Writing in the Wilderness: reflecting on the immigration stories that have shaped our lives (March 2026)

We’re living through an era of displacement, of dislocation. People are on the move in search of safety, of belonging—wandering in unfamiliar lands, in cultural and political wildernesses, looking for communities to call home. This workshop will focus on our experiences of migration and the God who wanders with us. Some of us have left homelands, others of us were born or grew up in this country because our parents left their homes. We’re here, and we’re making a life, a home. 

Writing prompts will guide participants to consider the people and places that have shaped their identities—the memories we carry with us, helping us remember who we are. We will write as a way to get our bearings, which will include attention to our surroundings, to the world that conditions our lives. We will explore together the theme of immigration as a personal and political reality.

We hope this workshop will include people who want to think about their family immigration stories and about how to write those stories as part of their faith — this might include people whose family immigration stories began seven generations ago, and people whose family immigration stories began last year.  We hope, too, that pastors and community leaders will especially find nourishment and stimulation in this workshop.

Bio: Isaac Villegas is the author of Migrant God: A Christian Vision for Immigrant Justice, and a columnist and contributing editor at The Christian Century magazine. His writing has also appeared in Sojourners, Faith and Leadership, and Anabaptist World, among other publications. He is an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church USA. He was born and raised in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a child of Latin American parents and now lives in North Carolina.

Apply here. Applications are due Sunday, September 7.