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You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us
"Wait, Dad. Are we for them or against them?" Kent Annan was talking with his eight-year-old son about the immigrant and refugee crises around the world. His son's question, innocent enough in the moment, is writ large across our society today. How we answer it, Annan says, will reveal a lot about what kind of family, community, or country we want to be. In You Welcomed Me, Annan explores how fear and misunderstanding often motivate our responses to people in need, and invites us instead into stories of welcome—stories that lead us to see the current refugee and immigrant crisis in a new light. He lays out simple practices for a way confessing what separates us, listening well, and partnering with, not patronizing, those in need. His stories draw us in, and his practices send us out prepared to cross social and cultural divides. In this wise, practical book, Annan invites us to answer his son's question with confident "We're for them"—and to explore with him the life-giving implications of that answer.
130 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2018
18 people are currently reading
715 people want to read
About the author
Kent Annan
6 books42 followersKent Annan is author of "You Welcomed Me," "Slow Kingdom Coming," "After Shock," and "Following Jesus through the Eye of the Needle." He is director of humanitarian and disaster leadership at Wheaton College, where he provides leadership to the M.A. program within the Humanitarian Disaster Institute. He is cofounder of Haiti Partners, a senior consultant for DAI, and a board member of the philanthropic foundation Equitas Group. He teaches adult education in his local church and speaks regularly to groups around the country. Kent is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div.). He and his wife have two children.
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December 17, 2018
Summary: Describes the global refugee crisis, the opportunities that the church has to extend welcome, and the fears and misunderstandings that prevent us from doing so.
There are as many as 66 million refugees in the world today. Currently, the U.S. is slated to accept fewer that 22,000, the lowest number in decades while much smaller countries have accepted as many as 2.5 million. Kent Annan, who directs the humanitarian and disaster leadership program at Wheaton College was asked by his son whether we are for or against refugees. A good question indeed, considering these numbers.
Starting with the simple statement of Jesus in Matthew 25:35, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me," Kent Annan explores why the church should be for refugees and how we can extend welcome. He does much of this by telling stories. He begins with the idea of how these people could be any of us, helping us through these stories to recognize the common humanity we share with refugees, reminding us that scripture tells us that it could be angels we entertain when we welcome these strangers.
Annan explores fears that we have about opening our doors more widely to immigrants. Through both stories and statistics, he shows that these fears are misplaced. We have a 1 in 364 billion chance of being murdered by a refugee in a terrorist attack, a 1 in 10.9 billion chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack by an illegal immigrant, while we have a 1 in 14,000 chance of being murdered by anyone, a 1 in 303 chance of dying in an auto accident, and 1 in 7 chance of dying of cancer. Immigrants and refugees in this country contributed $63 billion more than they cost this country over the last decade. Urban neighborhoods into which immigrants move often see a reduction in crime and revitalization.
Annan also helps us empathize by sharing stories of the refugee experience. The snapshots he relates involve departures from unsafe or politically insecure situations, often leaving careers and possessions behind. Often, their flight involves harrowing and life-endangering journeys. Many spend years in refugee camps awaiting resettlement while undergoing rigorous vetting.
He gets practical in terms of what can be done, including information about agencies assisting refugees in the U.S. (some whose existence is threatened by our country's reduction in the number of refugees it will accept). He urges us to become part of a human chain of being good neighbors, committing to hope, to reconciliation, and to grace.
Finally, drawing from the name of a relief organization, Annan pleads that to be for refugees is to say "here is life." To welcome refugees is to participate in God's in-breaking kingdom where we were welcomed and have found life through the Life Giver. We exchange fear for hope, hate for love, scarcity for abundance.
In each chapter, Annan offers practices that can set us started on the road to welcoming refugees and immigrants, making the book useful for a church mission team or study group. An appendix provides descriptions and contact information for the major refugee organizations working in the U.S. The book admits but doesn't try to solve public policy problems. It helps us empathize (as much as a book can do) with what it is like to be a refugee, and encourages us to find out personally. It focuses on what church people can do to learn and act. I suspect if a growing movement came forward and said "we want the country to increase the amount of refugees we welcome and we are willing to do the hard work of helping them settle," that could have public policy implications.
This is a short book that does not try to do to much. And perhaps there is wisdom in this. If we will not heed and wrestle with Jesus's words, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me," I'm not sure the need at this point is for more words.
___________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
There are as many as 66 million refugees in the world today. Currently, the U.S. is slated to accept fewer that 22,000, the lowest number in decades while much smaller countries have accepted as many as 2.5 million. Kent Annan, who directs the humanitarian and disaster leadership program at Wheaton College was asked by his son whether we are for or against refugees. A good question indeed, considering these numbers.
Starting with the simple statement of Jesus in Matthew 25:35, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me," Kent Annan explores why the church should be for refugees and how we can extend welcome. He does much of this by telling stories. He begins with the idea of how these people could be any of us, helping us through these stories to recognize the common humanity we share with refugees, reminding us that scripture tells us that it could be angels we entertain when we welcome these strangers.
Annan explores fears that we have about opening our doors more widely to immigrants. Through both stories and statistics, he shows that these fears are misplaced. We have a 1 in 364 billion chance of being murdered by a refugee in a terrorist attack, a 1 in 10.9 billion chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack by an illegal immigrant, while we have a 1 in 14,000 chance of being murdered by anyone, a 1 in 303 chance of dying in an auto accident, and 1 in 7 chance of dying of cancer. Immigrants and refugees in this country contributed $63 billion more than they cost this country over the last decade. Urban neighborhoods into which immigrants move often see a reduction in crime and revitalization.
Annan also helps us empathize by sharing stories of the refugee experience. The snapshots he relates involve departures from unsafe or politically insecure situations, often leaving careers and possessions behind. Often, their flight involves harrowing and life-endangering journeys. Many spend years in refugee camps awaiting resettlement while undergoing rigorous vetting.
He gets practical in terms of what can be done, including information about agencies assisting refugees in the U.S. (some whose existence is threatened by our country's reduction in the number of refugees it will accept). He urges us to become part of a human chain of being good neighbors, committing to hope, to reconciliation, and to grace.
Finally, drawing from the name of a relief organization, Annan pleads that to be for refugees is to say "here is life." To welcome refugees is to participate in God's in-breaking kingdom where we were welcomed and have found life through the Life Giver. We exchange fear for hope, hate for love, scarcity for abundance.
In each chapter, Annan offers practices that can set us started on the road to welcoming refugees and immigrants, making the book useful for a church mission team or study group. An appendix provides descriptions and contact information for the major refugee organizations working in the U.S. The book admits but doesn't try to solve public policy problems. It helps us empathize (as much as a book can do) with what it is like to be a refugee, and encourages us to find out personally. It focuses on what church people can do to learn and act. I suspect if a growing movement came forward and said "we want the country to increase the amount of refugees we welcome and we are willing to do the hard work of helping them settle," that could have public policy implications.
This is a short book that does not try to do to much. And perhaps there is wisdom in this. If we will not heed and wrestle with Jesus's words, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me," I'm not sure the need at this point is for more words.
___________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
February 10, 2019
I saw Annan speak at Trinity Grace Church NYC last Sunday, and so enjoyed his perspective and the tone of his speech that I decided to read his book. I am often so frustrated that the larger American evangelical church is not outspokenly FOR immigrants and refugees, and although he obviously feels as though the Bible instructs us to welcome the foreigner, stranger, and most vulnerable, his tone was patient and loving; not outraged and incredulous, as I tend to feel. He writes about really listening to the fears of others about immigration as legitimate fears they hold and function from, however misinformed, they are very afraid of losing security, safety, their way of life, jobs, etc.. I am trying to be more understanding in these conversations, as I find myself more and more on the opposite side of political issues than the church, so this was helpful to remember everyone is on a journey and change doesn't happen overnight. The book was largely anecdotal about his experiences with refugees from around the world, but also gives important biblical framework and statistics. Annan doesn't assume you know anything about immigration in America, or even what the difference between refugees and immigrants; so in that way it is extremely accessible for anyone to read.
Addressing Fear: We are letting too many people in
"We are in a crisis- nationally, globally, and existentially- because 66 million people have been forced from their homes. 44 million of them are displaced within their own countries. 22 million had to flee their country as refugees because of persecution, war or violence....over half these refugees are children..." (p. 6).
"The US has been granting legal residency to about 1 million immigrants a year, which includes welcoming about 75,000 refugees. Now the US is slated to receive fewer than 22,000 refugees, the lowest number in decades" (p. 6).
