I have been a practicing artist since 2020 (thanks COVID!) but my love of art has been lifelong. During that social distancing season, I found painting was a way to stay in and accept the present moment in all of its beauty and challenge. Often, images would come to me to execute; sometimes with words but always with healing. When the spirit inspires me to paint, I have learned to listen. God’s directives are rarely suggestions! Over the past five years art has become a hugely important part of my life and a way to express my faith.
2025 was such a pivotal year. Early on, I noticed the way our beautiful diverse neighbors were being marginalized. In March, my first art piece arrived regarding the Imago Dei. This one was inspired by my dear friend Sarah Blackwell who pointed out, “You can’t spell Imago Dei without diversity, equity and inclusion.”
This affected me deeply. If we want to see the image of God, we must see the faces of our neighbors. Who is our neighbor? Everyone. Who bears the divine image? Everyone. Who has been made by God and pronounced good? Everyone.
From there, I continued with a series of art pieces: “Diversity is Divinity,” “For God So Loved the World,” “Not a Spirit of Fear but of Power and Love,” “You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” and “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.”
As often occurs, this art series had no planned purpose. It just “happened.”
However, when CBP/ICE presence arrived in our city recently, I found myself wondering how I could be of service. Watching our neighbors be afraid to leave their homes and their children unable to attend school was heartbreaking. A friend of mine who teaches English at a local elementary school had 75% of her students absent. As a mother and a Christian, I had to “do” something, so I donated groceries to families at my friend’s school. As an artist, however, I felt a calling to do more. I thought over the art I had been creating for months, remembering my painting from Matthew 22, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I thought it would make a great sticker. Suddenly I knew what “more” I could do.
I wanted to give stickers away for free because I wanted to see Christians everywhere proudly saying they love their neighbors. Fortunately, I was honored and humbled to raise enough money to fund 4,000 stickers—I was amazed! God is so good!
In the days since, I have been making connections with individuals and churches who are willing to be a part of this ministry, which is now entitled the “Love Your Neighbor Alliance.” The goal of this ministry is two-fold: First, it aims to share love and solidarity with all of our neighbors. Second, it hopes to encourage Christians to love loudly and remember Jesus’ divine directive to love our neighbors.
About 1,600 of these water bottle stickers have been allocated. My hope is to continue to grow, distribute and share this message. If you or your congregation would like to participate on any level, please get in touch. If we run out, we will fundraise for more. I dream of seeing Christians from Charlotte and beyond sharing the love of Christ with our neighbors.
For more information about this ministry, contact Natalie Lodato at natalielodatoart@gmail.com or find her on Instagram: @natalielodatoart.
This next testimony is shared by a member of our fellowship who is called to serve as a health care provider at a community health clinic that cares for immigrant neighbors in our state. Due to current circumstances, the author has chosen to remain anonymous. It is offered as a witness to what it means to care for our neighbors in a time of fear.
Okay, let’s review our roles. Front desk staff, you are the first point of contact if border patrol enters the office. Please review your script. You will place a call to administrative personnel who will come to talk with CBP, while giving the rest of the clinic the signal that CBP is here. Other clinical staff, you will escort patients and their families from the waiting room to exam rooms. We will all be calm and orderly. We will monitor our breathing, speak in a low tone and follow our protocol.”
Our morning huddle typically finds us running down the list of patients on the schedule for the day, noting open spots and coordinating services to avoid bottlenecks. On this particular morning during our huddle, we reviewed the ICE protocol. The vast majority of the patients at our clinic are immigrants, and many of our employees and their families are as well.
The week before when I previewed this particular day, there were 19 scheduled appointments. But only nine of the original 19 folks felt safe to come to our office. Six of those who came had been born in the United States. Usually, patients wait a long time for an appointment, so our “no-show” and cancellation rate is low. But it was an unusual time. Our immigrant neighbors, whether they had legal status or not, did not feel safe venturing out of their homes.
For us as a staff in those initial days, focusing on patient care was a challenge. Our minds reeled as we scrolled on our phones in our free moments, watching black SUVs pulling up to shopping centers, churches, clinics, restaurants, divulging masked, heavily armed agents who hustled person after person into handcuffs and then whisked them away.
Where would border patrol come next? To us? Were they rounding up people we knew? How could we care for our community when we couldn’t reach them?
As our mental fog cleared a bit, we became more creative both as a clinic and as a community. We were able to get patients scheduled for virtual visits and to connect them with resources. Schools began organizing food deliveries with other community partners including my own church.
In our community at large, many citizens began to reflect more openly about the asset our immigrant neighbors are and to organize to protect them.
While the situation is not as acute now, the feelings of general insecurity, dis-ease and trepidation for immigrants remains no matter their legal status. We’re probably going to be experiencing this for some time.
The soundtrack playing in my head is a verse from an old hymn: “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply.”
And as we walk through these trials with our families, friends, neighbors and coworkers, I am trusting in Jesus name that it is so.
