Cruz-ando la Frontera (Cross-walking the Border)

Abstract

This article relates the story of border-crossing Lutherans at the U.S.–Mexico border during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Borders are not only geopolitical in nature, but also constructs of the heart and mind. In crossing a border to serve the immigrant neighbor from Mexico, a German Lutheran family transcends the borders of cultural, linguistic, and national origin. In a “third space†of human encounter and relating, they experience the tenderness of the heart that sow the seeds for Lutheran ministry that has flourished for one hundred years.