Sharing Jesus with Immigrants

How Did I Get Here?

By a Pioneer in Europe

I wonder how I got here, to this immigrant ministry? That question runs through my head more often than I choose to acknowledge.

How did I…

  • end up at a Syrian wedding on the fourth of July with a room full of fully covered women watching me and wondering why I was there?
  • come to share a plate of food with my Afghan friend and her family who has adopted me as an aunt, sister, and friend?
  • get to be thirty, taking a driving test in a country that drives on the left side of the road?

Immigrant ministry involves sharing access, even to our Good Book.

I sat on the couch in my new Iranian friend’s living room, and as I looked at the cloth flowers carefully displayed in jars lining the bottom of the window, her daughter asked, “Why do you believe Jesus heals people?” After I offered the best words I could find on the subject from my own experience; she leaned in across the room and whispered, “Did you bring it?”

“Did I bring what?” I quickly responded.

“The book?”

“You mean The Bible?” I asked.

She responded with a confident “Yes!”

No, in fact, I hadn’t brought the Bible. And, I didn’t even know she wanted to read the Bible. I had walked into her house thinking I would drink tea and chat about life, the craft cafe that I wanted to invite her to and how I met her mom. How did I get here?

Christ has dramatically changed who I am—so why would I not share that with others?

I keep asking myself the same question. But the truth is I already know the answer.

It’s the same reason I moved overseas for immigrant ministry in the first place. The fact is that Christ has dramatically changed who I am—so why would I not share that with others? It’s all the little decisions that I make every day that add up to being obedient which allows me to share love and truth with others.

This week I gave my new Iranian friend and her daughter Bibles in their own language. I pray that I will someday be able to go back and talk more with them. Between now and then, I am starting to rephrase my internal questions from “How did I get here?” to “How can I show love and truth right here right now?”

Other resources about immigrant and refugee ministry

Stories from the pursuit

Video: Devout – a Sudanese Refugee Story

It was 2018 when Hanedi’s husband, Mahdi, told her he wouldn’t be fasting during Ramadan with her that year. And that was only the beginning.

How Do I Know What I Should Do With My Life?

Knowing you are called to the ministry of reconciliation doesn’t tell you how it should take shape in your life. So, how do you discern that?

Video: Refuge – a Sudanese Refugee Story

The wars had been going on all his life, so Mahdi fled Sudan for Egypt. And he brought with him questions, questions about why people would kill one another in the name of God.