Welcome to the USA!

an Alien or Angel?

In my June newsletter of this year (can see excerpt on previous blog entry), I expressed some despair at the direction US immigration policy seemed to be heading.  I asked you all to sign petitions and join me in praying, knowing that God has a heart for the immigrant and stranger.
  I see this throughout the Bible.  In the Old Testament, there is the repeated refrain to care for the widow, orphan, and stranger or ‘alien’.  In fact, of the 613 laws in the Torah, it is the most common mandate.  A couple of examples are:

•“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” (Deuteronomy 10:18)

•“The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow.” (Psalm 146:9)

•“Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.” (Zechariah 7:10)

In the well-known passage in Matthew 25:35 ‘when I was hungry, you fed me…’, continues on to say ‘when I was a stranger and you invited me in.’ When we welcome the foreigner, the stranger, the alien, when we extend hospitality to ‘the other’, we are not only obeying a Biblical command but we are welcoming Jesus.  The author of Hebrews charges the readers: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13:2).  

What if this was the pervasive sentiment in a country with ‘In God we Trust’ on our dollar bills?  Treating and welcoming the alien as an angel? Changing US policies that affect our southern neighbors so people aren’t as desperate to migrate? 

Welcome to the USA!




Some of you will remember petitions, stories, and prayer requests for our friends Evaristo and Alicia.  A couple of months ago, we spent 4 hours working on a letter to US Dept of Homeland Security, explaining why it would cause extreme hardship on Alicia and their 3-year-old son Alex if Evaristo was deported.  Our community rallied and supported these two in protest that his petition to stay in the country had been denied and he would be deported to a country he barely knows.  A couple weeks ago Evaristo got a piece of mail from immigration (above picture). 'Welcome to the United States of America..." They accepted the waiver! Evaristo is now a legal permanent resident in the United States. In our lawyer's amazed words on the phone to Chris last week: "Evaristo was at the bottom of a very deep, dark hole five years ago. This is a rare, rare story. People need to know about this."

My friend and coworker Chris has been the leading advocate for Evaristo after he first met Evaristo 5 years ago in jail.  He writes,

     "It has been a five-year adventure through the annals of immigration detention, drug and alcohol recovery, migrant camps, gang politics, tattoo removal, living    together with Evaristo that has made him one of the most important people in my life and ministry. He has become a brother I never had, and one of my dear friends who stood as a groomsman in my wedding. This adventure has seen the dark streets at night where violence won, the even more frightening municipal and immigration courts where everything hung in the electric-anxious courtroom air before the prosecutor's words, then a wedding for Evaristo and Alicia, welcoming their son Alex into the apartment, college scholarships, jobs at welding factories and berry picking camps and ultrasound testing, fly fishing programs, getting old criminal charges vacated, and hundreds of community service hours. 

One of the greatest fruits of this ongoing story has not just been the transformation of the kind of guy our nation wants to throw away to a prized young leader in our community, but the transformation of the community itself: hundreds of people who have loved this longshot Solano family, helped with homework, helped with childcare, written letter after letter after updated letter about Evaristo's moral transformation. When people see the power of a life under transformation, they want to be a part of it. We want to be close to beauty.

A beautiful thing has happened. And great works of art take years. We won. Against despair and addiction and massive societal odds, we have gained a permanent resident in our community to enjoy. He is no longer alien to us or to himself.

It is truly a miracle!

Pressing in for more...


I exuberantly started this newsletter last Thursday, eager to tell of the good news!  Even in a week, there have been ups and downs and many delays to even finishing this letter.  Others have been arrested, some face deportation, and numerous people we know are caught in the chains of drug addiction. 
I have to remember the breakthroughs as I press in for more alongside the people I accompany.  I have to heed Christ's call, to throw the net on the other side, to offer my bread and fish when it feels like I am trying to feed multitudes.  He is the miracle worker, I get to participate in what He is doing.  


Please join me in interceding for the families whose legal, financial, and immigration barriers and addictions threaten to overwhelm and destroy our friends.