S4E3: “Welcoming” with Martha Mercado from Good Neighbor Settlement House

The Jesuit Border Podcast

We are happy to welcome Martha Mercado, from Good Neighbor Settlement House where she works as the Welcome Center Program Director and the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Welcoming Committee Facilitator. Martha shares what she loves about her job, including face-to-face ministry at the welcome center and big-picture coordination of local organizations. She offers her personal reflections on faith and gives thanks for the many “bendiciones” (blessings) that migrants shower on her daily.

Louie and Brian recount their celebration of World Day of the Sick in migrant shelters, where they invited migrants to be anointed. At the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Louie had to adjust some of the language on the fly when he realized most of the people who had come forward for anointing were pregnant women. It didn’t sound quite right to pray that they be “cured” of their pregnancy!