Celebrating women’s achievements and leadership in March

A Q&A WITH Bri Stensrud, Director of Women of Welcome, a Welcome.US partner

March is a month to celebrate the achievements, leadership, and inclusion of women around the world. In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8 and Women’s History Month, Welcome.US connected with Bri Stensrud, the Director of Women of Welcome, a Welcome.US partner, to talk about her work and experience at the intersection of immigration and biblical hospitality. Bri also recently formed a private sponsor group and submitted an application through the Welcome Corps to welcome a refugee family.

Women of Welcome is a women-led organization that relies on Scripture to guide its work with immigrants and refugees. How does your focus on immigration as a biblical issue shape the way you engage your community with this mission?

I think so much about immigration is very intimidating, and it is the political conversation of the country right now. For people of faith who want to follow their faith into all kinds of human dignity spaces, it's a hard conversation to have, and we're not necessarily having the conversation well.

Our desire is to attach confidence to our Christian communities’ compassion and say, this is a space that you can operate in, this is a space [where] you belong. This is not simply a political issue. This is also a biblical issue.

Why did you decide to engage the women in your faith community specifically on this work? And why is women’s leadership significant to this work?

I actually got engaged in this work because I have Christian friends who are in the immigration space and knew that I cared about the dignity and sanctity of every human life. They invited me to go on an immersion experience down to Oaxaca, Mexico, and they said, take your pro-life convictions with you down to Mexico. And so I did, and I met with pastors and community leaders and government officials.

But the thing that really shook me to my core was when we went to a shelter for unaccompanied minor children, and there me and a group of other Christian women who were leading in their own spaces in the evangelical community, we met and saw preteen girls who were holding children of their own. We saw an 11 year old who was holding an 8-day-old baby, and we saw a 13 year old who was holding a 3-month-old baby. To our shock, these were their own children.

That was such a turning point for me in my own heart, in my own mind, because I knew that other Christians like myself were not hearing this story. They weren't seeing this—this kind of pain. They were unaware of the push and pull factors that were existing right in front of my face. And I knew that if my girlfriends could see what I had just seen, if they could hear the story of violence that I had just heard, they would be just as grieved…

When I came home, I was never the same. And I think it's interesting to experience this with another group of women. I think this is a fascinating life experience to go on a journey with over 150,000 other women and a Women of Welcome community, where we say, you're invited into this space and you can show up as you are—bring your fears, bring your messy questions. I don't actually care how you vote or what you think politically, what I want to do is just not leave you where you are. I want to show you something you've likely never seen before. I want to tell you a story that you've likely never heard before. And because I know that you love God and you love people, I know you're actually going to care about what you hear and what you see.

Do you think women bring a different perspective to humanitarian aid? How has that perspective influenced your approach to the work?

When women get close in proximity to people, things are never the same. Everything is personal. And then there's a power in that proximity. So once something becomes personal to a woman, there's no stopping her and her quest for change, or her quest for justice or equality, whatever that may be.

We're just attaching confidence to their compassion. We're not changing narratives. We're not changing Scripture. We're just attaching confidence to their biblical conviction and the God-given compassion that they already have.

Since starting Women of Welcome in 2017, what have you seen as the biggest change or challenge over time? How have you worked to address it?

When we first started into this work… conservatives were not getting an alternative narrative. We were getting a narrative that was very dehumanizing and very divisive…. So, unfortunately, when we started Women of Welcome, we were doing a lot of putting out fires as far as there were so many fears, and there were so many headlines, and there were so many lobs across the fence as far as what political candidates were saying. We had to keep coming back to, well, what does the Bible say?...

What we found was, women were hungry for something different. They were consuming the narrative, but the narrative wasn't sitting well… So coming and finding the Women of Welcome community was like a breath of fresh air. They were like, okay, so I can still be a Republican, care about immigration, and talk about it. I can be a Democrat and still care about this and talk because you guys are completely nonpartisan. What do you mean? You talk about immigration from a nonpartisan perspective. Is that even a thing? Offering an alternative narrative and offering a faith-filled conversation was refreshing to women, and it was a relief to women.

How can others who are compassionate about helping in this space engage with your mission?

You offer them an invite, and it's an authentic invite. You say you have a place here, and we can all go on this journey together. You're not alone—which is usually all women need to hear is, “I'm not alone. I can follow God in this space.” Great—sign me up.