conversations. And let’s attach confidence to that compassion. And let’s start talking about this vulnerable population in a different way that is prophetic.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah. And we love stuff in this community that helps us peel back the layers to false narratives. And that’s what you’re, that’s what you’re doing. And you have this phrase from a poem called Home that you share that says, “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” And that’s one of the things that I saw is that, you know, the families like them leaving their language, their culture, their, you know, their friends, like their community, which nobody really wants to do that. They would rather stay, you know, in most cases, if they could be safe. You know, if it wasn’t, you know, there wasn’t a threat to their family and their kids. Of course, they would want to stay just like we wouldn’t want to have to pick up and take our families to, you know, a foreign land where you have to start all over and then people dehumanize you

Briana Stensrud
For just showing up!

Latasha Morrison
And look at you, yeah, that wants you dead, as a human being, you know, and so, when you say that, you know, what do you mean when it says “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark?”

Briana Stensrud
Well that was a poem that was written by the daughter of a Somali refugee. Her name is Warsan Shire, and it’s a beautiful poem. It’s called “Home.” And in it, she talks about the experience of having to leave home, and how you would have to flee and how no one chooses that kind of lifestyle, no one chooses to…No one chooses to wade through muddy crocodile-infested waters with their children on their backs. No one chooses to be robbed and raped and then called dehumanizing names, no one chooses to leave home unless home is a sweaty voice that whispers in your ear, “Leave and never come back, or I will kill you.” I mean, this is she writes this beautifully, you should just google it. “Home” by Warsan Shire. It’s this beautiful insight, this little window into what it feels like looks like smells like to have to leave home forcibly. And then to have to rely on the mercy of other people who look at you as if you are nonhuman, as if you are a parasite. They’re to consume and to infect and to, you know, ruin the country. You know, so many Americans are obsessed with pure American culture and comfortability and the convenience of American culture. And we’re so obsessed with like, America First rhetoric, like, take care of [unclear]. And like, can you imagine a more ridiculous thing? Jesus showing up? Returning from Heaven and being like, “Yep, America’s first! Get in line here.” You can’t find it in the Bible. It’d be just as ridiculous as people from Africa saying “Africa First!”. Or people from Russia being like “Russia First!” We’d look at them, like, “That’s a ridiculous statement!” It’s not, that is not a Christian statement. Because the church is global and kingdom work is global. I don’t care if you’re a Christian or not. If you’re a Christian, kingdom work is global.

Latasha Morrison
Yes, yes, yes.

Briana Stensrud
So let’s get rid of this America First language, and let’s just start saying “People First.” People first, the Kingdom first. So…

Latasha Morrison
Yeah, we need a whole reeducation now. [laughter] It’s like you’re preaching like, you know, that’s, that’s the thing, but my prayer is that Lord, give us eyes to see, you know, give us ears to hear, you know, transform our hearts, change our minds, you know, allow us to see You, which will do that transformation inwardly and this, like, what I really feel like is people are not truly in relationship with Jesus. Like, that’s the only way that you can come with some of the conclusions that we’re coming up with in some of the hate-filled ideologies, where, you know, we would think you’re getting, you’re getting what you deserve. You know, if you, you know, if you’re, if you and your child drowned across, you know, that river, you know, like, that is so heartless, and it’s, it doesn’t represent the kingdom of God or the heart of Jesus at all. What has the community of immigrants taught you about God? I think, you know, when we, when we read Scripture, and we see the history, we see the justice and righteousness, that’s embedded in the system, what, you know, what have you learned about God that has drawn you closer through this work?

Briana Stensrud
Ah…that God is everywhere. And I am not Him. You know, I’m an Enneagram Eight. So I’m like, I see a problem, I want to solve it. I’m very curious about what you need to teach me and I want to be teachable, so that I can then excel at whatever it is and solve the problem. And I am not God. But God is everywhere. God is everywhere. And I am thankful that I’m not taking God to these places when they go, but then I’m actually meeting him there. And then I am being humbled by the kind of relationship that other people in these places have, their reliance on Him, their strength, and their resilience through their proximity with Jesus. And so I’m thankful that I have just heard, felt and learned a deep sense of God’s omnipresence, and that it really truly is everywhere.

