“Welcoming The Stranger”: KevinH

This past Sunday, my church sent off an immigrant family who had become very near and dear to our church family over the past year.  The family is moving to another state to be with friends from their home country who had previously emigrated here a few years prior, and together they are going to train to be church planters in the hopes of sharing the gospel with and ministering to people of their culture and similar cultures who now reside in America and even worldwide to those with online access.

This immigrant family had attained a visa to visit our country, and once here last summer, they applied to be considered for asylum and were granted stay until their asylum case was fully heard and ruled upon.  They had been experiencing significant persecution in their home country due to their Christian faith and they fled here with the hopes to find relief and the ability to practice their faith without threat of oppression.  To date, they have satisfied all the requirements asked of them and have testified in court of their circumstances at home, and seemingly are now just awaiting a final ruling that no one really knows when it may come.

This family visited our church the very first Sunday they were here in America after having done the best they could with an internet search of churches in their area while knowing very little English and very little about the neighborhood and city where they were now to live.  Our church of small means rallied around and took in the family, one obviously in need of care and guidance, even as initially we could communicate very little through spoken language.  I believe through God’s providence, He had brought them to us.  We blessed that family and in turn they blessed us in many ways, and while we are certainly sad to see them go, we are heartened to see them acting with a willing heart to serve God, even as so much of their lives and status remains up in the air.

Concurrently, I also have greatly feared for this family, especially over the last several months, as anti-immigrant rhetoric and action has swelled.  Examples of such things are overwhelmingly flooding the media and internet.  Heck, even Elon Musk, who has U.S. citizenship and only a couple months ago was the much adored golden boy of MAGA and President Trump is now being threatened with deportation.  Migrants with protected statuses are having their protections ripped away, asylum seekers who have followed all the rules and are currently working through the court systems are being violently detained while the Trump administration encourages judges to cancel their cases, and others with green cards are being threatened of having their cards revoked and being deported simply because those in charge don’t like their opinions and politics.  It has become quite clear that anyone who has any kind of foreign background or heritage is not safe unless they are currently within the inner circle of the President or other highly influential MAGA personalities.

My heart breaks to think that this beautiful, loving, vulnerable, God-honoring family could at any moment be swept up by ICE and taken away, possibly to never be seen again in this land.  They have done everything right, all the while driven by fears that they might possibly miss some red tape, or misunderstand some direction, or accidentally do something wrong that could get them deported.  In the end, their worries about doing everything right are seemingly for naught, as they could still just as easily be targeted for deportation or swept up in a raid, regardless of whether they’ve done things the right way or not.

This family came here to escape persecution for being Christians, hoping to find justice and freedom in a country that has long promised it, with many in the very country even claiming that this is a “Christian nation”.  They came here barely knowing a word of English and barely knowing the customs and ways of our land, and now just one year later they are stepping out in faith to pursue the planting of a church in our land so that the gospel can be shared and people can be loved and ministered to.  Yet at seemingly any moment, they could end up being treated as criminals and expunged from our country, possibly even being sent to another country that is totally foreign to them.

We have come far, far past the claims of people who said they are “only against illegal immigration but are all for legal immigration”.  Presently, the actions being taken and the attitudes being expressed are greatly exceeding just being “against illegal immigration”.  People, especially Christians, are without excuse if they continue to support the overall actions and attitudes of the Trump administration and other political rulers and pundits towards foreigners and immigrants.  So many of these actions and attitudes are immoral and antichrist.  Anathema on those who practice them.

I pray for my immigrant friends who have moved on from our church.  I pray that God blesses them in their willingness to follow after and serve Him, and I pray that He protects them from the evil that is being rampantly perpetrated in our nation right now.

Furthermore, I pray that the many in the church in our country who are currently supporting these wicked ways will repent and instead seek justice and welfare for the foreigner, the immigrant, and the “least of these”.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’  Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’  Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” – Jesus