Citizens of Heaven
Dear friends,
“Go back to your homeland… back where you belong.”
As a child, I didn’t understand what people meant when they said this to me. My family, my house, my school and my church were in Mississippi. That’s where I was from and where I belonged.
I was eight when I learned I had come to the U.S. as a refugee and that I had a green card with an alien number. Once I understood these terms, I lost all sense of identity. For almost two decades, I was broken by the sense that I was unloved, unwanted and had no place to call home.
God found me at a point of hopelessness and revealed that my citizenship isn’t here on earth, but in heaven (Philippians 3:20). As I reflect on Holy Week, I am overwhelmed by Jesus’ words to his disciples as he explained what was to come with his death and resurrection that horrific and glorious week.
“Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself… I will not leave you as orphans… Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:1-21
You can imagine the epiphany I had in learning that I would be a sojourner and exile on this earth until the Lord called me home, where He was preparing a place for me!
It was 45 years ago that my parents fled Vietnam to escape persecution by their own government and found themselves in a refugee camp in the Philippines. My dad remembers very little about that first day in the camp, but he distinctly remembers meeting a pastor from the U.S., who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him even before he was processed into the camp.
Because this pastor was faithful to the calling and assignment that the Lord gave him to preach the gospel in the hard places, my family was transformed by Christ in the worst circumstances of their lives. I was born in that refugee camp and dedicated to the Lord by that pastor so that I could serve in the role in the place I am today.
Today, there are many unhealthy discussions about where refugees and immigrants belong. That is tragic, and I know how it can rob people of dignity and respect if they don’t know they are loved by Almighty God – One who suffered injustices and indignities on our behalf. Who was beaten, tortured and crucified so that we would know that our citizenship is in heaven with Christ and that He is preparing a place for us if we choose Him.
Please pray with me for the following:
- That we would engage with our neighbors from all nations, tribes and tongues with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ
- That we would seek Christ and honor His commandments and know that He is inviting us to belong to His Kingdom as citizens of heaven
- That displaced individuals all over the world would sense God’s presence with them and understand that a relationship with Jesus Christ is not dependent on a visa or a green card
Nhung Hurst
General Counsel
Bethany Christian Services
P.S. Our friends at World Relief have organized a “Christian Statement on Refugee Resettlement” – if you’ve not yet signed, you may want to consider adding your name or asking others to do so.
