“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him.  The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born.  Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.” (Ex. 22:21; Lev. 19:33; Ps. 146:9)

Dear Friend & Partner,

Patt and I send you our warmest “July 4th” greetings!  This is the first Fourth I have been in the country for a number of years.  Usually I am in Africa leading a “Kingdom Adventure Safari.”  But I had to postpone it this year due to our remodeling and relocation from NDI to our new “Home Office.”  Thankfully the work is almost completed and we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.  Now that the construction dumpster and pod have been moved, our back yard no longer looks like “Sanford & Sons.”  So we might even be able to have a normal Fourth of July cookout in our backyard this weekend like millions of other Americans!

THE ALIEN INVASION

Every July 4th, there are thousands of new Americans celebrating the wonderful freedoms we have in this great country.  Some of the immigrants are here legally.  Others illegally.  Untold thousands have come to America at great personal sacrifice.  Many of them have been repatriated here as a result of warfare, political turmoil, genocide, ethnic cleansing or natural disaster in their home countries.  But regardless of how they got here, the vast majority become good productive citizens. They roll up their sleeves and go to work—seizing opportunities and doing jobs that many other Americans pass up or are no longer willing to do.  As a result, they soon succeed and prosper—especially in comparison to how they previously lived in their countries of origin.  So millions of people the world over will do almost anything to come to America.  We are still the “land of opportunity” like no other country on the face of the earth. And in spite of the current economic recession we are in, we still enjoy the highest standard of living of any other people on the globe. Our level of prosperity—even in bad economic times—is still the envy of the world.  So the “aliens” keep coming…and coming…and coming.  There is a continuous “alien invasion” of America! We are a great nation because we open our arms to them, reminding ourselves that, except for a few native American tribal groups, we all came here as aliens.

The welcome we give to immigrants from other countries is one of the reasons I am very proud and thankful to be an American!  I know from my travels over much of the world that there is still no other country with our level of freedom, opportunity and prosperity.  And I know it is all because of our Judeo-Christian foundation as a nation—which is rapidly eroding and imploding around us! One of the reasons God blessed ancient Israel was so that she could be a blessing to the nations around her as well as to the aliens living among them.  When God originally called Abraham, He said to him: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:2-3; 18:18).  It was God’s observable blessing upon Israel that caused people from all over the ancient world to travel there.  We can see this “alien invasion” of Israel on the Day of Pentecost.  Doctor Luke in Acts tells us that there were “...staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5).  And as a result of their visit to Israel and Jerusalem, thousands of them were blessed with the infilling of the Holy Spirit and became members of the very first church.

But while the Jews were commanded by God to accept and love the aliens living among them, they still generally remained racially and ethnically separated from the foreigners living in their land—just like many Americans do today with the immigrants living among us.  And the Jews largely maintain that same racial and religious segregation today in Israel.

THE AMERICAN SMELTING POT

But America was different from ancient or contemporary Israel.  We became the great “smelting pot” in which various racial, ethnic and religious groups became ”...one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” as we proudly recite in our Pledge of Allegiance.  And it is that “liberty and justice for all,”  that continues to draw people to our shores from every corner of the earth.  Those immortal words (as best as Patt remembers them) inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty are still unique and unparalleled in the annals of national history…

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shores.  Send me, the homeless, tempest tossed to me.  I lift my lamp beside the golden shore.”

So America is still the first “nation of choice” for the down-trodden, abused and marginalized people of the world.  That’s why we are the only country that has to build fences to keep people out—rather than put up fences to keep people in!

It has been incredible for me to be personally involved in the lives of many “aliens, foreigners and immigrants” who have come to America from other troubled countries.  Whether from Haiti, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Burma, China—it has been a great joy and privilege to seek to “love them as yourself,” as the Bible exhorts us.  Let me give you one incredible example…

BHUTANESE-NEPALI REFUGEES

Back in 1998, God sovereignly connected me with some key Bhutanese refugees living in 7 internment camps in East Nepal.  They were part of 125,000 Bhutanese of Nepali decent that were expelled from their country by the king because of their political demonstrations for more freedom and human rights.  It seems that even in this beautiful Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom known as Shangri-La, freedom was severely limited.  The king was considered to be divine and ruled with absolute power and authority.  He was not yet ready for the winds of democracy, freedom and equal rights to blow across his land.  So in one fell swoop, 125,000 considered dissidents were expelled from Bhutan.  Since they were originally of Nepali descent, they fled across the borders to East Nepal where they were concentrated into 7 major refugee camps.

Year after year they languished in these make-shift camps built of bamboo, thatch and plastic. Bhutan stridently refused to allow them to return.  Their lands, homes and farms were given to other Bhutanese. Nepal did not want them. India would not allow them in to further swell their teaming hundreds of millions of people. So for 19 long years they lived in these Refugee Camps. But God providentially led us to those camps through our strategic partnership with Pastor Hanok Tamang. It was through his vision that we first traveled from Kathmandu to East Nepal to secretly entered the camps which were under the UNHCR, or United Nations High Commission for Refugees. One of the first people God sovereignly networked us with was a converted Buddhist witchdoctor who was pastoring a small underground church in one of the camps.