" We receive only 0.2 percent of the world's refugees"(p. 38).
Addressing Fear: Immigrants are a strain on our economy; they require too much government aid.
"On a national scale over the past decade, refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues than they cost. On average, refugees are paying more in taxes than they receive in government services and benefits by their ninth year in the country"(p. 30).
"In the US, the average refugee becomes a net contributor to public coffers eight years after arrival. The assistance they received when they arrived was, in purely monetary terms, an investment with a positive return.. [and] refugees actually pay back more in taxes than what they receive in benefits-- about $21, 000 more in the first 20 years in the United States" (p. 75).
Addressing Fear: Immigrants will take American's jobs
"The arrival of $125,000 Cubans into Miami [in 1980] had no effect on unemployment and was followed by a small rise in average low-skill wages" (p. 33).
"40% of Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants or their children." (p. 8)
Addressing Fear: Immigrants are dangerous
"Research of the past four decades shows that, as immigration increased in American metropolitan areas, on average crimes of murder, robbery, burglary, and larceny decreased. Immigration doesn't increase crime and may actually help reduce it. The most common explanation why is because it revitalizes urban neighborhoods, creating vibrant communities and generating economic growth."(p. 85).
Some thought-provoking scripture:
" He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?"(Jer 22:16 NIV)
"God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt" (Deut 10:18-19).
"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alie who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt" (Lev 19:33-34)
And the kicker.....
"Years ago on the other side of the world, with nobody paying attention at all, a young couple found out that their child was at risk from a hostile, dangerous government. They lived in the Middle East. Life under an occupying force hadn't been a clear and present danger in their lives recently. Until now. Especially for children. No good choices. Just go. Fast. Escape. Leave behind hopes and dreams, home and work, friends and family.
They fled in the middle of the night. They took what they could carry and made it across the border. They'd left immediate danger, but that didn't mean they felt safe. they longed to be home, but to protect their child's life they couldn't.
This is a refugee story familiar to families who have fled Aleppo or South Sudan or Myanmar or many other places. It's the story of a family fleeing Guatemala or Honduras to seek asylum and protect their children from violence. The story is much too familiar for millions of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.
This is also the refugee story of Jesus and his parents-- who under the threat of a ruler named Herod had to flee to Egypt to save Jesus' life" (p. 15).
Addressing Fear: We are letting too many people in
"We are in a crisis- nationally, globally, and existentially- because 66 million people have been forced from their homes. 44 million of them are displaced within their own countries. 22 million had to flee their country as refugees because of persecution, war or violence....over half these refugees are children..." (p. 6).
"The US has been granting legal residency to about 1 million immigrants a year, which includes welcoming about 75,000 refugees. Now the US is slated to receive fewer than 22,000 refugees, the lowest number in decades" (p. 6).
" We receive only 0.2 percent of the world's refugees"(p. 38).
Addressing Fear: Immigrants are a strain on our economy; they require too much government aid.
"On a national scale over the past decade, refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues than they cost. On average, refugees are paying more in taxes than they receive in government services and benefits by their ninth year in the country"(p. 30).
"In the US, the average refugee becomes a net contributor to public coffers eight years after arrival. The assistance they received when they arrived was, in purely monetary terms, an investment with a positive return.. [and] refugees actually pay back more in taxes than what they receive in benefits-- about $21, 000 more in the first 20 years in the United States" (p. 75).
Addressing Fear: Immigrants will take American's jobs
"The arrival of $125,000 Cubans into Miami [in 1980] had no effect on unemployment and was followed by a small rise in average low-skill wages" (p. 33).
"40% of Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants or their children." (p. 8)
Addressing Fear: Immigrants are dangerous
"Research of the past four decades shows that, as immigration increased in American metropolitan areas, on average crimes of murder, robbery, burglary, and larceny decreased. Immigration doesn't increase crime and may actually help reduce it. The most common explanation why is because it revitalizes urban neighborhoods, creating vibrant communities and generating economic growth."(p. 85).
Some thought-provoking scripture:
" He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?"(Jer 22:16 NIV)
"God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt" (Deut 10:18-19).
"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alie who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt" (Lev 19:33-34)
And the kicker.....
"Years ago on the other side of the world, with nobody paying attention at all, a young couple found out that their child was at risk from a hostile, dangerous government. They lived in the Middle East. Life under an occupying force hadn't been a clear and present danger in their lives recently. Until now. Especially for children. No good choices. Just go. Fast. Escape. Leave behind hopes and dreams, home and work, friends and family.
They fled in the middle of the night. They took what they could carry and made it across the border. They'd left immediate danger, but that didn't mean they felt safe. they longed to be home, but to protect their child's life they couldn't.
This is a refugee story familiar to families who have fled Aleppo or South Sudan or Myanmar or many other places. It's the story of a family fleeing Guatemala or Honduras to seek asylum and protect their children from violence. The story is much too familiar for millions of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.
This is also the refugee story of Jesus and his parents-- who under the threat of a ruler named Herod had to flee to Egypt to save Jesus' life" (p. 15).
January 9, 2019
You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us is a book you'll want to read slowly and thoughtfully. I actually finished it last week but needed to mull over the book before writing a review. Kent Annan has written several prior books and is no stranger to this topic as he has worked with refugees in numerous countries and leads the M.A. at Wheaton College's Humanitarian Disaster Institute.
Annan does a wonderful job of wedding stories from his personal experiences with statistics and Biblical teaching. A primary focus is Biblical teaching. Annan's prime emphasis is Christ welcomes us,(in fact he did while we were still sinners,) and as Christ-followers we need to be welcoming to others who are made in the image of God as well. His stories place you in the middle of a scenario and make you think "what if?" What if your home was destroyed and you needed to start over in a completely different country? What if your community or country was not a safe place to raise your family? Questions such as these and many others help you to imagine yourself in these situations. Beyond these questions, Annan tells the stories of specific refugees and immigrants as well as individuals who are assisting them. Numerous illustrations show how individuals in impoverished countries are sharing what little they have with refugees. Another memorable illustration told of a community who was going to accept refugees but was impacted by a devasting fire. The fire and damage helped the community residents to better identify with the refugees who had lost everything and they proceeded to welcome the refugees. These illustrations of generosity in the midst of despair are quite convicting.
Annan notes that when churches and communities welcome refugees, we are often the ones who are the most changed by the experience. Annan backs up these stories with a variety of statistics regarding the number of refugees and immigrants and points out that the U.S. receives a small percentage of the world's refugee population. Keep in mind that Annan does not advocate a completely open border. He indicates that we do need a vetting system even while we more generously welcome refugees. Annan also points out that countries near disasters and war zones accept many more refugees than the U.S.A. ever could but that we could do so much more than the current 0.2% of the world's refugees. Annan also does a marvelous job of debunking a variety of myths which surround refugee and immigrant populations such as they take American jobs or being a security risk.
You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us is highly recommended. The book is highly engaging and accessible as it focuses on stories backed up with statistics rather than being an academic tome. Annan also provides specific practice challenges at the end of each chapter. These challenges take the reader beyond the book to actually engage with others, to share their stories, and to welcome them. Some individuals may find these challenges difficult to do not because they are hard but because they live in locations where the challenges are difficult to accomplish. For example, readers in rural areas may find it difficult to locate someone who is new to our country or locating a church or nonprofit that is working with refugees. Each challenge exists to help readers experience opportunities to welcome others and to break down barriers.
I was most excited to discover a FREE six-session video course has been created to accompany this book. I have not worked through this curriculum, but I believe it will provide the basis for much needed discussion about this topic. A FREE 13 page Family Toolkit is also available to help families discuss this topic. Both of these resources will help to make this already rich resource accessible to an even wider audience.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the book You Welcomed Me free from InterVarsity Press via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Annan does a wonderful job of wedding stories from his personal experiences with statistics and Biblical teaching. A primary focus is Biblical teaching. Annan's prime emphasis is Christ welcomes us,(in fact he did while we were still sinners,) and as Christ-followers we need to be welcoming to others who are made in the image of God as well. His stories place you in the middle of a scenario and make you think "what if?" What if your home was destroyed and you needed to start over in a completely different country? What if your community or country was not a safe place to raise your family? Questions such as these and many others help you to imagine yourself in these situations. Beyond these questions, Annan tells the stories of specific refugees and immigrants as well as individuals who are assisting them. Numerous illustrations show how individuals in impoverished countries are sharing what little they have with refugees. Another memorable illustration told of a community who was going to accept refugees but was impacted by a devasting fire. The fire and damage helped the community residents to better identify with the refugees who had lost everything and they proceeded to welcome the refugees. These illustrations of generosity in the midst of despair are quite convicting.