Latasha Morrison
Yeah, God is everywhere, you know? And He’s at work everywhere. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, or we can’t see it God is at work, in every people group, so… what has surprised you most about, being in this work?

Briana Stensrud
Oh, man. Oh, I think probably one, that open borders conversation – I think I thought that I was going to enter into a lot of conversations where I would have to kind of like, bow up and be like, well… And that’s really just not been the case. So that’s been surprising to just understand that even some of my own preconceived assumptions were really just kind of off. So just learning has been a big huge thing. But also just, I’ve been really encouraged by how many women are excited that there is a different kind of way forward, that there is a different conversation to be had, and that our community is pretty diverse. And we have women who are coming from all different areas of evangelicalism and in the Christian faith space. And they are excited that they are not alone in this compassion they have. They’ve kind of been told that they’re crazy, and that they’re like this bleeding heart and that they’re weak, and that their compassion is misplaced. And someone has really, you know, hoodwinked you and it’s like, they find the Women of Welcome community, and they’re like, “Oh, my goodness, there are other Christian women who want to hold conviction and compassion at the same time,” and that we’e not crazy. And that I could actually act on this like this is from the Lord, like loving this vulnerable population is not outside of the boundaries of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Because like we said, at the very beginning, this issue has become so politicized, that it’s been so off limits for conversation, you know, constructive conversation and humanizing conversation. So, you know, it’s interesting, it’s been exciting to see how many women are incredibly excited and ready to go, they want, they show up, so many of them show up messy, and they’re asking kind of in really like, “uhhhh” kind of ways, but you know what? That’s what Women of Welcome is for. Women of Welcome is for, like, show up as you are, ask all the questions in the messy ways, but just know that we’re not going to leave you there. And we’re going to be charitable with you so that you can go and turn around and be charitable with those in your community who do not understand what the love of God is compelling you to do. And you know what? That’s true. So many people in your life are not going to understand what the love of God is compelling you to get engaged in and compelling you to love the people he’s telling you to love, but you should do it anyway. Because you are responsible to Jesus, you know, first and foremost. So I’m excited. I mean, that’s one of the things when I got in this work, I thought I’d be pretty alone. Knowing that so many in you know, evangelicalism just kind of like this isn’t their thing. And it’s so political. And I’ve been really pleasantly surprised that women coming out of the woodwork are saying, “Okay, I’m not crazy. Thank you. Me too. What can I do? How can I say this better? What change can I make?” That’s been exciting.

Latasha Morrison
That’s good. That’s good. And I mean, when I was there, we met so many people from all walks of life. But, you know, we meet a lot of women. There were a lot of young girls that were there. So, you know, we’re coming out of Women’s History Month when this will air. You know, like, what is one word that describes some of the women that you’ve encountered? And one thing that they taught you?

