Long before migrant caravans began overwhelming the southern U.S. border, Tijuana Pastor Gustavo Banda Aceves had a dream. He says he dreamed of a black man who spoke fluent Spanish, leading a large group of other black folks into Banda’s church.

At the time, he was on vacation in Mexico City and hadn’t heard the news that waves of Haitian migrants had been arriving in Tijuana, where he’s the founding pastor of La Iglesia de los Embajadores de Jesús (Ambassadors of Jesus Church).

When Banda returned home, he asked his church leaders if they had seen foreigners in town. Yes, they replied: Throngs of people of African descent were crowding the San Ysidro Port of Entry, asking for admittance into the United States. Their dark skin and foreign languages stuck out in an area that once saw very few black people.

Banda sent some church members to the border to look for a Spanish-speaking black man. One Sunday morning, they rang him and said, “Pastor, we’ve got a big problem.” They had found a Haitian man who spoke Spanish, but all of the man’s Haitian friends wanted to visit his church. So Banda sent out two pickup trucks to pick them up, and when those weren’t enough, he sent three more.

That Sunday, more than 100 Haitians stood in his church sanctuary, worshipping among his Mexican congregants. Banda preached while the Spanish-speaking Haitian man, Hosea, interpreted his sermon into Creole. After the service, Hosea (who has since been deported back to Haiti and now resides in the Dominican Republic) told Banda’s congregation that ever since they arrived in Tijuana, he and his Haitian community had been holding services on the streets because they couldn’t find an evangelical church. They had been praying for one when Banda’s church members appeared with trucks.