Annan notes that when churches and communities welcome refugees, we are often the ones who are the most changed by the experience. Annan backs up these stories with a variety of statistics regarding the number of refugees and immigrants and points out that the U.S. receives a small percentage of the world's refugee population. Keep in mind that Annan does not advocate a completely open border. He indicates that we do need a vetting system even while we more generously welcome refugees. Annan also points out that countries near disasters and war zones accept many more refugees than the U.S.A. ever could but that we could do so much more than the current 0.2% of the world's refugees. Annan also does a marvelous job of debunking a variety of myths which surround refugee and immigrant populations such as they take American jobs or being a security risk.
You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us is highly recommended. The book is highly engaging and accessible as it focuses on stories backed up with statistics rather than being an academic tome. Annan also provides specific practice challenges at the end of each chapter. These challenges take the reader beyond the book to actually engage with others, to share their stories, and to welcome them. Some individuals may find these challenges difficult to do not because they are hard but because they live in locations where the challenges are difficult to accomplish. For example, readers in rural areas may find it difficult to locate someone who is new to our country or locating a church or nonprofit that is working with refugees. Each challenge exists to help readers experience opportunities to welcome others and to break down barriers.
I was most excited to discover a FREE six-session video course has been created to accompany this book. I have not worked through this curriculum, but I believe it will provide the basis for much needed discussion about this topic. A FREE 13 page Family Toolkit is also available to help families discuss this topic. Both of these resources will help to make this already rich resource accessible to an even wider audience.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the book You Welcomed Me free from InterVarsity Press via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
March 12, 2019
[W]e want love instead of fear to animate our lives. Otherwise we fall prey to the bigger risk: we lost part of our own humanity if we don't respond to people in need. But with small, wise risks we can give an incredible opportunity to the refugees and immigrants we help. (33)
We care about refugees and immigrants because in so many ways God tells us to[...] This isn't just being tenderhearted. [...T]he Christian logic of love demands we help people who are in between, searching, wandering, exiled, seeking home. When we do, helping those without homes brings Home a little closer for all of us by being part of the answer to Jesus' prayer that the kingdom would come, even here, even now. (109)
January 21, 2019
This is now the 3rd of Kent Amman’s books I’ve read mainly because of my own interest in Haiti. I was in Haiti when the horrible news of dead children washing ashore rocked the world. Since then, much of my time has been focused on getting our church to welcome refugees in our city. For that reason, I find this book very helpful to give a broad apologetic as to our responsibility to welcome the sojourner as followers of Christ. This book is a great resource.
I would have given the book a higher rating, but I found the layout of this book choppy and a bit disjointed to read. As a Canadian, some of the issues highlighted in this book are distinctly American, which makes me proud of our unique heritage that instinctively welcomes the outsider here in the North.
Of significant concern in Canada is the welcome of Muslim’s, a fear that is palpable in the church as well. After a number of years of interaction with Muslim’s and visiting many of the same places as the author, I hold a more conservative approach to welcoming Muslims. Page 16 and 29 suggest that Muslims are our brothers and sisters. Sorry Kent, they are not.
Scripture calls us to to love them as neighbors, yes and in some cases enemies, but the title of brother and sister is reserved for those who share the inheritance of the Kingdom of God as fellow heirs in Christ. If brothers and sisters as fellow citizens of earth that are image bearers of God, then yes, but the authors uses Matthew 25:35-36,40 as the support text. This text is often misapplied to anyone who is in need Christian or not. But if you study the text, the least of these is a clear reference to the family of Christ or brothers in Christ. Does that mean we shouldn’t help those outside of our faith? No, but there is a distinction to be made between brother and enemy. The Good Samaritan was not a brother, but an enemy to the Jew. In the case of Muslim’s we must love them, even when they would call us their enemies. And at times when they are our enemies. But don’t make the mistake of calling them our brother until they have heard and responded to the gospel and have been welcomed into the family of faith.
I would have given the book a higher rating, but I found the layout of this book choppy and a bit disjointed to read. As a Canadian, some of the issues highlighted in this book are distinctly American, which makes me proud of our unique heritage that instinctively welcomes the outsider here in the North.
Of significant concern in Canada is the welcome of Muslim’s, a fear that is palpable in the church as well. After a number of years of interaction with Muslim’s and visiting many of the same places as the author, I hold a more conservative approach to welcoming Muslims. Page 16 and 29 suggest that Muslims are our brothers and sisters. Sorry Kent, they are not.
Scripture calls us to to love them as neighbors, yes and in some cases enemies, but the title of brother and sister is reserved for those who share the inheritance of the Kingdom of God as fellow heirs in Christ. If brothers and sisters as fellow citizens of earth that are image bearers of God, then yes, but the authors uses Matthew 25:35-36,40 as the support text. This text is often misapplied to anyone who is in need Christian or not. But if you study the text, the least of these is a clear reference to the family of Christ or brothers in Christ. Does that mean we shouldn’t help those outside of our faith? No, but there is a distinction to be made between brother and enemy. The Good Samaritan was not a brother, but an enemy to the Jew. In the case of Muslim’s we must love them, even when they would call us their enemies. And at times when they are our enemies. But don’t make the mistake of calling them our brother until they have heard and responded to the gospel and have been welcomed into the family of faith.
October 6, 2018
3.5 stars
I really appreciate how this book emphasizes compassion and love for refugees, and dispenses with stereotypes to provide some empathetic stories of those who have been welcomed and shown welcome to those in need.
This book doesn't focus so much on making a strong, point-by-point case, though it does address a few common concerns. If someone is hoping to be argued into showing compassion for refugees, this probably won't provide that, but that doesn't usually work well anyway. Instead, readers will hopefully catch the vision laid out here, because it can be compelling and convicting for those who hear.
I really appreciate how this book emphasizes compassion and love for refugees, and dispenses with stereotypes to provide some empathetic stories of those who have been welcomed and shown welcome to those in need.
This book doesn't focus so much on making a strong, point-by-point case, though it does address a few common concerns. If someone is hoping to be argued into showing compassion for refugees, this probably won't provide that, but that doesn't usually work well anyway. Instead, readers will hopefully catch the vision laid out here, because it can be compelling and convicting for those who hear.
November 25, 2018
This is a thoughtful and penetrating book that deals honestly and vulnerably with our North American attitudes and acceptance/non-acceptance of refugees and immigrants. Kent is an American Christian and the book is written primarily for an American Christian audience, where there has been much media coverage and rhetoric about refugees in the past couple of years especially.
One very powerful part of the book is where Kent deals honestly and factually with some of the fears and concerns about refugees and immigrants that surface most often.
“They’ll take our jobs.” If you don’t have a good job, or if you have a good job that could be taken away, how can you be in favor of letting in someone else who is also going to need a job—and might be willing to work for less? The good news economically is that refugees and immigrants contribute significantly to our economy. On a national scale, over the past decade, refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues than they cost. On average, refugees are paying more in taxes than they receive in government services and benefits by their ninth year in the country. So the data are encouraging in the long term, and overall, the fear that “they’ll take our jobs” is false. Our generosity in welcoming is rewarded.
“We’ll be risking crime and our security.” There are very few risks to welcoming refugees, with a rigorous vetting system that has long been in place. No American citizen has lost their life in a terrorist attack perpetrated by a refugee since the Refugee Act was passed in 1980. In the Boston Marathon bombing, the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting, 9/11, and others, the perpetrators of other ethnicities get lumped in with the refugee risk, though none of these perpetrators were refugees. (White men commit the majority of mass shootings in our country.) The likelihood of being attacked by a shark (1 in 3,748,067) or by lightning (1 in 79,749) or heart disease (1 in 5) are much, much higher than the odds of being killed by a refugee terrorist attack (1 in 3.64 billion).
“We need to focus on taking care of our own.” We need to protect and nurture the benefits of belonging while also welcoming people who need to belong. Despite—and, actually, because of—the pain caused by our nation’s history (when we took people’s tribal land and took others from their tribes in Africa into slavery), we can take a stand for diverse people being able to come together as a tribe to live as fellow citizens and help each other as neighbors. We need to be even more deeply grounded in belonging to God’s family, which means welcoming those displaced.