Briana Stensrud
I would say immigrant women are resilient. The other word that comes to mind to me is they’re marvelous. I just marvel at their resilience. They are strong, they are steady. They know what they want. They don’t know how to navigate our system. We don’t even know what our system is, so how, you know? But, they’re carrying their babies on their backs through the Darien Jungle Gap. They are like, they are – these women are incredible. They are survivors. They are going to flourish wherever they land, because these women are just incredible. They’re incredible. I think they’ve definitely taught me about the depth of faith, and the strength that our faith can actually provide, when you have nothing. When you have nothing but to plead the mercy of you and your children and to plead the humanity of your case, there is this reassurance that God is leading. I’ll tell you this story, talking about Women’s [History] Month. I was in Tijuana in November, and we were on the Tijuana/San Diego border. And this woman who had traveled, she was here from Iran. And she was over in Iran, and living her life with her family, her entire extended family, all the things and she had a neighbor who was in close enough relationship in proximity to her she invited her to a Bible study, which is really problematic in Iran. And so she goes to this home study, and she goes for a month and she accepts Jesus. And she’s really excited. Well, she’s going and walking to group one day and she’s late. She notices that the home group is getting raided. So she runs back to her home, her girlfriends are getting thrown in prison, they’re getting persecuted. She’s like, “I Have to leave. Where can I go in the world that is safe?” And the US doesn’t take Iranian visas. So she’s got to try and go somewhere and then get to the US border to seek asylum because she doesn’t have time to wait and sit and apply to become a refugee somewhere with the UN that’s gonna take forever. So she gets a visa with her family, her 10 year-old son and her husband, and they fly to South America. And she travels with her young child and her husband over 10 countries through the Darien Gap. She gets lost in the jungle for four nights. I’m like, “Were you afraid?” And she was like, “My son and my husband were afraid.” She’s like, “I was incredibly peaceful. Because Jesus was with me.” I’m like, “Okay, what? You slept fine in a jungle? Like, what are you talking about? This is your Jesus? Okay, I have to meet your Jesus,” you know? And so they make their way to the US and they present to the Border Patrol along the Tijuana/San Diego border and they seek asylum and they’re detained and then they’re vetted. And it turns out that they’re granted asylum because they’re fleeing religious persecution. Well, the resilience of this woman. So her husband is not a believer. Can you believe that? An Iranian man all that we’re told about these men in the Middle East, right? Mercy killings and all of these things like he travels with his brand new believing wife, she’s been a believer for a month. He travels with her and their son leaving his family, leaving his culture, leaving his job, all the things, and they get to the US and her son is put in California public school and he sticks out like a sore thumb. Right? He’s this Middle Eastern kid who doesn’t speak the language. And he’s really, really bitter at his mom. Because her Jesus made him leave his friends, his school, his language, his cousins, his family, all these things. Like “Mom’s Jesus is making me miserable. And I’m so lonely. And he made us go through this jungle and, and we were terrorized, we were robbed.” He’s experienced so much trauma as this little 10 year-old boy. So he’s in class, and a little 10 year-old girl in his class starts inviting him to play dates, and birthday parties, and then to church, and this little boy from Iran, accepts Jesus, because a little 10 year-old girl’s mother or father discipled her into close proximity with vulnerable people. And this little boy makes his way all the way to the US and finds Jesus because of the faith and the kindness and the compassion, of a little young schoolmate of his. So this mom is telling us, “My son found Jesus because of an American Christian who loved on him.” And you just think, “What in the world? This woman is incredible.” And so she’s asking us, all right, “My husband, let’s get him into the Kingdom, Will you pray with me?” And I’m like, “I don’t know if I would still be thinking Jesus is the highlight after that kind of a trip.” But then she has her son fall in love with Jesus. And now she’s like, “Oh, the hope is there for my husband. Let’s keep going. Will you do this with me?” And this is the kind of resilience we see. This is also the kind of work that we see God doing, when we welcome people. And when we choose to see people, not as different. But as a common image bearer, who needs love and kindness and empathy and compassion. I mean, can you imagine public school system, elementary school in a predominantly white area of California, and this little girl says, “I see that little boy over there. And he looks real different and lonely. And he doesn’t even speak a word that I speak.” But she loved Jesus, and she gave him Jesus and I just can’t get over it.

Latasha Morrison
Man, that’s incredible. Like, that’s, it shows you like all of this is, “How are we cueing our children?” How are we cueing them to respond to difference, and to see people and to recognize dignity in everyone you know? And this little boy who, you know, the story is just…and it’s a story of so many, you know? And we forget that even a lot of people that are at the border, and you know, like a lot of these people are people of faith, so many of them, I’ve seen church services that they’re having down there, you know, God is at work and moving, and it’s just like the Whoas come out. It’s like, I fear the Whoa, the anger of God and some of our response and how, what our posture is in this and so, thank you so much for the work that you do, like this is hard, messy, broken work, like you and I are like, I feel like we are like, in the way it’s like we got the rough house assignments, like, we got stuff this, like it’s been broken for centuries. And, you know, we’re a part of galvanizing and bringing communities together to have hope in these hard and difficult places. And as I look at history, as I look back at history as it relates to the immigrant, you know, as it relates to racial healing and racial righteousness, it’s like, you see that there have been decades, centuries of dehumanization, and the denial of your God-given dignity, you see that. And we’re seeing it right now where we are. I see it as it relates to racial healing and like this backwards, a going back of, you know, something that, where we want to see everyone flourish, that well, we don’t, you know? It’s like, you know, people are like, “I want to flourish, and I’m gonna hinder you from flourishing!”

