Building Networks of Friendship - Written by Isaac Zika

We have to act in any place the administration is trying to deport people, and let them know we won’t permit it.  Like Mordecai says in the book of Esther, “You might think by not speaking up, you’ll spare yourself. Don’t count on it.”

When political folks started slandering Haitian people in September, I started thinking about ways to respond helpfully as a person living near Springfield, Ohio. About that time I was also contacted by a friend who is involved with immigrant solidarity work as well as community gardening and orchardry. I reached out to someone I already knew in Springfield, to help get us connected with the Haitian community there, specifically one Haitian church congregation. I also reached out to Jan Futrell and others in the Southern Ohio/Kentucky (SOKY) district of the Church of the Brethren who have been involved in immigrant solidarity organizing. 

This became an effort to build a network of friendship, based around connection and supporting each other through tough times. We noticed this specific suffering that was happening, and asked what we could do. 

On Communion Sunday in October, folks from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and a guest from Germany planted 20-30 trees on the property of a Haitian church congregation in Springfield. The trees came from different sources, through a group of orchardists who do community planting all over... Indiana, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh. A local landscaper who employs Haitians brought his auger to drill the holes.  This was the day after a meeting in the SOKY district about response to the issues in Springfield, and I was able to come with donations that I turned into into bone meal and manure to help with the planting. 

This has been a project of God’s abundance overcoming scarcity. As we got to know the Haitian pastor through the planting project, we were also able to connect him with area contacts related to immigration advocacy, as we continue to build the network of friendship.