The preparation is complete and the journey is about to begin. Tanya, Andrea and Amos leave November 7 to listen, learn and reflect across the Arizona Borderlands — carrying the prayers, questions and support of our church and community with them.
Our Facebook delegation group is the closest place to the day-to-day experience. We will share appropriate vlogs, photographs, prayers, reflections and moments from the road as the journey unfolds. Ask questions, send prayers and follow what we are learning.
What began as an invitation to help send three people has become a shared community effort. Through the generosity of our congregation, individual contributors and the New Hampshire Conference, UCC, our public fundraising goal of $10,000 has been reached. We are deeply grateful to everyone who donated, prayed, encouraged us, sent messages, asked questions or helped carry this journey forward.
We travel together as representatives of the Congregational Church of Hollis, grounded in faith and a desire to grow. Each of us brings a different life experience and reason for going. Together, we hope to return better equipped to support, empower, uplift and advocate within our community.
Amos brings a Māori worldview grounded in whakapapa, whenua, whakawhanaungatanga and whakarongo. In these final days he has been reflecting on the election period and how civic participation, leadership and public choices shape immigration conversations and change. He is continuing to ask how listening, experience and deeper knowledge can shape his own impact and leadership. He is now packing, charging cameras and preparing the media equipment for the road.
Tanya enters the journey as pastor, leader and learner. Completing the Compassionate Listening training has given her new insight into her own leadership style and practical tools for entering difficult conversations with greater compassion and awareness. As departure approaches, she continues leading the church while preparing services, responsibilities and operations for the time she will be away.
Andrea brings the perspective of an educator and language specialist. With the Compassionate Listening training complete, she is now packing and preparing for the days ahead. She has also been busy supporting election activity in the community and enters the journey ready to listen across language, culture and different lived experiences.
We may enter this journey with different experiences, roles and questions, but we are united by a belief that stronger communities begin with the willingness to listen. We want to encounter the Borderlands with humility, faith and presence — not to arrive with ready-made answers.
What we learn will not stay in Arizona. We want this experience to strengthen future ministry, education, storytelling, advocacy and community leadership here at home. Our goal is to return with a fuller perspective and a deeper capacity to stand alongside people navigating difficult and complex realities.
The work began long before the flight. Six weeks of Compassionate Listening, delegation meetings, fundraising, reflection, media planning, prayer and practical preparation have brought us to the final days before departure.
Community giving, individual contributors and support from the New Hampshire Conference, UCC, helped us reach the public fundraising goal.
All three delegates completed the six-week Intro to Compassionate Listening course and now carry a shared set of listening practices into the journey.
Amos has met with Compassionate Listening leadership about filming. Some spaces may be documented, while others require greater privacy, consent and sensitivity.
Bags are being packed, equipment charged and church responsibilities prepared for the days the delegation will be away.
At 5:30 a.m. Saturday, the delegation will begin together in prayer for safe travel and for people who continue to face adversity.
Our itinerary is full and may change. We will release more of the daily route and experiences as we travel and as it is appropriate to share.
From November 7–15, the delegation will join The Compassionate Listening Project in Tucson and the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. We will listen across different perspectives, learn from people and places directly affected by border realities, and reflect together on what these experiences ask of us when we return home.
The Borderlands Journey invites participants to practice deep, compassionate listening across difference. Our six-week introductory training is now complete, giving us a shared foundation for entering the journey with greater self-awareness, curiosity, care and responsibility.
Six weeks of Compassionate Listening, delegation meetings, reading, reflection and preparation.
We begin together in prayer for safe travel, for those we will meet and for people continuing to face adversity.
The itinerary is full and may change. We will share more of the route and daily experiences as we travel and as it is appropriate to do so.
Reflect, share responsibly and turn the learning into stronger listening, leadership, service and community conversation.
Our travel schedule starts early. At 5:30 a.m. Saturday, before we leave, we will pray together for a safe journey and for those who continue to face adversity. Where appropriate, we plan to capture that opening moment and share it with the delegation Facebook group.
The delegation is entering the Borderlands first as participants and listeners. Any photography, video or documentary work will respect consent, cultural protocols and the purpose of the journey. Permission to meet someone is not automatically permission to film or publish their story.
Whakarongo / ListeningManaakitanga / CareRelationshipConsentReflection
We are deeply grateful for the support of the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ. Their $4,500 contribution played a major role in helping our delegation reach its fundraising goal, while their wider work continues to connect churches, strengthen leaders and support ministry across New Hampshire.
The Conference helps congregations stay connected to one another and to the wider United Church of Christ, creating opportunities for shared learning, collaboration and mutual support.
Through education, resources and leadership development, NHCUCC supports clergy and lay people as they grow in faith, service, discernment and their capacity to lead within their communities.
The Conference supports churches as they respond faithfully to the needs of their communities, build relationships and participate in ministries that extend beyond the walls of a single congregation.
A special thank you to Bruce for his communication, encouragement and practical support throughout this process, and to the New Hampshire Conference UCC for standing behind the delegation and the learning we hope to bring home.
