MARCH 3, 2025:  Agua Prieta Day 2

Day two in Agua Prieta! 

We started the day joyfully with Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado at their beautiful home in Agua Prieta. We broke bread, drank fresh mango juice, and played with their two adorable dogs—grateful to be welcomed into their home and into their morning. It was a morning of gratitude, great food, and lots of laugh—a theme reflected often in each of these posts.  

Afterwards, Maldonado and another Frontera member, David, loaded us up for what would end up being a long and life-changing day in the Sonoran Desert. The team joined four leaders/members from CATPSIC, a drug rehab center of recovering addicts helping other addicts in their own journey. They lead us through the thick of the desert in the direction of the border; we walked the exact path of migrants who were seeking better lives in Douglas and the U.S. beyond.  

“How powerful it was, to literally walk a mile in another person’s shoes,” Anderson Cook reflected with the group later. As we walked, we discovered old clothing, harnesses for hopping the border, and other signs of life—proof of the lives that were still embarking on the harrowing journey.  

CATPSIC served us a wonderful lunch out in the desert, under the Tree of Life—a place where migrants could stop to receive shade and water from local partners in Agua Prieta and Douglas. It was the last stop for migrants before the final stretch of the journey to reach the border.  

As we were walking, the reality of the terrain around us came full force: shrubs up to our hips were covered in sharp thorns, and big patches of seven-foot grass made visibility near-impossible. The dirt, sand, and rocks were unsteady underfoot, and the intense wind often blew into our eyes, noses, and mouths. Cameras on the U.S. side broke up the blue of the sky, and the beating sun made it hard to stay alert and focused.  

And all of this was the six-hour walk a migrant would take before reaching the border.  

“It is our privilege to walk in their well-trodden paths today. What a privilege it was to experience that,” Dr. Adrian Bird reminded us. It wasn’t an easy hike, but it was a powerful one—a day that has impacted us more than any of us were anticipating.  

We finished our time in Mexico at the CAME Migrant Assistance Center, where we were able to learn more about what happens to migrants' post-deportation, and the support systems that exist on Agua Prieta’s side of the border. The leader of our conversation mentioned the intense decrease in migrants that they’ve seen—and this was an extreme surprise to all of us. We got to spend time observing the beautiful murals around CAME, which were representations of resilience and love of those at the border and those crossing the border. 

To wrap up the night, we returned to Iglesia Bautista Amistad to share dinner between just the team. The bond we’ve built and strengthened within the past couple days is infectious and amazing—it’s what has kept this trip alive. A late-night ice cream run and a dance in the kitchen completed a heavy, powerful day.  

Written by Emily Allison & Emily Skaar