Stewarding Talents

By Julia Banegas, RILA Volunteer Attorney

Learning to steward my talents started with deciding what vocation to pursue. In college, I remember agonizing over what career path I should choose. My thoughts were grand with an idealism that is characteristic of college — dreaming about what big adventure God had for me.

But this adventure didn’t envision much of a direct relationship with God, and I felt God showing me that I had the wrong idea about a “calling.” I viewed it more as God giving me a task and then I would go fulfill it— more or less without him. I had not viewed it as a daily walk with God—that my work would be one way that I would walk faithfully with God every day.

I ended up becoming a lawyer. And I knew generally that part of being a lawyer meant that I would need to use my skills to help the marginalized and the oppressed. Because lawyers make a living on knowing how to navigate complex systems, I knew that part of being faithful to God through my career would be to help the vulnerable and marginalized also navigate these systems. My work with RILA has helped me learn to humbly walk with God by using my legal skills to help the marginalized.

The first RILA case I had was for a T Visa cover letter, which is a legal process that helps a person who has been trafficked into the U.S. gain legal status. The case I worked on was for a woman with a devastating story. She grew up in an abusive home in Central America, had an abusive relationship with the father of her children and was manipulated and spiritually abused into hiring a guide to bring her to the U.S. The guide sexually assaulted her and—if that wasn’t severe enough—she and the guide were then kidnapped, extorted, and trafficked into the U.S.

I am happy to report that la few months ago her T visa was granted which means that she now has legal status in the U.S. Natalie let me know that when she told our client about the result, she burst into tears.

During our interviews for the case, I remember the fear that our client had and the severe impacts she had sustained from being trafficked. I’m really honored to be able to have been a part of her gaining legal status.

And on top of being able to achieve justice for our client, the case has also helped me learn that lesson that God was trying to teach me in college. I’ve gotten to see how the legal work that I do every day—the case research, the writing, the interviews, the deadlines, the citations—is a way in which I can glorify God. All work is meaningful, but it’s easy to forget that. Working with RILA has helped me reconnect with the purpose of my work because I am directly seeing the fruits. It’s helped me learn how God works through the mundane of every day life and every day legal work, like citations and case research. That’s a real privilege for me to start to understand. And I’ve loved getting to use my skills for such important cases.