By Luis M Mendoza
On Thursday, February 23, under the sponsorship of BR-KC Baptist Association and The Multiethnic Church Planting Center, we held an Immigration Information Meeting at Iglesia Bautista Palabra Viva. The purpose of these gathering was threefold: First, understand the ways God wants us to treat the foreigner residing among us. Second, explaining the new sponsorship program issued by USCIS, a new and temporary window of opportunity that has been made available for people proceeding from the countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to come legally to this country if the sponsorship requirements are met. And lastly, share about some specific ways we as churches can share the gospel with foreigners arriving to this country.
During this meeting, Lisandra Rodriguez, an immigrant from Cuba, did an excellent job explaining the purpose, requirements and timeline of Form I-134A. Rodríguez came to the US as a young girl. Since becoming an adult, she has had the desire of helping people, not only with some specific immigration issues, but also helping foreigners to better navigate the intricacies of a new country. Bill Niffen, an immigration attorney, was also present during this meeting and graciously responded to all the questions of those gathered.
Last year, I realized that I after living in this country for 33 years, absorbed in being able to achieve my own goals, my own “American dream”; mostly unintentionally, I have become disconnected from fully understanding the needs and situations that foreigners face when they come to this country. The fact is that we are all busy pursuing what is important to us; and to be honest, there is nothing wrong with that. We all have lives to live and responsibilities to fulfill.
Nevertheless, when I traveled 33 years back in time, I remember the difficulties, adversities and challenges I faced, and even more, I remember with complete certainty the few people who helped me in my journey and left an indelible mark in my life, in my heart, in my mind. One of the first persons I met when I came to Missouri was a Jehovah’s Witness. He was nice and friendly. He invited me to the Kingdom Hall and I went. Then a week later, I met a Baptist minister. He befriended me and invited me to attend his church. I did not understand everything they were saying but I was able to grasp what they were doing; they were caring for me. There are two characteristics that were very present in the lives of those people: first, they care about people including the foreigner and they wanted to share the love of Christ with me. My point is not to praise the Jehovah’s Witness, but to explain that often the first faith group an immigrant meets is the faith they adopt when they come to this country.
As mentioned before, one of the first objectives of this meeting was to learn about the ways God demands to treat the foreigner residing among us. Based on just one book of the Bible (Leviticus 19) the expectations God has are clearly defined. ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:33-34 (NASB). Three specific teachings can be concluded from this passage: First, The native shall not oppress the stranger. Secondly, the stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and thirdly, you shall love him as yourself.
The last purpose of this meeting was to learn about ways churches can get involved in sharing the gospel with immigrants and ministering to the foreigner in our midst. The following ideas were mentioned:
Loving them; becoming interested in what’s going on with them and in every opportunity we have sharing the gospel and love of Christ with words and actions. Connecting with them; developing one to one relationships and finding out about their specific needs and determining if there is any way we can help. Right now, a great need they have is finding people willing to become sponsors to help some of their family members (wives, children) left back home to travel legally to the United States for reunification.
If you would like further information on participating in this immigration program, you can contact BR-KC Baptist Association and we will connect you with the immigration specialist.