MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Summer 2026
Coralis Salvador, USA/Mexico Border
Greetings from El Paso, where dust storms and heat are upon us.
Peeping boy at our AMC offices while I was at my desk.
After returning from a short-term volunteer assignment in Beirut, a city still carrying the weight of ongoing conflict, it took me a while to readjust to life in El Paso. The past three months have felt unsettled. I went about my usual rhythm: being with migrants at the shelter, observing court hearings, and accompanying them in Juárez with participants of our Encuentro Border Immersion program. Yet something was missing.
This summer, MKLM’s Communications team invited missioners to focus on the theme “Mission Begins with a SMILE.” It’s hard to smile if there is no joy in one’s heart. What helped me find mine again were the memories of children and women who smiled despite their difficult circumstances, reminders to be hopeful and to trust that we are in good hands. I want to share a few of those moments.
Woman with bracelet gift
At the shelter, a migrant woman became a wheelchair user after a car accident while crossing the border. She was given emotional, physical, and loving care. She quickly learned beadwork, a craft that became therapeutic, empowering, and joyful for her.
Also at the shelter, we cared for a migrant mother who had been kidnapped and left in a park near the border after delivering her son. A Good Samaritan found her and brought them both to a hospital, which called our shelter to ask if we could take her in. She refused to let this tragedy define her and chose to live positively for her son. She stayed with us for more than eight months, waiting for her son’s birth documents to be processed with pro-bono legal help.
In Beirut, the children I met and played with reminded me that their smiles and joy come from a deep trust that they are in good hands, God’s hands. Aren’t we all? Back here at the Arrupe Migrant Center in El Paso, I see that same trust in the faces of the people we serve.
My gratitude for your prayers and support, especially during the uncertainty surrounding my time in Beirut.
With thanks and blessings,
Coralis
Baby in walker at the shelter
Please consider supporting my mission work at the U.S.-Mexico Border with a donation through the link below.
I invite you to walk with me as a “COMPANION IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!
Coralis is a community volunteer at a shelter for asylum seekers released from ICE or CBP detentions and at “La Tilma” feeding program of Sacred Heart Church in El Paso, Texas. She previously served with Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kenya for 19 years. She is the co-author of the Orbis book What’s So Blessed About Being Poor?
