Planting the (Mustard) Seeds in Patagonia, Arizona
- Voices from the Border
- Aug 17
- 5 min read
Many of our readers might not be aware of our special relationship with the Center for Action and Contemplation based in Albuquerque, NM. It began unexpectedly in 2023 when I was involved in a side project, unrelated to Voices from the Border, with my friend and former neighbor, Gary Nabhan. Gary had invited me to help organize a series of retreats, broadly titled Desert Spirituality, in Patagonia, Arizona. Always game for a new adventure, I jumped in.
We facilitated the first two retreats in the winter and spring of 2023, and attendees included some CAC staff and Fr. Richard Rohr. I suddenly (and surreally) found myself sitting at a table next to Rohr & Co. during one of our group meals, telling them about the work of Voices from the Border. At that time, Rohr was spearheading an effort to sponsor and support Venezuelan asylum seekers at a Catholic Worker House in Albuquerque.
The Center for Action and Contemplation was founded in 1987 by Fr. Rohr, and its vision is stated as “transformed people working together for a more just and connected world.” Further, Rohr’s vision has always been about “providing spiritual grounding for a movement of contemplative activists, prophetic leaders, and spiritual seekers.” Since 1987, it has become a growing progressive Christian contemplative movement. In the tradition of Jesus, St. Francis, and all mystics, the CAC’s stated role is “to provide spiritual wisdom and guidance to support both inner and outer transformation.”
Yes, please! In all candor, I was over the moon to have this unexpected opportunity to share Voices' work with Fr. Rohr and his incredible staff in such an intimate setting. I knew that our work of “welcoming the stranger” was in alignment with their mission. What transpired is as follows….
For more on the CAC, click here: https://cac.org/about/about-the-center-for-action-and-contemplation/
Center for Action and Contemplation Founder, Fr. Richard Rohr
We Conspire!
We Conspire is an online series from the Center for Action and Contemplation featuring wisdom and stories of hospitality from the Christian contemplative movement that "challenge fear, deepen compassion, and enlarge our humanity."
We were first invited to be featured in their publication in October of 2025. The focus of the interview was on turning "big feelings" — outrage, grief, despair — into meaningful action. Thus were the beginnings of Voices from the Border and a direct result of the election of Donald Trump in 2016.
From a mystical experience in a Tucson Home Depot parking lot (true story--my cosmic ham radio happened to be tuned to the right station three nights post-election) to a grassroots community-led effort and eventually to a humanitarian-aid and activism focused nonprofit, countless synchronicities and people conspired to help us become Voices from the Border, and pointedly, to be in a position to help migrating, underserved and newly deported people in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Read Where the Border Meets the Heart:
Voices from the Border Co-Founder, India Aubry
We Conspire: Encore!
THEN—we were doubly blessed to be invited to be featured again in July of this year. This time, Voices co-founder Kathi Noaker was interviewed. Kathi expounds on the story of Voices, the kismet of meeting Pancho Olachea Martin, and the simple yet transformative act of humans caring about one another. OH and (spoiler alert) there's a binational love story embedded in this tale. Who doesn't love a love story...?!
Read Hospitality Across Borders:
Voices from the Border Co-Founder, Kathi Noaker and Francisco (Pancho) Olachea Martin, Medical Director and Migrant Services Manager
CAC Movement Partnership Recognition and Creating Change Together
Voices from the Border has been recognized as Movement Partners by the Center for Action and Contemplation for three consecutive years (and currently striving for a fourth recognition). In the Center's effort to "awaken a more just and connected world", the Movement Partnership program is a collaboration with organizations like Voices that share a similar vision for active social change to create a wider network of groups "working to strengthen compassionate engagement in the world." This recognition is twofold: financial support in the form of grant funding and acknowledgment that our organization's values align with theirs.
We don't need to expressly identify as a Christian organization to inherently recognize the Christ in everyone whom we serve. The expression, "What Would Jesus Do," quite literally embodies the soul of our work. In Matthew 25:31-40, Jesus says, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me...Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Similarly, Buddhism teaches that showing compassion for others means recognizing their struggles and responding with boundless love and radical interconnectedness with the understanding that all beings have a universal desire for peace and safety. Judaism encourages tikkun olam, a term that describes the moral obligation to help improve and heal society through acts of kindness, charity, and social justice. Islam places both a religious and ethical emphasis on welcoming, feeding, and protecting the stranger, treating hospitality not just as a polite custom, but as a direct duty to God. A traveler or newcomer in need is often referred to as a guest sent by God. Prophet Muhammad famously stated, "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should be hospitable to his guest." Obviously, this isn't an exhaustive list, but all major religious traditions have their own unique teachings that recognize the importance of helping the most vulnerable among us—"many facets of the same diamond", as they say.
We are honored to be recognized by the CAC and strive to embody the ethos of service to humanity in our work. Compassion, kindness, and service are needed now more than ever to alleviate the profound suffering we are all witnessing. Whether you are inspired by your faith or by a heartfelt belief in the power of the human spirit, together we are co-creating "the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible" (C. Eisenstein). Thank you, dear readers, for being our partners in this sacred work.
And Lastly!...
Thanks to our connections with the good folks at the CAC, we were given the wonderful opportunity to be featured in a documentary and to talk about our work. Riding the Line is a personal passion project of one of our CAC friends, Dawson Allen, who journeyed through a devastating bike accident that nearly took his life to make this film that documents his physical and spiritual recovery--and, ultimately, the restoration of his belief in humanity. We are pleased to share Riding the Line: Compassion + Bikes at the American Border.
This film chronicles a bike ride from Tucson to the U.S.-Mexico border and back to Patagonia, AZ, where we call home. It's a journey of shared values and passions, spotlighting the work of Voices from the Border. Every pedal stroke, every mile, is a testament to what connects us as people. Borders don't define humanity—our shared ride does.
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