Reading through today’s New York Times, I came across an extraordinary opinion piece on immigration reform, titled “A Sense of Who We Are.”

The picture it paints is at once troubling and hopeful. It is troubling because of the painful testimony described from an event at La Sinagoga Pentecostal Church in NYC. Immigrants came forward and expressed their sorrow and pain as strangers in a land which does not welcome or recognize their existence. It is hopeful because more than 1,000 Christians from all walks of life gathered at a Latino Pentecostal church on a snowy Saturday afternoon to raise their voices and testify before U.S. senators and elected officials about how change must come to our broken immigration system. In the midst of the many challenges we face as a nation and as people of God, may we always cling to these glimmering examples of hope.

Click here to see a TV news story on the event.

Allison Johnson is the campaign coordinator for Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR).