Last night we met with the rest of the team to hear about our annual ITeams leadership gathering.  Our new team leader, Sarah Miller, was able to attend the week-long conference in Manila.  It is exciting what God is doing through people who are a part of International Teams.  I think the most recent report was us having people from 65 countries serving in 49 countries.  There are certainly other agencies doing much more on a broader scale, but we certainly are excited about the international flavor that is coming together on behalf of a lot of our teams around the world.

Our team has been forming in the last several months as new staff arrived and our team leader changed.  Most of you know Charity is working full-time so her time has to be limited in terms of her involvement in refugee ministry.  Sarah Miller is our new team leader (as of mid April).  She severved refugees for 9 years in Germany and has worked the last 4 or 5 years here in the US in an administrative role overseeing ITeams refugee ministries in many parts of the world.  She is now transitioning out of the global leadership role in becoming our local team leader.  Linda Lang has been part of International Teams her ein Minneapolis for the last 4 or 5 years and has been the sole team member until this last year.  She and her church have an ESL program that runs four days a week and is going strong.  So at this point, the team consists of 3 full-time and Charity who is part time. 

We also found out last night that Seth and Jeanie Prince who have been raising support for quite some time to join this local team will be stepping away from ITeams and moving into a paid pastoral role here locally.  We hope to have a partnership with their church at some level.  

So it is exciting that our team is finally coming together and we look forward to where everything will lead.  Please be praying for our upcoming "TEmP" meeting where we will be getting together and nailing down lots of details on where we are going as a team.  There are lots of ideas, vision, etc., but we obviously have to bring them all together. This meeting will be on Sat. April 24th and we really need to commit this to prayer.  The four of us on the team are quite different - all from different denominational backgrounds and range from age 28 to our early 40's.  It is a beautiful thing when very different people can come together and learn to build God's Kingdom together.  So we invite you to join us in prayer for this.

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In other news, Charity and I got to help a 21 year old woman who is trying to obtain her GED.  She has been in the country for 17 mths and is the first of her immediate family to get to the United States.  She left her country and had been at a refugee camp in Kenya for 16 years!  Sixteen years is a long time to not know what your future holds.  Her English is exceptional for her brief time here (I imagine she learned a lot from the UN in Kenya) and she is a "go-getter".  Charity and I are excited to deepen our friendship with her, help with term papers, teach her more about the computer, and watch "Law and Order" together. :)  We found out that she and Charity have he same favorite tv show in "Law and Order". 

Again, it's all about being in the right place at the right time.  So often I get asked (when people know I have a plan to meet a refugee) "how are you going to help them?"  Most times I have no idea until I sit with them what is going to happen.  I think so many of us want a pretty structured plan of how we can measure effectiveness and make things nice and orderly.  At this point, we are just trying to seize every opportunity to serve and quit making excuses.  I could have easily dismissed the phone call to help our new friend w/ English and we would have missed a golden opportunity.  Being a native speaker and knowing my own American culture is so key to helping refugees.  Just by being an American, it raises our ability to help a lot higher than it would if we were in another country.  We just want to be present and are thrilled that God lets us do this!  

 

 

 

The Bible says so, so much about refugees.  As I sit and talk with refugees everyday I have been pondering each of their stories and what it might be like to read the Bible through the lens of a sojourner.  I will always be an outsider because I'm not a refugee.  But as I hear their stories, I can begin to read the Bible with new eyes.  I took some time today and read through Lamentations with a new perspective. 

 

I feel that often, in reading the OT, many Christians (including myself), don't grasp the weight of what it would take to be uprooted.  God's people continually found themselves in dire situations in a new country forced to assimilate, yet keep their faith in God.  Many times the adjustment went horribly sour.  Maybe a souteast Asian or African has a much better insight into the exile-narrative of Scripture. 

 

Jennifer Riggs of Disciples Home Missions (http://www.discipleshomemissions.org), has compiled a wonderful list of biblical texts which have to do with refugees.  It is my goal to work through all of these in the coming weeks to better understand the Bible from a refugee perspective.  I challenge you to check it out for yourself and decide what our response should be. 

