THE HAPPY HOUR #302: WITH GENA THOMAS
WHAT YOU WILL HEAR:
My guest for The Happy Hour # 302 is Gena Thomas. Gena is a writer, a faith wrestler, a wife, and a mom. She and her husband, Andrew, have been married for 11 years and they have two children, an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl. Gena has published two books, A Smoldering Wick: Igniting Missions Work with Sustainable Practices and Separated by the Border: A Birth Mother, a Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child’s 3,000-Mile Journey.
You guys, I have been eager for Gena to be a guest on The Happy Hour since I read her book, Separated by the Border. I originally read the book before my trip to the border last year with Tess Clark and the women of Welcome and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Today’s conversation with Gena is so rich and I’m really grateful for her time. In this episode, we talk about lament as a spiritual discipline, her time as a missionary in Mexico, and her unique path to fostering her daughter from Honduras. Gena also shares about the policies that directly affect families at the border and the action she and other women are taking through a digital media campaign working to highlight the unjust, binary choice that is separating immigrant children from their families. The need to give public voice in support of keeping immigrant children with their families is both timely and extremely urgent. Gena is asking women to use social media to drive engagement of other women and to apply direct pressure to our public officials to stop this harmful practice. Use the hashtags #DontLookAway #ForEveryChild and #FamiliesBelongTogether to make your voice known, and sign the petition HERE!
Friends, I hope this conversation was as encouraging and enlightening for you as it was for me. We can learn so much through proximity and listening to others’ stories.
LINKS FROM THE SHOW
HASHTAG CAMPAIGNS: #DONTLOOKAWAY AND #FOREVERYCHILD
GENA’S BOOK: SEPARATED BY THE BOARDER: A BIRTH MOTHER, A FOSTER MOTHR, AND A MIGRANT CHILD’S, 3,OOO-MILE JOURNEY AND A SMOLDERING WICK: IGNITING MISSIONS WORK WITH SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES
WHAT GENA’S READING: THE WAY UP IS DOWN BY MARLENA GRAVES, REDISCIPLING THE WHOTE CHURCH: FROM CHREAP DIVERSITY TO TRUE SOLIDARITY BY DAVID SWANSON, BACKLASH: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE TALK HONESTLY ABOUT RACISM IN AMERICA HARDCOVER BY GEORGE YANCY
WHAT I’M READING: EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON: AND OTHER LIES I’VE LEARNED, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD BY COLSON WHITEHEAD, THE GREAT ALONE BY KRISTIN HANNAH
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