Strangers in the Province of Joy: Practicing Radical Hospitality on the U.S.-Mexico Border by Mary Fontana

I’ve never started an organization, but I imagine most people come up with a plan before they have somewhere to work from. Not Ruben Garcia and the other young adults who got together in an abandoned El Paso building belonging to the Catholic Church, which the local bishop loaned to them for free.

At first, five young adults would live there, wanting to do something “meaningful,” but without a clear idea what that could mean. Most of them quit jobs, sold cars, or withdrew from college. They fixed broken windows, cooked simple meals, met their neighbors, and prayed. This was the beginning of Annunciation House.

In her book Strangers in the Province of Joy, writer Mary Fontana chronicles the history of Annunciation House, now a sprawling organization where she herself has volunteered for two decades. After the initial uncertainty, Annunciation House’s mission gradually became clear: they would serve migrants, with a heart for the undocumented poor in particular.

As the team at Annunciation House was getting started in the late 1970s, the border was more porous. And yet, even in that more relaxed era, almost every other shelter in El Paso would turn away people who came sin papeles, without papers. Annunciation House took them in, and they continue to do so today, having expanded to multiple buildings and sometimes serving hundreds of thousands in a year.

Stitching together news coverage and interviews with staff and guests, Fontana expertly shares the highs and lows of Annunciation House’s history. Its bold stance of welcome hasn’t always been straightforward and has sometimes landed them in political crosshairs. The work, however, shows no signs of slowing down.

While reading Strangers in the Province of Joy, there were two of Jesus’ lessons I couldn’t get out of my head, ones I think might be the hardest to follow. First, the three times in Luke 9 where Jesus invites someone to follow, and they have some pretty compelling reasons why now isn’t a great time, actually. Our lives always have question marks, and if we wait to sort them all out before listening, we’ll miss God’s call. Through five decades in the posture of a servant, Annunciation House has always operated on a policy of faithful hope rather than worshiping security.

Then, there’s the story in Luke 18—where Jesus meets a rich young man who’s confident he’s been morally upstanding since childhood. Jesus’ response? “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (v. 22). Ouch. Certainly not what I want to hear while living in an air-conditioned house that has multiple cars in the driveway. The founders of Annunciation House, unemployed and still sharing warm dinners with people who couldn’t hope to repay them, might be some of the closest to living out this divine command.

What if more of us took Jesus seriously in our own lives? Maybe we wouldn’t be so surprised when a prayer-filled building grows into a messy, thriving, faithful ministry still living out the gospel to the most vulnerable people almost 50 years later. (Orbis Books)