By Jessica Easthope
Jennifer Benitez didn’t know Christmas 2022 would be her last in Bogota, Colombia.
But all it took was a split second for her to realize, it had to be.
“I try not to speak about it,” Benitez said. “It’s very difficult for me.”
That moment was when the acid started to burn the skin off her left leg. Gang members attacked Benitez with it as retaliation for her and her husband Bryan Jate telling them to stop smoking marijuana outside their home, to protect their young son Julian.
“I was walking to the grocery store and they came up on a motorcycle. I blocked my face and fell to the ground,” Beitez said. “And the man on the motorcycle said, ‘next time it’s going to be your son.’”
“It was in that moment that we made the decision to leave,” Jate said. “She spent two months in the hospital. It was very difficult for me as a husband and father.”
Now they sit in the basement of St. Matthew’s Church in Crown Heights a world away from the worries they felt at home. Here they’ve found a community and a new family.
“We feel enormous love here,” Jate said. “Everything we have is because of the church.”
The church provides food, clothing and necessities to migrants from across the city. Pastor Father Frank Black says he can’t help but find similarities between these migrants’ stories and Jesus’ story.
“Jesus’ whole story was a story of having to move from one place to the other, face the attacks of politics, live with people who were not accepting of him and his family,” Father Black said. “The lord understands, and he’s with us, and he’s blessing us too.”
Benitez and Jate said in Colombia, Christmas is colorful. There’s a lot of music and dancing, what they see around them is different. But this Christmas has already been made because no one can hurt them.
The couple does volunteer work at St. Matthew’s.
Their family and dozens of other migrants will be sharing a Christmas meal at Our Lady of Charity in Crown Heights on Christmas.