What happens when two families, from different worlds, take a leap of faith? This is a story of courage, compassion, and the unexpected blessings that come when we say “yes” to love.
Lisa Fernelius, a member of the Women of Welcome community, never imagined how one trip to Honduras would transform her life forever. What started as a mission trip turned into a life-changing act of love when an asylum-seeking family reached out in their time of need.
A Step of Faith
It was kind of accidental.
It is what I often say when asked how I ended up with an asylum-seeking family living with me for almost three years. It was the best kind of accident.
In 2015, I traveled to Honduras on a mission trip with my church. On that trip, we hosted a VBS and met many families living around the neighborhood. Two years later, I went back. I kept going back.
In 2019, one of the women I came to know from our travels sent me a message via messenger. She, her husband, and three young children had traveled to the United States-Mexico border, escaping violence and persecution. They were able to cross at a legal port of entry and were permitted to pursue asylum.
The problem? The place they had planned to stay fell through. Now they were in Texas and time was running out in their current living situation.
My husband and I set up a video call along with friends who spoke Spanish to see if we could help with formulating a plan. It did not take long to realize that plans were very limited for this young family. We decided to take a day and pray. Then we set up another time to meet via video and hung up.
An Invitation
With the video screen gone dark my husband turned to me and said, “What you do for the least of these…” and I knew where he was going. Could we really invite an unknown family to stay in our home? Would this Honduran family even want to move to a frozen Minnesota?
We decided to extend the invitation, after all, it would likely just take 2-4 weeks to get them settled in the community. Surprisingly, they said yes, and the next thing I knew we were on our way to pick up these new friends, soon to become family.
After they came to stay, I quickly got caught up to date on what seeking asylum meant. I learned about the many restrictions and lack of assistance for these families. It became clear this journey would take longer than a couple of weeks. So we started doing life together. There were many beautiful life lessons learned in this process.
Journeying Together
We slowly learned Spanish and our new family learned English. We laughed over our mispronunciations, practiced dancing salsa in the kitchen, had many Spiderman parties, celebrated (and cried) the night we received word that the asylum application was finally accepted, and got lots of hugs from the sweetest littles you ever met. We even had the most elegant backyard wedding.
It also became evident that we were surrounded by the most caring, loving community who wrapped their arms around us and our new family. If I wrote a thousand pages there wouldn’t be enough room to tell you about all the beauty this experience brought to our life.
Eventually, the day came when they both had work permits, had secured employment, and COVID had passed. One had their driver’s license and the other their permit. It was time for them to move to their own space. It was truly bittersweet. They are now our family, forever and always.
Lives Changed Forever
There is trouble in sharing this story. There is trouble in the assumptions that could be made. People could assume that we knew all about the immigration process (we didn’t). Some might think that we are some kind of special, abnormal people (we aren’t). Assumptions could be made that there weren’t messy or hard moments (there were).
We are simple people (a coach and a nurse) who had no idea what we were doing. We both desire to do what Jesus calls us to and often fall short of that desire. But this time, that desire led to a yes.
My husband and I both agree that other than following Jesus and marrying each other, inviting this beautiful family to live with us is the single best decision we ever made. It is indescribable the joy that they have brought to our lives. The impact they had on our children and on us, is priceless. To this day, they are the strongest, bravest, kindest, most faithful people I have ever met. Thanks to five of the most incredible people I have ever been blessed to meet, our lives have been forever impacted in all the best ways.
We invite you to see the other side—a mother’s courageous journey from Honduras to finding a new family in Minnesota.