The Kingdom of Heaven Has Come Near
At the 2024 Border Summit, our team met a couple from the Midwest who wish to remain anonymous to protect the relationships they’re cultivating. Since their time with us in the Rio Grande Valley, they’ve kept in touch by sharing stories of God’s timing and how He is transforming their lives.
As a new year begins, we hope their story encourages you to be open to how God might call you to respond to your immigrant neighbor, wherever you may find yourself.
“In April of 2024, my wife and I were hearing unkind things being said about immigrants from some of our Christian friends. I became angry. My anger turned into resolve, and my resolve turned into action. We knew that we needed to learn for ourselves, and decided to head to the border. Both of us are over 70 years old, and this experience we had at the US & Mexico border changed our lives.
We had the opportunity to share about our trip with our Sunday School class. As we shared, a member of the class told us that the elementary school where she works is almost 90% Latino, and she invited us to come and start “getting to know our neighbors” at her school. We jumped at the opportunity!
When we got home, I had big plans to return to the border and change the world. The Lord had other plans. Turns out the “border” was only 20 minutes away from us.
Although we are partnering with the school in several ways, our main contact is through the assistant principal and the PTO moms. There are around 20 moms, most of whom don’t speak English. The PTO moms volunteer every day at the school and help the teachers in whatever way is needed.
One day, a couple from our church donated $1,000 to the school. The assistant principal shared with me that he would like to treat the women to go out to eat, celebrating the holidays and all they do for the school. God knew what the $1,000 was for before we did. So, we found a restaurant. All of the moms showed up, many with their children, along with the assistant principal, the couple from our church, and my wife and I.
At the celebration, we ate a wonderful meal and handed out Christmas cards with a prayer of blessing. Our waitress was from Mexico. She was observant throughout the meal. I had planned the event with her and told her about the PTO moms and all they do for the school. At the end of the meal, she spoke with the women. As we were leaving, she mentioned to us that the immigrant community is not used to being treated with dignity in the United States, and that it was a blessing to her to see how the school was treating this group of women, sharing that it gave her hope!
It was one of those moments in life where you feel like “the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” Through moments like these, God changes both the giver and the recipient. He dispels stereotypes. You are filled with hope knowing that God is still alive and active in the world. In all of our activities at the school, we want to treat people, image-bearers, with dignity: teachers, administrators, students, PTO moms, families and staff.
This is a time of great anxiety among the immigrant population in the country with the fear of deportation, family separation, and other forms of uncertainty.
We have invested a lot of time into this school community, and are working on building trust. It’s not perfect. We know that we cannot “solve” all the issues that our immigrant neighbors are facing. We are learning all the time. Sometimes, all of the challenges seem insurmountable, but on those days I am reminded by the Lord that I can go once a week and read to a third-grader. I have a choice! I can be obedient to God … one relationship at a time.
We hope one day things will be different, and until that day, our commitment is to show up and serve in whatever way is needed.
My wife and I have been married for 46 years and for most of that time, we have been intentionally involved in fruitful ministry to others. Something about what we are doing now feels different. I think before I was being discipled by the media instead of Jesus, at least to some degree.
Could it be that ministry to the oppressed is at the heart of the Gospel? Could it be that, as we care for the oppressed, we are actually caring for Jesus?
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” - Luke 4:18-19
I am new to all of this. I don’t know what I don’t know. It is a little scary. But, at the same time, I feel that God is up to something here and I would love for Him to receive the glory for it. Our world desperately needs the truth and for His glory to shine through in these trying times.”
Ambassadors of Dignity
by Jeff Stukey
In search of hope, they cross the border,
Reaching for a better life, dreaming of order
Fleeing from violence, and hardship's cruel hand,
They journey to be free and live at peace in a new land.
Labels dismissive, casting shadows dark,
In using them, we miss the mark.
For all are made in His image, all seek to be whole,
In dehumanizing others, we lose sight of the soul.
Kindness beckons, a beacon in the night,
Embracing the stranger, love shining bright.
In God's embrace, the migrant finds rest,
Divine love reaching east to west.
No borders can hold His boundless grace,
For every soul, He seeks to embrace.
To Egypt His family did flee,
Refugees because of Herod's cruel decree.
He understands the migrants’ desperate plight,
What drives them to take flight.
Alas, borders stand to safeguard domains,
Safety and security must be maintained.
While governments strive, and politicians sound,
Challenges remain, complexities abound.
And yet ...
Above laws and borders and governments lies a higher call,
For God’s people, to be ambassadors of dignity to all.
In learning more about this couple’s story, we have found ourselves in awe time and time again by all that God can do with our “yes.” It doesn’t take a role in government or an influential network for God to move powerfully. All He requires is a desire and an availability to co-labor with Him.
Jesus was repeatedly moved in compassion as He lived among His creation and witnessed face-to-face, that things were not as they were meant to be; in the spiritual, and in the physical. He teaches us to cry out to the Lord pleading, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)
Suffering, division, and oppression were never part of God’s design. This is the hope we have in eternity as followers of Jesus, but this is not a hope we have to wait for in its entirety. This hope begins now as heaven bursts forth into the earth through the participation of those who love and follow Him; as peace is made on the earth through the family of God.
What might be possible with Him in 2025?