It was also on that pioneer trip that we met a key young leader named Santosh Ramdan.  He had been dramatically converted while in prison in Bhutan as a political dissident.  Now he had a passion to do something positive and practical to help his people.  As we clandestinely visited the various camps, Santosh shared with me his vision to start some Weaving Centers in the various camps to teach the women a trade and give them something positive to do to occupy their time.  So through the support of our partners in America, we helped him construct 7 different Weaving Centers from bamboo—which was all the UNHCR would allow.  As these women and men learned to weave and sew, the Gospel was also sown in their lives.  In time, each of these centers also morphed into “underground churches.”  For the next decade, the Gospel spread throughout these camps and scores of churches were planted.  I was privileged to visit there many times to preach, teach and hold seminars in those camps. We know from Santosh and the other pastors that more than 25,000 people became Christians in those 7 camps.

Now after 19 years of living in this no-man’s land bordering Bhutan, India and Nepal, the UNHCR decided to begin repatriating them to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  As always, America accepted the largest group of these Bhutanese Refugees.  There are now over 6,000 who have been resettled in Atlanta, toward a goal of 16,000 who will come to the “Hot-lanta .”  And wonder of wonders, Santosh is one of them!  And just as he did in the Refugee Camps, he immediately began ministry among the Bhutanese and Nepali immigrants.  He has recently started a new church there that is growing weekly. And all of the other pastors that we used to support in the Refugee Camps who have come to America or Canada have also started churches that are vibrant and growing!  There are already large groups of Bhutanese refugees in states like Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas and Ohio.

There is still the same need for employment for many of these Bhutanese Refugees—especially the women. The men are often able to get jobs of some kind.  The children are quickly integrated into America by the school system. But the women have the least amount of education and speak little or no English.  So they languish in their apartments with little or nothing to do but to watch TV programs they do not understand!  But then, given the content of most TV shows, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

THE AMERICAN TAPESTRY

Since our beginning as a nation, America has always been a multi-ethnic tapestry of people from around the world.  Originally the majority came from Europe and Africa.  But across the years, our American ethnic diversity has become one of the most cosmopolitan and complex in the world.  And every year the ethnic and religious cultural strands become more multi-colored in our national tapestry.  But as the Master Weaver, God continues to sovereignly weave a unique national quilt called “America.”  And tragically, like other countries struggling with ethnic diversity, we are pulling apart as a nation along our ethnic seams!

However, God is also doing another kind of weaving here—just like He did inthe Bhutanese Refugee Camps in East Nepal. By His sovereign grace, I was donated a wonderful set of expensive hand weaving looms and lots of yarn by a friend who did weaving as both a hobby and business. When she decided to retire, she graciously donated all of those looms and weaving supplies to me.  I have been storing them for over 3 years trying to find where the Lord wanted me to deploy them. At first I thought of shipping them in a container to one of our self-help projects in Africa. But we could never get it worked out.  So we continued to pray and seek the Lord’s perfect time and place to deploy these items.  And then Santosh arrived in Atlanta from Nepal!  So he came up recently and we loaded all of the weaving supplies on a rented U-Haul truck that he took back to Atlanta.  A wonderful African American sister allowed him to store these things in her basement while we look for a permanent place to set up this weaving operation for these Bhutanese Refugees.  If you live in the greater Atlanta area and know of a place that might be available, please let us know ASAP.  We need your prayers and partnership in this physical and spiritual tapestry God is weaving in Atlanta!

So God continues to build His Kingdom in the most unexpected and unlikely places—like Refugee Camps in East Nepal and among the “aliens” living among us here in America.  He is now continuing in Atlanta what He started in Bhutan and Nepal decades ago.  We do serve an incredible God who is sovereignly orchestrating all things for His Kingdom and glory!  And America continues to play a key role in receiving and embracing these “aliens, foreigners and immigrants” from around the world.  God has literally brought the world to America.  And we are not only to extend to them the freedom, justice, equality and opportunities we enjoy—we are to “love them as we love ourselves.”  We are to minister to them in the Spirit and Name of the Lord Jesus!  Only then will they enjoy the greatest liberty of all—which is the spiritual freedom from sin and self through the transformation of the Lord Jesus.  And if we do not seek to convert them, they will convert us—which they are doing in great numbers.

Finally, I need your financial help in partnering with beloved partners like Santosh.  I encourage you to send in a special “God Bless America Gift” to help us meet both the spiritual and physical needs of these dear people through the love and compassion of Jesus Christ!  You can give online or through the mail. In my next email I will be sharing some other strategic Kingdom-advancing partnerships and projects I know you will want to invest in spiritually and financially…

May God continue to bless America so we can bless the needy of the world and the aliens among us in His Name,