Our $10,000 public fundraising goal has been reached through the generosity of the community, individual contributors and support connected to the United Church of Christ. Thank you for helping make this journey possible.
Current program fees for three delegates after a confirmed 30% discount for one participant: two at $3,950 and one at $2,765. Each delegate previously paid a $500 deposit toward these fees.
Confirmed support from the New Hampshire Conference UCC has been a major part of helping the delegation reach this stage.
Round-trip airfare for the three delegates is booked at $677 per traveler and has been covered through participant contributions.
All three delegates completed the six-session Intro to Compassionate Listening course at $50 each. Those training costs were covered by the participants.
Shared transportation connected to the airports and the journey will be reconciled with the remaining travel expenses as the delegation departs.
Post-journey share-backs, online resources, church and community presentations, listening-practice sessions and responsible storytelling will extend the value beyond the three travelers.
The figures above show known program, travel and training costs and confirmed support. The public campaign goal is now complete; final travel expenses and payments continue to be reconciled through the church and delegation.
We are no longer asking the community to help us reach the original $10,000 goal. If you still feel drawn to give, continued donations can support the wider impact of the journey and the work of bringing learning, reflection and community engagement home.
For online giving or checks, please use Borderlands as the memo/designation. Checks can be mailed to Congregational Church of Hollis, 3 Monument Square, Hollis, NH 03049.
Church office: 603-465-7797 • admin@hollischurch.org. Donations are handled through the church's established giving system; this website does not collect or store card or bank information.
As departure approaches, we want to keep carrying the congregation with us. If there is something you want us to listen for, a question you are holding, or a prayer you would like us to take into the journey, send it through.
The Journey Journal now moves from preparation into departure. Tanya, Andrea and Amos will each reflect from their own experience, while shared delegation posts will capture what we are learning together. We will only share images, names and stories where it is appropriate and permission has been given.
Final preparation updates • Departure Nov 7, 2026After six weeks of Compassionate Listening, the delegation is moving from preparation into practice. Equipment is being charged, bags are being packed, church responsibilities are being handed over and the final questions and prayers of the community are being gathered.
Before the travel day gathers pace, we will pray together for safe passage, for the people we will meet and for those who continue to face adversity. We plan to share this opening moment with the Facebook delegation group where appropriate.
Our $10,000 public fundraising goal has been reached. We are grateful to the congregation, individual contributors, Bruce and the New Hampshire Conference UCC, and everyone who has supported the journey through donations, prayer, encouragement and questions.
Tanya has been reflecting on the six-week training and the insight it has offered into her own leadership style. She is carrying new compassionate tools into the journey while continuing to lead the church and prepare services and operations for her absence.
Faith, pastoral leadership, encounters and reflections will be added as the journey unfolds and as it is appropriate to share.
Andrea has completed the Compassionate Listening training and is now packing and preparing for the journey. After a busy period supporting election activity in the community, she is looking forward to listening, learning and experiencing the days ahead.
Observations about language, education, culture and human connection will be shared from the field where appropriate.
Amos has been observing the election period and reflecting on how civic participation, leadership and public choices connect to immigration, change and understanding. He is asking how the Borderlands experience can deepen his knowledge and shape the impact he hopes to create when he returns.
The practical preparation is now real: cameras, batteries, audio and devices are being charged and packed. The media approach remains grounded in presence, consent and relationship before documentation.
Our training has given us shared practices for self-awareness, Fair Witness, reflective listening, curiosity, regulation, widening perspective and speaking from the heart. We now take those practices from the classroom into lived experience.
We are working with a tight and evolving schedule. Rather than publish every detail at once, we will release more of the itinerary as we travel, while respecting the people, places, privacy and circumstances around each encounter.
The fundraising goal is complete; the shared journey is just beginning. The strongest way to take part now is to stay connected to what the delegation is seeing, hearing and learning.
Vlogs, photographs, quick reflections, questions and prayers from preparation and the road.
Join the Facebook group →Longer reflections from Tanya, Andrea, Amos and the delegation as we make meaning of what we experience.
Read the journal →Follow what happens after the journey as learning becomes conversation, leadership, service and next steps in Hollis.
See the impact plan →Reaching the fundraising goal gets us to the starting line. The longer work is what we do with the experience: reflect together, share responsibly, deepen Compassionate Listening practice and translate what we learn into stronger local leadership, service and community conversation.
A gathering for the congregation and wider community to hear what the delegation experienced and learned.
Curated journal entries, online resource materials, Zoom-based group work, photos where permitted, reading resources and practical lessons from the journey.
Locally developed Compassionate Listening practice and reflection sessions for church and community use, while clearly distinguishing these from official TCLP facilitator training.
Share the experience with congregations, ministry partners and community groups, connecting the learning to pastoral care, education, immigrant/refugee support and constructive dialogue.
Alongside his role as delegation coordinator and participant, Amos is developing Māori-led documentary work exploring land, migration, Indigenous identity, belonging and the power of listening. The November Journey remains first and foremost a relationship-building and learning experience. The delegation is also exploring a short community-facing documentary series using only appropriate, consented material and post-trip reflection. Any larger film work will develop separately through continued relationships, permissions, research and future filming.