Briana Stensrud
Yeah. And it’s like, my flourishing comes at a cost to somebody else, you know? And that’s just not, that’s not what Jesus, that’s not the way of [words muffled].

Latasha Morrison
Not at all. So Lord, help people see you in a real way like, I mean, that’s our only hope. And what is bringing you as we talk about this hope, I said, “Lord, You are our only hope.” Because that’s what I feel like every day, like, what is bringing you hope in this difficult work?

Briana Stensrud
I think seeing women’s excitement, and their courage to show up in space because women for all too long, I don’t care what you know, where you’re from, or what you… In the faith community, women have been told what their place is and it’s long been, you know, not a place of leadership, not a place with a voice. And this is a place – another place – where Christians have been told, “This isn’t your area, you know – like, there’s no…” And women are finding their place in this space. And it is igniting the passions of their hearts, it is connecting to something deeper, that they never really could name. And they are finding courage. And they’re finding courage, and it’s taking them on a journey that is presenting them with all kinds of other human dignity issues that they maybe never would have touched before. I mean, we haven’t even talked about how immigration, how race plays such a huge factor in immigration, but it’s like you couldn’t like really in a lot of conservative Christian circles. You can’t like lead with race all the time, because people are like, well, that’s, you know, there’s all – “Where do you stand on this issue? Where do you stand on BLM and all these things?” And it’s just like, golly, can we just have a conversation about the individual? Can we just get off that crazy train? And so what I would say is, what’s given me hope is the courage that I constantly see from Christian women who want to enter into this space, and have a better conversation. And so many of them are like, “I have a friend, but I don’t actually know how to have the conversation. I’m learning.” And this is the book, this is the book, that is the conversation that you never knew you could have, never knew was possible that gives you the language that you need. It’s not an academic [book] – there are lots of really good books about immigration out in the world right now. A lot of them are very academic, and very, like theological. And this is kind of like an easygoing conversation for the layperson who’s just getting started. This is the on-ramp that says “We’re going to give you a little bit of language, we’re going to look give you a little bit of political history, we’re going to give you a lot of what the Bible says and then we’re just going to have a conversation about humanizing people in this space.” So this is the book to start with, to have that better conversation.

Latasha Morrison
And you can follow Bri at Women of Welcome. The book is called “Start with Welcome.” We’ll have all of that in the show notes. The book is “Start with Welcome: The Journey Toward a Confident and Compassionate Immigration Conversation.” So just like she’s used to having the conversations, she’s invited us into this space, to really be educated and to really lean in to this difficult conversation and make sure that we have not embraced any false narratives, like so many do, based off of fear and having this conversation. So she’s calling us into a brave space. So thank you so much for what you’re doing. You know, thank you for saying yes, you know, that is hard. How are you as we close? How are you resting? Like, how are you finding some respite for yourself in this?Because this is some hard stuff.

Briana Stensrud
You mean, you get to rest? When? I’m like, “What do you mean rest?” I’m not exactly sure. I have never known how to pace. I mean, honestly, when I think about crossing the finish line at the end of my life, I want to look like one of those marathon runners who is like paralyzed from the neck down. You know what I mean? Like, I have been running so hard. I have literally just forgone any kind of dignity of my own. And I’m just like crawling, someone has put me in a wheelchair to get across that finish line. Because I think we are supposed to be really wrung out for people. But I do know what you mean as far as like you can’t keep going unless you do take care of yourself. I haven’t figured out how to pace yet. That is something I’m working on. But I mean, this work is not for you know, this work makes you weary and it’s not for the faint of heart. So yeah, at some point you do have to ask Lord for some extra strength and to multiply your minutes, when you’re asleep and when you’re in a meeting. So, I don’t know, I’ll figure that out later, Latasha.

Latasha Morrison
Well, thank you for your honesty. Thank you for your honesty. You know, it could be, you know, like you ski. Do you ski?