“They’re changing our town.” As Christians we should love diversity—because God’s kingdom is diverse, with people of every kind. At the same time, change makes many of us feel vulnerable. People from different places bring goodness, but their influence can also take away goodness that was there before: if your taxes rise and your street begins to look and feel strange and everything smells like turmeric and tamarind paste, and your favourite shop is replaced by a halal butcher, your schoolyard chatter becoming chingchongese and phlegmy ‘kh’s and ‘gh’s”— there is a cost in the change. Change is the price of a love that welcomes. We can hope that even if the change is bumpy, on the other side we find a beauty that takes some effort but that also takes us closer to God’s kingdom, in which every tribe and nation and language lives and worships together.
“We’re letting too many people in.” With the annual refugee cap now at its lowest by far since Ronald Reagan, who one year set the cap at 140,000, we certainly can welcome more. There is a limit somewhere, but unemployment is very low after we have been welcoming about 100,000 people a year. We receive only 0.2 percent of the world’s refugees. Our nation has proven that we can handle it economically (to the country’s benefit), the process is safe (see the security statistics above), and those who live in diverse neighborhoods benefit economically, through safety, and in a neighborhood that looks more like the residents of God’s kingdom.
“We’re already too busy and overwhelmed.” We’re prone to not loving our neighbors, even those who are suffering most, when we’re hurried or stressed. Confessing privilege, to whatever extent we have it, helps us to be more welcoming—because we cultivate gratitude, our hearts stay sensitive to the situation of others, and we can slow down to better see how to help.
“We’re not sure what God is doing about all of this.” Slowing down to recognize the suffering that immigrants and refugees face makes my faith feel vulnerable at times. Looking seriously at the plight of these refugees and immigrants should cause some kind of crisis of faith. So look and listen carefully and honestly, humbly and prayerfully, seeking God. And then, we will also see courage, kindness, and even resurrection.
• You helped me even though you were concerned about your job and providing for your own family.
• You took some risk to receive me but not foolish risk.
• You reached beyond your comfort zone to help me belong.
• You faced the discomfort of change that I bring and sought the beauty in my presence.
• You opened the door to welcome as many of the people in situations like mine as you could.
• You slowed down to recognize me and recognize your privilege, instead of walking past.
• You looked for God in my suffering and my healing.
I highly recommend this beautifully-written book that speaks to the heart of one of the most pressing social issues of our day.
One very powerful part of the book is where Kent deals honestly and factually with some of the fears and concerns about refugees and immigrants that surface most often.
“They’ll take our jobs.” If you don’t have a good job, or if you have a good job that could be taken away, how can you be in favor of letting in someone else who is also going to need a job—and might be willing to work for less? The good news economically is that refugees and immigrants contribute significantly to our economy. On a national scale, over the past decade, refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues than they cost. On average, refugees are paying more in taxes than they receive in government services and benefits by their ninth year in the country. So the data are encouraging in the long term, and overall, the fear that “they’ll take our jobs” is false. Our generosity in welcoming is rewarded.
“We’ll be risking crime and our security.” There are very few risks to welcoming refugees, with a rigorous vetting system that has long been in place. No American citizen has lost their life in a terrorist attack perpetrated by a refugee since the Refugee Act was passed in 1980. In the Boston Marathon bombing, the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting, 9/11, and others, the perpetrators of other ethnicities get lumped in with the refugee risk, though none of these perpetrators were refugees. (White men commit the majority of mass shootings in our country.) The likelihood of being attacked by a shark (1 in 3,748,067) or by lightning (1 in 79,749) or heart disease (1 in 5) are much, much higher than the odds of being killed by a refugee terrorist attack (1 in 3.64 billion).
“We need to focus on taking care of our own.” We need to protect and nurture the benefits of belonging while also welcoming people who need to belong. Despite—and, actually, because of—the pain caused by our nation’s history (when we took people’s tribal land and took others from their tribes in Africa into slavery), we can take a stand for diverse people being able to come together as a tribe to live as fellow citizens and help each other as neighbors. We need to be even more deeply grounded in belonging to God’s family, which means welcoming those displaced.
“They’re changing our town.” As Christians we should love diversity—because God’s kingdom is diverse, with people of every kind. At the same time, change makes many of us feel vulnerable. People from different places bring goodness, but their influence can also take away goodness that was there before: if your taxes rise and your street begins to look and feel strange and everything smells like turmeric and tamarind paste, and your favourite shop is replaced by a halal butcher, your schoolyard chatter becoming chingchongese and phlegmy ‘kh’s and ‘gh’s”— there is a cost in the change. Change is the price of a love that welcomes. We can hope that even if the change is bumpy, on the other side we find a beauty that takes some effort but that also takes us closer to God’s kingdom, in which every tribe and nation and language lives and worships together.
“We’re letting too many people in.” With the annual refugee cap now at its lowest by far since Ronald Reagan, who one year set the cap at 140,000, we certainly can welcome more. There is a limit somewhere, but unemployment is very low after we have been welcoming about 100,000 people a year. We receive only 0.2 percent of the world’s refugees. Our nation has proven that we can handle it economically (to the country’s benefit), the process is safe (see the security statistics above), and those who live in diverse neighborhoods benefit economically, through safety, and in a neighborhood that looks more like the residents of God’s kingdom.
“We’re already too busy and overwhelmed.” We’re prone to not loving our neighbors, even those who are suffering most, when we’re hurried or stressed. Confessing privilege, to whatever extent we have it, helps us to be more welcoming—because we cultivate gratitude, our hearts stay sensitive to the situation of others, and we can slow down to better see how to help.
“We’re not sure what God is doing about all of this.” Slowing down to recognize the suffering that immigrants and refugees face makes my faith feel vulnerable at times. Looking seriously at the plight of these refugees and immigrants should cause some kind of crisis of faith. So look and listen carefully and honestly, humbly and prayerfully, seeking God. And then, we will also see courage, kindness, and even resurrection.
• You helped me even though you were concerned about your job and providing for your own family.
• You took some risk to receive me but not foolish risk.
• You reached beyond your comfort zone to help me belong.
• You faced the discomfort of change that I bring and sought the beauty in my presence.
• You opened the door to welcome as many of the people in situations like mine as you could.
• You slowed down to recognize me and recognize your privilege, instead of walking past.
• You looked for God in my suffering and my healing.
I highly recommend this beautifully-written book that speaks to the heart of one of the most pressing social issues of our day.
January 25, 2021
Readable intro to understanding and welcoming others.
P6 I want him to recognize what is at stake:
• Love vs fear
• Who we want to be
• What home is
• How we deal with real concern
• How we make difficult decisions about responding to other people’s suffering when there isn’t enough for everyone to meet their own wants and needs – in this world that gives lots to some and crushes others
• Wisdom versus naivete versus ideals
• The way ethnicity and race affect lives and relationships
There may be some risk to helping, but there is certainly risk in not helping.
• Making security such a high value that fear gains godlike power over our lives – instead of seeing security as one important consideration among others.
• (P7) Discovering that our faith is a resounding gong, a clanging cymbal, not worth much more than empty words when It comes to the rubber of love meeting the road of suffering and sacrifice.
As adults, we know there is usually a cost to being our best selves – and that it’s ultimately worth the price.
How can we live into a vision that chooses love over fear?
“That could be me” at face value can be a selfish formulation. But it can also lea out imaginations down the path toward deeper empathy and love – because it recognizes the stranger as ourselves and helps us to choose to be for.
That could be me loving my neighbor as myself – and discovering that in the deepest sense we’re all exiles trying to find home. Following Jesus means to some extent confessing that we don’t have a permanent home here. We want to belong more of all to God’s kingdom coming. We’re also to live with an eye to helping widows and orphans out on the margins. This isn’t liberal wishy-washiness or conservative literalism. This is the rigorous life of love worth living, love that opens the world to us, that leads us toward discovery and transformation. It leads toward the discomfort of growth. We carry the weight of caring and then find our hearts grown stronger.
P9 God’s love welcomes us, so we want to welcome others. In a way that is gritty and practical but also kind of mystical, welcoming the stranger is also welcoming God – in our tender frailty and shared sorry, in our courageous resiliency and remarkable generosity, in our fierce commitment to finding ways forward. In the deepest sense, we have an opportunity to do nothing less than to find a way – even when it isn’t easy – to welcome each other and God into our lives.
We’re people of faith, however, seekers, children of Abrahams’ faith. By faith we’ve joined inro the story that we’re in a sense foreigners ourselves, and so we should be especially sensitive to those who are displaces and seeking a way home. In our deepest hope, we’re sojourners ourselves, which should lead us into a special tenderness for the plight of foreigners.