 

What the Bible Says About ARefugees and Our Care for Them

 

Homelessness/Being Sojourners:

Genesis 3:22-24 - Adam and Eve uprooted from the garden and forced out

Genesis 4:8-15 - Cain becomes a wanderer on the earth

Genesis 12:1 - Abraham, called to leave his home and go to a new land

Genesis 23:4 - Abraham looks for a burial place for Sarah in a strange land

Genesis 37-46 - Joseph sold into slavery in a strange land

Exodus 2:15-22 - Moses as a guest in Midian

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 - Remember, you were once sojourners

Deuteronomy 26:5 - Remember, a wandering Aramean was my father

I Samuel 23-24 - David, like refugees, hides in the wilderness to escape death

I Chronicles 29:14-15 - All things come from God and we are all transient on earth

Psalm 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength

Psalm 68:6 - God gives a home to the desolate

Psalm 105 - History of the migration of God’s people

Psalm 137 - How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

Lamentations 3:19-24 - The Lord is the hope of the homeless

Matthew 2:19-21 - Jesus and his parents flee to Egypt to escape persecution

Matthew 8:20 - Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head

Luke 2:7 - No room at the inn

Acts - The story of God's mission to foreigners

Acts 7 - History of wandering of Abraham, Joseph and Moses

Hebrews 13:14 - There is no lasting city, we look for the city that is to come

 

Hospitality/Receiving Strangers:

Genesis 18:1-8 - Abraham as host at Mamre

Genesis 19:1-3 - Abraham as host at Sodom

Exodus 22:21 - Remember to treat foreigners well

Exodus 23:9 - Remember to treat foreigners well

Leviticus 19:32-34 - The alien who resides with you is as the citizen

Numbers 35 - Cities of refuge

Deuteronomy 27:19 - Curse those who deny hospitality

Joshua 20:1-3 - Cities of refuge

Joshua 21:13-38 - Cities of refuge

Ruth 2 - Boaz receives Ruth

Job 31:32 - Job takes in travelers

Psalms 61:1-3 - God is our ultimate place of refuge

Isaiah 56:3-8 - Inclusion of the foreigners

Matthew 5:44 - Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you

Luke 10:38-42 - Jesus as a guest of Mary and Martha

Luke 19:1-9 - Jesus as a guest of Zacchaeus

Luke 24:28-3 - Jesus as a guest of the disciples on the Emmaus road

John 19:25-27 - John takes Mary home with him after the crucifixion

Romans 12:13 - Practice hospitality

Romans 15:7 - Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you

Ephesians 2:11-22 - No longer are we strangers and sojourners

Hebrews 13:1-2 - Those who have welcomed strangers have discovered angels

 

Meeting Human Need:

Exodus 20:10 - Your resident alien should not work on the Sabbath

Leviticus 19:9-17 - Rules for justice toward our neighbors

Leviticus 25 - Jubilee year of forgiveness of debts

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 - Food, clothing, love for sojourner, orphan

Deuteronomy 14:28-29 - Tithe of produce for the resident alien

Deuteronomy 15:1-18 - Seven-year release from debts

Deuteronomy 24:14 - Don’t withhold the wages of the aliens

Deuteronomy 24:17-22 - Leave gleanings for widow, orphan, sojourner

Deuteronomy 26:12 - Tithe of produce for the resident alien

Psalm 9:7-12, 18 - God forgets not the afflicted, the needy

Psalm 82:2-4 - Give justice and rescue the week and needy

Psalm 107 - God is wonderful to poor, hungry, thirsty

Psalm 146 - Justice for oppressed, prisoner freed

Psalm 147:1-6 - God uplifts downtrodden, heals brokenhearted

Proverbs 14:31 - To oppress a poor man insults the maker

Proverbs 22:8-9, 16 - Sow injustice, reap calamity; be generous, be blessed

Proverbs 31:8-9 - Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves

Isaiah 1:17 - Learn to do good, seek justice, etc.

Isaiah 58:6-9 - God prefers service over fasting

Isaiah 61:1-3 - Prisoner freed, justice for oppressed, etc.

Jeremiah 7:5-7 - Justice will be rewarded

Jeremiah 22:3-4 - Don't mistreat/cheat orphan, widow, sojourner

Zechariah 7:9-10 - Do not oppress the alien

Micah 6:8 - Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God

Malachi 3:5 - Condemns employers cheating foreigners

Matthew 15:21-28 - The Gentile stranger who didn’t give up until helped

Matthew 25:35-46 - When you did it to the least you did it to Jesus

Mark 12:30-31 - Love your neighbor as yourself

Luke 1:46-55 - Exalted those of low degree

Luke 4:14-21 - Jesus brings good news to poor and release to captives

Luke 10:25-37 - Good Samaritan help man at side of road

Luke 14:12-24 - Get dinner guests from highways and byways

Luke 18:18-22 - Rich ruler, sell all, give to poor

Acts 8:26-40 - Philip shows concern for the stranger’s spiritual needs

Romans 12:13 - Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality

II Corinthians 8:13-14 - Share your abundance

II Corinthians 9:7-8 - God loves a cheerful giver

Galatians 3:28 - No distinctions because all are one in Christ

James 2:5-9,15-17 - Faith without works is dead

I John 3:14-18 - Showing God’s love in action

I John 4:7-21 - God loves us and consequently we should love one another

 

