In response to our latest resource on refugee and immigrant ministry, BCL reader Don Byers passed on this encouraging story from Jay Bell, director of Internationals USA, Grace Brethren International Missions:
Recently we conducted our workshop (on reaching other cultures in America) in the Community of Grace Church, Richmond, Virginia. The chairman of their Mission Commission is a police captain named Hal Moser. On the Monday after the workshop, Hal routinely stopped by his favorite up-scale grocery story to get a cup of his favorite up-scale coffee. But this time he walked into the store with a different set of lenses. For the first time he saw an Asian working behind the sushi counter. Hal thought, “I wonder if the material Jay and Jan shared really works?”
He decided to give it a try. He walked up to the sushi-maker, said good morning, and asked the gentleman his name and where he was from. Hal learned his name was Win, and that he was from Burma, and that he’s been in the U.S. for three years. Hal proceeded to ask Win if anyone had welcomed him to America. Win looked at him with a quizzical look on his face and said, “No! Not at all. No one.” Hal then reached his hand over the counter to shake Win’s hand and said, “Then that gives me the privilege to be the first to welcome you to the United States. Welcome Win.” And then Hal hurried off to work.
The next day Hal stopped to see Win and to get his coffee. Upon seeing Hal, Win walked around the sushi counter taking off his protective gloves. He grasped both of Hal’s hands and asked him to come to his home for dinner. Now that must have been quite a scene. Hal is about 6-2 and Win is short. Hal was in his uniform with captain bars on his collars and Win was in his apron.
The following week Hal and Shelly went to Win’s home. Over dinner Hal asked Win how many friends he has made in his three years in America. Win responded, “You are my best friend.”
Hal and Shelly are now off-and-running in a cross-cultural ministry with a Buddhist family from an unreached people group (Burmese) that is listed on the Joshua Project website as 0.07% Christian.
Reaching the unreached right at home. No plane fare necessary, no U.S. passport necessary, no inoculation shots necessary.
And this is just one story among a ton of others!