Hebrews 11 tells us that the forebears of our faith “confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland…They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, indeed, he has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13-16).
P25 By recognizing strangers as ourselves and responding to their needs, we enter into one of the most simple, profound, and mysterious aspects of our faith: when we welcome refugees and immigrants, we welcome God. And when we see an immigrant or refugee in need, we see God in need. The God who loves us and gives us life also, in a way helps needs our help.
P26 In each person, in some mysterious way we meet Jesus and so meet God - the Trinity and dynamic unity and diversity. Likewise, instead of seeing a stranger, we can learn to see another person with a kind of three-in-one vision. In that former stranger we can learn to see
● the person - a fellow human in distress,
● Ourselves - because that could be me, and
● God - through the mystery that in the other we meet the divine.
P27 When we haven't had experience has forced on us, as in Uganda, we can still cultivate this three-in-one vision through deep listening, travel, friendships and volunteering.
Today in light of Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan, which defines who our neighbor is, couldn't we also say, “There is no longer American or Syrian, no longer documented or undocumented, no longer legal or illegal, no longer immigrant or native-born, no longer foreign or American?
This doesn't solve the policy complexities that have to be addressed. But we're at the right starting point when we recognize - and love, as Jesus says - strangers as ourselves.
P29 The Dehumanizing Our Neighbor Scale
Absorb media that speaks unkindly and unfairly about foreigners. This is like giving an initial 15-volt shock. We’re passive. We're not really hurting anyone. But like that first shock in the experiment, it starts us down a slippery slop.
Let a slur go uncorrected. If I'm with someone who speaks about a foreigner with a slur that I let go uncorrected, I slide a little farther toward not seeing people as I should. My best impulses get suppressed and lesser ones get nourished
Vote in a way that makes our vulnerable neighbors more vulnerable. Elections are complex decisions with many issues at stake, yet they come down to (a) this person or (b) that person. Loving are immigrant and refugee neighbors can take different strategies and different votes, but if we're looking out for self interests and not loving our neighbors with our votes and we're sliding a little further down the scale
Fail to seek God's image in them
The Good Samaritan Scale (Recognizing Our Neighbor)
Take time to see someone else as a person. I have to slow down to listen to someone’s story whether in person or in the news. In Jesus’s story, the Good Samaritan first had to pay attention to someone he could have easily ignored as he passed by.
Take time to feel their circumstances. If I see someone as a person and then take the next steps of empathizing, I'm opening myself to either action or guilt. I'm imagining walking in the shoes of that refugee or immigrant.
Seek a tangible way to connect to give to share a meal. If I help someone in a real way, that person's story can start to transform my story. The story of Justice becomes our story. When we listen as we act compassionately, our respect for refugees and immigrants deepens as we find good ways to help.
P31 Live into a new understanding of who my neighbor is. If I keep moving along the scale, I understand my neighbor within our relationship within the human family with new eyes. I see my neighbors through Jesus’s redefinition - beyond my own race, nation, and creed - which changes how I work for justice locally nationally and internationally.
P32 Along the scale we live in God's guidance: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resi with you shall be as the citizen among you, you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34).
P33 For us to welcome strangers, the choosing is already over and deciding to reach to nurture (or not) the practical, mystical exchange we talked about earlier: recognizing Jesus in immigrants and refugees and being recognized as Jesus by them.
Benedictine monks explicitly try to recognize Jesus in the stranger to whom they offer hospitality. But that isn't all. They're also doing the hard work of Christian formation because they want the stranger to recognize Jesus in them
I first read The Rule of St. Benedict 20 years ago. After the words, “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ.” It gives instructions for the mystical exchange that Jesus talked about, which includes this: “[In] addressing a guest on arrival or departure. . .[by] a bow of the head or by a complete prostration of the body, Christ is to be adored because he is indeed welcomed in them.
The Rule also reminds us that treating strangers as holy visitors shouldn't be primarily for guests who we would honor anyway - friends, the wealthy, the powerful, those who could help us. “Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received.”
P35 Love is the lens we see through, then wisdom guides us through the risks.
Grace is a lens we see through, then the law manages complex reality.
Being fellow citizens of God is the lens we see through, then we deal with the pluses and minuses of being part of tribes and Nations.
Our calling includes welcoming immigrants and refugees as Christ, and praying and practicing welcoming actions, so the stranger will see Christ in us.
P 38 Where there is love and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi
P42 Multiple studies show that an influx of immigrants or refugees actually helps to raise wages for the local community - not take jobs away.
P47 Dina Nayeri fled as a child and came to the US as a refugee. Years later she wrote a sharp-edged essay about responding to people in extreme need: “Even if the country gets overcrowded and you have to give up your luxuries, and we set up ugly little lives around the corner, marring your view. If we need a lot of help and local services, if your taxes rise and your streets begin to look and feel strange and everything smells like to tumeric and tamarind paste, and your favorite shop is replaced by a halal butcher, your schoolyard chatter becoming ching chongese and phlemy “kh’s and gh’s”-e ven so, we still simply owe them ‘a basic human obligation. It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.
P50 We aren’t called to first defend our country’s borders or honor, but to seek the kingdom of God. We seek comfort, patriotism, war, power, pleasure, success, and so many other things first.
P53 Confessing privilege to whatever extent we have it, helps us to be more welcoming because we cultivate gratitude, our hearts they said stick to the situation of others, and we can slow down to better see how to help. Confessing privilege makes us vulnerable in a good way, and we miss out on so much good change (for others and ourselves) if we don't.
P68 A study a couple years ago about evangelical Christian attitudes on immigration looked at what most influenced people's thinking. The responses were (starting with what had the most influence) immigrants they had interacted, with friends and family, the media, the Bible and then immigrants they had observed. (Everything else with less than 5% including the church, at 2%.)
The stories of people we’re close to make the most difference.
P70 An important way be Give Love More purchase than hate is by choosing who we’re near so their stories are shaping us. In whatever ways I'm going in love (and there are plenty; I have a long way to go) one of the wisest things I've done in my life is to repeatedly choose to be around people who enlarge my understanding of God, who give me perspective on how most people in the world live, and who demonstrate lot better than I do. Their story shaped me. I need them. And then - after I meet someone like Joseph - I'm compelled to try to live in a way worthy of the grace that our stories intersected.
In Haiti where I've worked living there and visiting regularly for 15 years, it's important to understand the context of colonization, exploitation, liberation, leadership, missions, foreign aid and independence. If you were to work on a Native American reservation, presumably you’d better know something about the history of the tribe and also find a way to submit to Native American leadership and what you do. Like the doctors oath “First, do no harm,” self-understanding can help keep us from doing harm - and hopefully also free us into serving well.
P100 “Because the church is a family in covenant relationship, those children are not just their children, they are our children. And if they are our children, what will we do differently?”
P104 Committing to reconciliation also leads us to committing to grace - that is, to giving, receiving, and being guided by grace.
P118 Sympathy (having pity on people’s misfortune, while keeping them at a distance from us) pushes us apart, whereas empathy (seeing the world as other people see it, understanding their feelings, and being vulnerable to their experience: brings us together.
P122 “You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigner residing among you and who have children,” Ezekiel 47:22-23 (NIV) says so beautifully, “You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
P124 We can be united or divided by seeking home. At its best, our longing for the Promised Land yearns for everyone to find their promised lands.
We’re people called to make our true homes in the heart of God. Yet if our yearning for home is just spiritual, then it's escapist and rightfully disdained by people who live in the real world. The yearning is spiritual and for what is beyond - yet also very much for us to have and to ensure everyone has a home right here and now for sleeping, getting ready for work, playing, raising children, washing clothes, making dinner. Even when we find home, life is hard. But at least there was a place to struggle from.
P125 The Savior came as a kind of immigrant from heaven, across borders of divinity and time and space, to walk among humanity. Soon after his birth, his family fled as refugees. He grew up and described himself as someone without a place to lay his head. He hung on the cross forsaken by all and then was raised to life. His most influential interpreter traveled to different lands, enduring hardship in and out of prison, in order to tell people that through Jesus they belong to God's chosen people. The end of the story, which we are still living into, is to finally be fully home with God and with people from all corners of the earth.
We care about refugees and immigrants because in so many ways God tells us to and because we're living out the longing of our story. This isn't just being tender-hearted. If this story, the Story of God, is our story then the Christian logic of love demands we help people who are in between, searching, wandering, exiled, seeking home. When we do, helping those without home brings Home a little closer for all of us by being part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer that the kingdom would come, even here, even now.