Struggling with Obedience to Authority:

Exodus 12:49 - The same law for the native and the alien

Exodus 23:9 - Oppressing an alien is a violation of God’s law

Deuteronomy 24:17 - Do not deprive a resident alien of justice

Psalm 103.6 - God is always on the side of the oppressed

Isaiah 10:1-2 - Woe to you who write oppressive statutes and turn aside needy

Jeremiah 22:3-5 - Doing wrong to an alien is a violation of God’s law

Daniel 3 - Three youth refugees thrown in fiery furnace for refusal to worship statue

Daniel 6 - Daniel thrown in lion’s den for refusal to pray to the king

Esther 4-8 - Esther broke law to plead for people’s safety before the king

Zechariah 7:8-11 - Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy

Matthew 22:15-22 - Paying taxes and yet giving to God what is of God

Matthew 28:18 - All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Jesus

John 19:10-11 - Pilot had power to crucify Jesus because it was given from above

Acts 4:13-22 - Peter and John defend their faith before the authorities

Acts 5:29 - Apostles refused council’s order to stop speaking about Jesus

Romans 13:1-7 - Believers must respect the rights of the state

Ephesians 1:20-23 - God put Christ over all in authority, power, and dominion

Titus 3:1-2 - Be subject to rulers and authorities

I Peter 2:13-17 - Accept the authority of human institutions

Revelation 13 - The government gives its authority over to the beast instead of God

I'm just letting everyone know that our doors are always open to host individuals or groups of people who are desiring to do a short-term missions trip to Minneapolis.  We have connections at several places and could include activities ranging from - tutoring English to adults, helping at an after-school program, visiting local ehtnic businesses/mall and getting to know owners, and several other areas depending on your interest.  With the metrodome within walking distance and the Mall of America a short train ride away, there is also lots of fun stuff to do not related to missions. Most of our connections are among people working with refugee populations.  An AG college is right down the street from our apt and will probably let you stay there.  Lots of great opportunities if you wanna come.  Let us know if you're interested.

We've been attending a coffee house church (http://www.cornerchurch.tv) for the last six weeks or so and we really like it.  It's so nice to find a place where we feel comfortable and where we can serve.  I'm actually supposed to be filling in next week since the pastor is on vacation.  It'll be unique because they run three services to keep the emall, intimate environment.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Charity really likes her job and I continue to make connections in terms of serving refugees.  I have talked with several nonprofits to see what they are doing in terms of running students, offering homework help/after-school programs.  This is something I'd love to see come to pass.  Please be praying about the dynamics of all of this.  We'll be getting together with the team in a month or so to see where we are and what to do next.

There's tons I could say but just know that we are well and really love living where we live.  

 

Last night at a little after midnight the fire alarm in our apartment building started blaring.  (there are many rooms - 5 floors) I didn't know what in the world was going on at first.  Charity had just gone to sleep and I was headed that way.  So, we had a one week celebration of living in our complex by standing out in the cold for 20 mins while the firefighters tried to figure out what happened.  It's funny what you think to grab on your way out.  I seriously thought it might be a fire.  So I grabbed all my glasses and a jacket. I wanted to make sure I could see at least and wouldn't freeze to death- nevermind all my other crap.  It is amusing now looking back. tI still don't know what happened. I don't think there was a fire; perhaps someone tampered with the alarm. While no one likes to get up at midnight to go stand outside, I was thankful that we have a system to let us know that if we don't get out we could get burned up.  Many of the tenants out front used this time to moan about every possible thing imaginable concerning our landlords.  Give me a break.  They made me want to hurl.  I believe most of them were college students and they just had this edge that said, "Dang, I'm so smart and I rent from idiots."  No one is begging them to come live here; weird that they choose to live somewhere they hate.  Some people just live drama just to get attention.  Cranky people aren't any fun to be around.  Cheer up!  At least we are safe and not inhaling smoke right now.