Briana Stensrud
I do that. I haven’t done it yet this year, but I will do it.

Latasha Morrison
Oh yeah, you’re behind, you’re behind You’re right there next to the mountains.

Briana Stensrud
I am.

Latasha Morrison
I know, you know, that’s how we’re thinking.

Briana Stensrud
You’re coming! You’re coming. I’m gonna get you up there…

Latasha Morrison
So I can look like a little baby deer. You know, on the skis.

Briana Stensrud
You know, I’ll be taking all the pictures and all the video and we’re gonna post it on all the Be the Bridge so people can see Latasha going into a brave new space on the top of Keystone Mountain. That’s what’s gonna happen.

Latasha Morrison
Let me tell you, so many people, I think that’s why I get so many invitations to come skiing. And really what I think it is, I really think people just want to see me fall. [Laughter]

Briana Stensrud
Well, you are going to fall. I’m just going to tell you that right now..

Latasha Morrison
I know, I know. But I’m gonna fall gracefully. I want to just, I want to look cute.

Briana Stensrud
Okay, we’ll get you the outfit. We’ll make sure you get the outfit.

Latasha Morrison
And get some real photo ops.

Briana Stensrud
Oh my gosh. And then we’ll be in the lodge with some hot cocoa.

Latasha Morrison
In my heart, you know how you just there’s just certain things that you know, like, I could do that. First of all, I’m afraid of heights. So I would have to do baby slopes because…

Briana Stensrud
Can you get on a chair lift?

Speaker 1
I would. I would do it, I would just do it afraid and pray that it doesn’t break down. Because if it broke down while I was up there, they would have to air vac me to the nearest hospital! [laughter]

Briana Stensrud
You know what? We should start you out on, it’s called The Magic Carpet. And it’s basically like a little, you know, on ramp, like an escalator that just takes you up to the baby hill and then you can come down. And then we’ll move you to a gondola where it’s like a glass capsule. We’ll do that. Yep!

Latasha Morrison
Yes, yes, the capsule. Yeah, I think I would do better with the [capsule]. I’ve been on a gondola before. But that the other thing, that right there, just even thinking about it, my heart is stopping. [laughter] Oooh, I tell you. But anyway, thank you so much and it’s good to have you on the podcast. You know, the last time we saw each other. It was right before the Pandemic. I think it was in 2020.

Briana Stensrud
In DC, right?

Latasha Morrison
No! We were in DC, I saw you in DC but then you came through Atlanta.

Briana Stensrud
Oh yeah! We watched the documentary at a church. Right?

Latasha Morrison
No. it was after that. It was after that. You came, it was March of 2020 right before stuff shut down. And you were like, you were here for some event or something to do with immigration. And we met at Pot City Market. And we were both sitting up there like yeah, you know, you heard about this thing going around. And we were, we had no idea what was about to happen. We were just so…

Briana Stensrud
No. It’s like, we were drinking tea and spilling tea and then all of a sudden, like, once we got on our flight, it was the next week, it was, like, shut down. We’re like, “Whoa, nice. That was my last personal interaction for the next two years.”

Latasha Morrison
Yes, exactly, exactly. I know. I remember that. Because I was like, that was the last conversation. We went out. We had no idea what was around the corner. But thank you so much, you know, for continuing to fan this flame, for continuing to do the work, partnering with Jesus, for being obedient to God’s word and for encouraging other people to come along. So thank you for being brave. And we are so grateful for you and your Yes here at Be the Bridge.

Briana Stensrud
Thanks for having me.

Narrator
Thanks for listening to the Be the Bridge podcast. To find out more about the Be the Bridge organization and/or to become a bridge builder in your community, go to bethbridge.com. Again, that’s bethebridge.com. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, remember to rate and review it on this platform and share it with as many people as you possibly can. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Today’s show was edited, recorded and produced by Trayvon Potts at Integrated Entertainment Studios in metro Atlanta, Georgia. The host and executive producer is Latasha Morrison. Lauren C. Brown is the Senior Producer and transcribed by Sarah Connatser. Please join us next time. This has been a Be the Bridge production.