Kentannan.com
www.worldrelief.org
www.lirs.org
www.worldvision.org
www.rescue.org
www.world renew.net
www.caritas,org Catholic relief services
www.cgdev.org Center for global develop
P6 I want him to recognize what is at stake:
• Love vs fear
• Who we want to be
• What home is
• How we deal with real concern
• How we make difficult decisions about responding to other people’s suffering when there isn’t enough for everyone to meet their own wants and needs – in this world that gives lots to some and crushes others
• Wisdom versus naivete versus ideals
• The way ethnicity and race affect lives and relationships
There may be some risk to helping, but there is certainly risk in not helping.
• Making security such a high value that fear gains godlike power over our lives – instead of seeing security as one important consideration among others.
• (P7) Discovering that our faith is a resounding gong, a clanging cymbal, not worth much more than empty words when It comes to the rubber of love meeting the road of suffering and sacrifice.
As adults, we know there is usually a cost to being our best selves – and that it’s ultimately worth the price.
How can we live into a vision that chooses love over fear?
“That could be me” at face value can be a selfish formulation. But it can also lea out imaginations down the path toward deeper empathy and love – because it recognizes the stranger as ourselves and helps us to choose to be for.
That could be me loving my neighbor as myself – and discovering that in the deepest sense we’re all exiles trying to find home. Following Jesus means to some extent confessing that we don’t have a permanent home here. We want to belong more of all to God’s kingdom coming. We’re also to live with an eye to helping widows and orphans out on the margins. This isn’t liberal wishy-washiness or conservative literalism. This is the rigorous life of love worth living, love that opens the world to us, that leads us toward discovery and transformation. It leads toward the discomfort of growth. We carry the weight of caring and then find our hearts grown stronger.
P9 God’s love welcomes us, so we want to welcome others. In a way that is gritty and practical but also kind of mystical, welcoming the stranger is also welcoming God – in our tender frailty and shared sorry, in our courageous resiliency and remarkable generosity, in our fierce commitment to finding ways forward. In the deepest sense, we have an opportunity to do nothing less than to find a way – even when it isn’t easy – to welcome each other and God into our lives.
We’re people of faith, however, seekers, children of Abrahams’ faith. By faith we’ve joined inro the story that we’re in a sense foreigners ourselves, and so we should be especially sensitive to those who are displaces and seeking a way home. In our deepest hope, we’re sojourners ourselves, which should lead us into a special tenderness for the plight of foreigners.
Hebrews 11 tells us that the forebears of our faith “confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland…They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, indeed, he has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13-16).
P25 By recognizing strangers as ourselves and responding to their needs, we enter into one of the most simple, profound, and mysterious aspects of our faith: when we welcome refugees and immigrants, we welcome God. And when we see an immigrant or refugee in need, we see God in need. The God who loves us and gives us life also, in a way helps needs our help.
P26 In each person, in some mysterious way we meet Jesus and so meet God - the Trinity and dynamic unity and diversity. Likewise, instead of seeing a stranger, we can learn to see another person with a kind of three-in-one vision. In that former stranger we can learn to see
● the person - a fellow human in distress,
● Ourselves - because that could be me, and
● God - through the mystery that in the other we meet the divine.
P27 When we haven't had experience has forced on us, as in Uganda, we can still cultivate this three-in-one vision through deep listening, travel, friendships and volunteering.
Today in light of Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan, which defines who our neighbor is, couldn't we also say, “There is no longer American or Syrian, no longer documented or undocumented, no longer legal or illegal, no longer immigrant or native-born, no longer foreign or American?
This doesn't solve the policy complexities that have to be addressed. But we're at the right starting point when we recognize - and love, as Jesus says - strangers as ourselves.
P29 The Dehumanizing Our Neighbor Scale
Absorb media that speaks unkindly and unfairly about foreigners. This is like giving an initial 15-volt shock. We’re passive. We're not really hurting anyone. But like that first shock in the experiment, it starts us down a slippery slop.
Let a slur go uncorrected. If I'm with someone who speaks about a foreigner with a slur that I let go uncorrected, I slide a little farther toward not seeing people as I should. My best impulses get suppressed and lesser ones get nourished
Vote in a way that makes our vulnerable neighbors more vulnerable. Elections are complex decisions with many issues at stake, yet they come down to (a) this person or (b) that person. Loving are immigrant and refugee neighbors can take different strategies and different votes, but if we're looking out for self interests and not loving our neighbors with our votes and we're sliding a little further down the scale
Fail to seek God's image in them
The Good Samaritan Scale (Recognizing Our Neighbor)
Take time to see someone else as a person. I have to slow down to listen to someone’s story whether in person or in the news. In Jesus’s story, the Good Samaritan first had to pay attention to someone he could have easily ignored as he passed by.
Take time to feel their circumstances. If I see someone as a person and then take the next steps of empathizing, I'm opening myself to either action or guilt. I'm imagining walking in the shoes of that refugee or immigrant.
Seek a tangible way to connect to give to share a meal. If I help someone in a real way, that person's story can start to transform my story. The story of Justice becomes our story. When we listen as we act compassionately, our respect for refugees and immigrants deepens as we find good ways to help.
P31 Live into a new understanding of who my neighbor is. If I keep moving along the scale, I understand my neighbor within our relationship within the human family with new eyes. I see my neighbors through Jesus’s redefinition - beyond my own race, nation, and creed - which changes how I work for justice locally nationally and internationally.
P32 Along the scale we live in God's guidance: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resi with you shall be as the citizen among you, you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34).
P33 For us to welcome strangers, the choosing is already over and deciding to reach to nurture (or not) the practical, mystical exchange we talked about earlier: recognizing Jesus in immigrants and refugees and being recognized as Jesus by them.
Benedictine monks explicitly try to recognize Jesus in the stranger to whom they offer hospitality. But that isn't all. They're also doing the hard work of Christian formation because they want the stranger to recognize Jesus in them
I first read The Rule of St. Benedict 20 years ago. After the words, “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ.” It gives instructions for the mystical exchange that Jesus talked about, which includes this: “[In] addressing a guest on arrival or departure. . .[by] a bow of the head or by a complete prostration of the body, Christ is to be adored because he is indeed welcomed in them.
The Rule also reminds us that treating strangers as holy visitors shouldn't be primarily for guests who we would honor anyway - friends, the wealthy, the powerful, those who could help us. “Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received.”
P35 Love is the lens we see through, then wisdom guides us through the risks.
Grace is a lens we see through, then the law manages complex reality.
Being fellow citizens of God is the lens we see through, then we deal with the pluses and minuses of being part of tribes and Nations.
Our calling includes welcoming immigrants and refugees as Christ, and praying and practicing welcoming actions, so the stranger will see Christ in us.
P 38 Where there is love and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi
P42 Multiple studies show that an influx of immigrants or refugees actually helps to raise wages for the local community - not take jobs away.
P47 Dina Nayeri fled as a child and came to the US as a refugee. Years later she wrote a sharp-edged essay about responding to people in extreme need: “Even if the country gets overcrowded and you have to give up your luxuries, and we set up ugly little lives around the corner, marring your view. If we need a lot of help and local services, if your taxes rise and your streets begin to look and feel strange and everything smells like to tumeric and tamarind paste, and your favorite shop is replaced by a halal butcher, your schoolyard chatter becoming ching chongese and phlemy “kh’s and gh’s”-e ven so, we still simply owe them ‘a basic human obligation. It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.
P50 We aren’t called to first defend our country’s borders or honor, but to seek the kingdom of God. We seek comfort, patriotism, war, power, pleasure, success, and so many other things first.
P53 Confessing privilege to whatever extent we have it, helps us to be more welcoming because we cultivate gratitude, our hearts they said stick to the situation of others, and we can slow down to better see how to help. Confessing privilege makes us vulnerable in a good way, and we miss out on so much good change (for others and ourselves) if we don't.
P68 A study a couple years ago about evangelical Christian attitudes on immigration looked at what most influenced people's thinking. The responses were (starting with what had the most influence) immigrants they had interacted, with friends and family, the media, the Bible and then immigrants they had observed. (Everything else with less than 5% including the church, at 2%.)
The stories of people we’re close to make the most difference.
P70 An important way be Give Love More purchase than hate is by choosing who we’re near so their stories are shaping us. In whatever ways I'm going in love (and there are plenty; I have a long way to go) one of the wisest things I've done in my life is to repeatedly choose to be around people who enlarge my understanding of God, who give me perspective on how most people in the world live, and who demonstrate lot better than I do. Their story shaped me. I need them. And then - after I meet someone like Joseph - I'm compelled to try to live in a way worthy of the grace that our stories intersected.
In Haiti where I've worked living there and visiting regularly for 15 years, it's important to understand the context of colonization, exploitation, liberation, leadership, missions, foreign aid and independence. If you were to work on a Native American reservation, presumably you’d better know something about the history of the tribe and also find a way to submit to Native American leadership and what you do. Like the doctors oath “First, do no harm,” self-understanding can help keep us from doing harm - and hopefully also free us into serving well.
P100 “Because the church is a family in covenant relationship, those children are not just their children, they are our children. And if they are our children, what will we do differently?”
P104 Committing to reconciliation also leads us to committing to grace - that is, to giving, receiving, and being guided by grace.
P118 Sympathy (having pity on people’s misfortune, while keeping them at a distance from us) pushes us apart, whereas empathy (seeing the world as other people see it, understanding their feelings, and being vulnerable to their experience: brings us together.
P122 “You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigner residing among you and who have children,” Ezekiel 47:22-23 (NIV) says so beautifully, “You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.
P124 We can be united or divided by seeking home. At its best, our longing for the Promised Land yearns for everyone to find their promised lands.
We’re people called to make our true homes in the heart of God. Yet if our yearning for home is just spiritual, then it's escapist and rightfully disdained by people who live in the real world. The yearning is spiritual and for what is beyond - yet also very much for us to have and to ensure everyone has a home right here and now for sleeping, getting ready for work, playing, raising children, washing clothes, making dinner. Even when we find home, life is hard. But at least there was a place to struggle from.
P125 The Savior came as a kind of immigrant from heaven, across borders of divinity and time and space, to walk among humanity. Soon after his birth, his family fled as refugees. He grew up and described himself as someone without a place to lay his head. He hung on the cross forsaken by all and then was raised to life. His most influential interpreter traveled to different lands, enduring hardship in and out of prison, in order to tell people that through Jesus they belong to God's chosen people. The end of the story, which we are still living into, is to finally be fully home with God and with people from all corners of the earth.
We care about refugees and immigrants because in so many ways God tells us to and because we're living out the longing of our story. This isn't just being tender-hearted. If this story, the Story of God, is our story then the Christian logic of love demands we help people who are in between, searching, wandering, exiled, seeking home. When we do, helping those without home brings Home a little closer for all of us by being part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer that the kingdom would come, even here, even now.
Kentannan.com
www.worldrelief.org
www.lirs.org
www.worldvision.org
www.rescue.org
www.world renew.net
www.caritas,org Catholic relief services
www.cgdev.org Center for global develop
October 12, 2018
Unless you’ve been living under a rock and totally without access to any type of news media (including your social media where people post about what’s going on in the world, and their opinions about it) for the past few years, you’ve heard both sides of the arguments about immigration and refugees. Both sides and everything in between. And the battle gets pretty heated with one extreme suggesting that anyone who wants to come to our country should be allowed in, and on the other extreme, the group that would refuse entry to just about everyone. Of course there has to be a center-ground, since except for the 100% Native American, none of us would be allowed to live here if the one extreme had their way.
In the midst of the rancorous and bitter arguments, comes a voice of reason. Kent Annan, has written a book which confronts fear mongering with facts, and presents a Biblical point of view on how we are to treat, and receive those who would like to be a part of the population of the U.S., and those who would prefer to return to their homes, but are prevented from doing so by war, famine, drought, or other things which most of us can’t even begin to imagine.
You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us (InterVarsisty Press) has a scheduled release date of Nov 2018. Annan tackles the tough topics like why people are so against welcoming people from other places. He suggests that in many cases it’s because of fear. They’re nervous, they’re concerned about safety, and they don’t want people around who are intent on hurting others. But statistics show that these newcomers of whom we are so afraid are rarely the ones who commit the crimes.
This is a very readable book, with narratives of stories that Kent has experienced with people in or from many different places. And they are stories that should touch even the hardest hearts. But it goes beyond telling stories. There are reactions to those stories, there are personal experiences, there are statistics, and throughout are the reminders that we should be loving others as God loves us.
And above all this is a cry for justice. Justice God-style, rather than what often passes for justice in our 21st century society. Justice which means that everyone is treated fairly, and given opportunities that are so frequently denied to those who don’t look like us, talk like us, or share a common culture.
At the end of each chapter is a “practice” exercise. These exercises invite us to learn to listen to the stories of our neighbors, learn to listen, learn to hear, and use those stories to help us get to know the people with whom we come in contact.
Although the practices are especially geared towards immigrants and refugees, for many of us, in our hundreds-of-friends-on-social-media-but none-in-real-life society, we could use the exercises to get to know the people in our neighborhoods who do look and talk like us, and who do share that common culture.
As we run our race called life, we can all use the reminder that life on earth is practice for eternal life in heaven where according to the Apostle John, there was “ a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9. NIV
I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher.
5/5
In the midst of the rancorous and bitter arguments, comes a voice of reason. Kent Annan, has written a book which confronts fear mongering with facts, and presents a Biblical point of view on how we are to treat, and receive those who would like to be a part of the population of the U.S., and those who would prefer to return to their homes, but are prevented from doing so by war, famine, drought, or other things which most of us can’t even begin to imagine.
You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us (InterVarsisty Press) has a scheduled release date of Nov 2018. Annan tackles the tough topics like why people are so against welcoming people from other places. He suggests that in many cases it’s because of fear. They’re nervous, they’re concerned about safety, and they don’t want people around who are intent on hurting others. But statistics show that these newcomers of whom we are so afraid are rarely the ones who commit the crimes.
This is a very readable book, with narratives of stories that Kent has experienced with people in or from many different places. And they are stories that should touch even the hardest hearts. But it goes beyond telling stories. There are reactions to those stories, there are personal experiences, there are statistics, and throughout are the reminders that we should be loving others as God loves us.
And above all this is a cry for justice. Justice God-style, rather than what often passes for justice in our 21st century society. Justice which means that everyone is treated fairly, and given opportunities that are so frequently denied to those who don’t look like us, talk like us, or share a common culture.
At the end of each chapter is a “practice” exercise. These exercises invite us to learn to listen to the stories of our neighbors, learn to listen, learn to hear, and use those stories to help us get to know the people with whom we come in contact.
Although the practices are especially geared towards immigrants and refugees, for many of us, in our hundreds-of-friends-on-social-media-but none-in-real-life society, we could use the exercises to get to know the people in our neighborhoods who do look and talk like us, and who do share that common culture.
As we run our race called life, we can all use the reminder that life on earth is practice for eternal life in heaven where according to the Apostle John, there was “ a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9. NIV
I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher.
5/5
January 4, 2019
According to the U.N. Refugee Agency website, around the world there are some 40 million internally displaced people, 25.4 million refugees, and 3.1 million asylum seekers. Those are staggering numbers, making the head swim with incredulous vertigo! How should Christians think of refugees, and what are we to do? On top of this, what are the ways to treat and respond to immigrants? Kent Annan, director of humanitarian and disaster leadership at Wheaton College’s Humanitarian Disaster Institute, cofounder of Haiti Partners, and author, makes a try at helping North American Christians navigate this condition in his new 144 page paperback "You Welcomed Me: Loving Refugees and Immigrants Because God First Loved Us". As the author declares, "In this book, I hope to inspire you with stories of refugees and immigrants and those who are involved with them. I hope to inform you with research, sacred text, and experiences. I hope for nothing less than seeing our - and other people's - lives changed along the way" (9).
Annan takes up the topic with zest from the get-go as he races through the subject, drawing in a plethora of illustrative stories from his own experience, and those he has gleaned from other sources. The author weaves in Scripture passages, many of which have historically been understood to refer to God's people caring for God's people, and universalizes them to incorporate all peoples as our brothers and sisters needing our concern. Further, the book is unburdened by interrupting footnotes or endnote references, so that it appears the author is simply rattling numbers and statistics off the top of his head. It's not until one gets to the notes after the appendix that you realize he's been drawing from other articles, op-eds and authors.
Where the book's strength lies is on three levels. It addresses the fears and rhetoric that fuels intense repulsion. Then it exposes the ways immigrants and refugees get dehumanized by us and in our perceptions. Thirdly, "You Welcomed Me" gives readers tangible suggestions on how to engage on behalf of the foreign-born (locally, nationally, and internationally). The author is even willing to challenge some of the "more-socially-just-than-thou" crowd: "Urbanites with lots of diversity around them probably do well to confess that they can be condescending to others who aren't in cities or churches as diverse as their own" (35).
How we interact with, and on behalf of, immigrants and refugees is an important subject. And it is a fiercely politicized issue. I appreciate Annan taking this topic on (something that is very personal to himself) and presenting his thoughts. Though I have some reservations toward the book, nevertheless it is helpful for slowing people down, shift their gears, and think through ways we can fairly and judiciously benefit displaced people. I circumspectly recommend the book.
My gratitude goes out to IVP for sending me the book at my request. I read this copy, marked it up, highlighted it, and then used it for this review. All of the comments are my honest opinion and freely given.
Annan takes up the topic with zest from the get-go as he races through the subject, drawing in a plethora of illustrative stories from his own experience, and those he has gleaned from other sources. The author weaves in Scripture passages, many of which have historically been understood to refer to God's people caring for God's people, and universalizes them to incorporate all peoples as our brothers and sisters needing our concern. Further, the book is unburdened by interrupting footnotes or endnote references, so that it appears the author is simply rattling numbers and statistics off the top of his head. It's not until one gets to the notes after the appendix that you realize he's been drawing from other articles, op-eds and authors.
Where the book's strength lies is on three levels. It addresses the fears and rhetoric that fuels intense repulsion. Then it exposes the ways immigrants and refugees get dehumanized by us and in our perceptions. Thirdly, "You Welcomed Me" gives readers tangible suggestions on how to engage on behalf of the foreign-born (locally, nationally, and internationally). The author is even willing to challenge some of the "more-socially-just-than-thou" crowd: "Urbanites with lots of diversity around them probably do well to confess that they can be condescending to others who aren't in cities or churches as diverse as their own" (35).
How we interact with, and on behalf of, immigrants and refugees is an important subject. And it is a fiercely politicized issue. I appreciate Annan taking this topic on (something that is very personal to himself) and presenting his thoughts. Though I have some reservations toward the book, nevertheless it is helpful for slowing people down, shift their gears, and think through ways we can fairly and judiciously benefit displaced people. I circumspectly recommend the book.
My gratitude goes out to IVP for sending me the book at my request. I read this copy, marked it up, highlighted it, and then used it for this review. All of the comments are my honest opinion and freely given.
March 17, 2019
Important reminder of the Christian’s responsibility to show empathy towards immigrants and refugees. While I agree with the premise of the book, I’m not sure it will convince those politically opposed to this idea. I enjoyed some of the author’s anecdotes. I would prefer a book either more focused on how to actually help (more than what is in the appendix) or a deeper, more extensive dive.
September 11, 2018
Having just finished the book, and on the verge of tears (though, if I am honest that was where I found myself throughout the book), I find myself reviewing this book.
Read this book if:
-You want to know more about how we should respond to immigrants and refugees as Christ followers.
-You want to understand how you can be a part of loving your neighbors better, especially those that are different from you.
-You are a person.
For real, Annan touches on something of a trigger topic in the United States right now. He presents biblical truth and aligns it with statistics that face some of the lies that we might sometimes fear about what allowing differences into our lives and nation. He also gives grace and mercy for those that struggle with living out the truth of God's call for us as believers in the face of the "truths" we believe laid out by our nationalism.
This book is a fairly quick read, page number wise, but don't let the moments pass you by as you consider the stories and equipping that Annan provides at the end of each chapter.
Well done.
I received an electronic copy of this book before publishing in exchange for my unbiased review. BUT don't let that make you believe for a second that I am not purchasing a physical copy of this book when it comes out to share with my community.
Read this book if:
-You want to know more about how we should respond to immigrants and refugees as Christ followers.
-You want to understand how you can be a part of loving your neighbors better, especially those that are different from you.
-You are a person.
For real, Annan touches on something of a trigger topic in the United States right now. He presents biblical truth and aligns it with statistics that face some of the lies that we might sometimes fear about what allowing differences into our lives and nation. He also gives grace and mercy for those that struggle with living out the truth of God's call for us as believers in the face of the "truths" we believe laid out by our nationalism.
This book is a fairly quick read, page number wise, but don't let the moments pass you by as you consider the stories and equipping that Annan provides at the end of each chapter.
Well done.
I received an electronic copy of this book before publishing in exchange for my unbiased review. BUT don't let that make you believe for a second that I am not purchasing a physical copy of this book when it comes out to share with my community.
December 14, 2018
Once again this weekend, I found myself at a loss for words watching the news. As refugee crises have continued to emerge around the world, from Syria and at the Mexico-USA border with Central Americans seeking refuge, my heart has increasingly ached for the families caught in the middle of the chaos.
.
I am sick unto death of sound clips, news snippets, and the endless cacophony of voices telling us “what we should do about it.”
.
I recently had the privilege of pre-reading Kent Annan’s book “You Welcomed Me,” a book addressing the refugee crisis through the lens of the Kingdom of God. It is a book for people of faith seeking to follow Jesus in the midst of loud voices on every side demanding allegiance. Unlike so much of the chaos I find blaring on various social media platforms, this book provides practical ways to engage the topic, the exercise sanctified imagination, and put feet and hands to work for good in the world.
.
Annan isn’t soft though. Based on a thorough reading of Scripture, Annan says unequivocally: “When we welcome refugees and immigrants, we welcome God.” This book would be such a fabulous tool for thoughtful, Christ-centered conversation among believers. If you are fatigued by the screaming and chaos, and long to have a thoroughly Christian perspective on the issue, this book is just what you need.
.
I am sick unto death of sound clips, news snippets, and the endless cacophony of voices telling us “what we should do about it.”
.
I recently had the privilege of pre-reading Kent Annan’s book “You Welcomed Me,” a book addressing the refugee crisis through the lens of the Kingdom of God. It is a book for people of faith seeking to follow Jesus in the midst of loud voices on every side demanding allegiance. Unlike so much of the chaos I find blaring on various social media platforms, this book provides practical ways to engage the topic, the exercise sanctified imagination, and put feet and hands to work for good in the world.
.
Annan isn’t soft though. Based on a thorough reading of Scripture, Annan says unequivocally: “When we welcome refugees and immigrants, we welcome God.” This book would be such a fabulous tool for thoughtful, Christ-centered conversation among believers. If you are fatigued by the screaming and chaos, and long to have a thoroughly Christian perspective on the issue, this book is just what you need.
January 13, 2019
I had the extreme privilege of reading Kent Annan's newest book before it was released as a member of his launch team. And while it took me a while to actually get it read, I am so glad I did.
As a missionary who lives on the Southern border, is learning to navigate a new culture and is constantly asked about how my work is affected by the border wall conversations, I am grateful for Kent's book on loving refugees and immigrants. He writes with a sensitive yet wise voice that has clearly taken time to research, understand and process the issue, as well as a number of years of working with refugees and immigrants around the world. He writes with facts, experiences and Scripture as his defense for the way we should love and welcome refugees and immigrants. He was clear and concise in his writing and gives anyone who is trying to figure out where exactly they land on the spectrum a great place to begin working through their thoughts, beliefs and actions.
Thank you, Kent, for writing this book and for allowing me to read it at such a time as this.
As a missionary who lives on the Southern border, is learning to navigate a new culture and is constantly asked about how my work is affected by the border wall conversations, I am grateful for Kent's book on loving refugees and immigrants. He writes with a sensitive yet wise voice that has clearly taken time to research, understand and process the issue, as well as a number of years of working with refugees and immigrants around the world. He writes with facts, experiences and Scripture as his defense for the way we should love and welcome refugees and immigrants. He was clear and concise in his writing and gives anyone who is trying to figure out where exactly they land on the spectrum a great place to begin working through their thoughts, beliefs and actions.
Thank you, Kent, for writing this book and for allowing me to read it at such a time as this.
December 10, 2018
About halfway through this book, Annan quotes a journalist saying, “Everyone…seems to have already made a decision on the ‘refugee question’.” This book will definitely appeal to Christians who desire a more sympathetic response, both in the church and through government policy, to immigrants and asylum-seekers. This short volume alternates between stories and statistics, not shying away from the difficulty of navigating a complicated immigration system, adjusting to a new culture, and dealing with trauma. Each chapter ends with practical steps for individual reflection and action, and the final chapter profiles organizations involved in refugee resettlement. So for those who have already decided to be welcoming, this book provides a solid theological rationale and ways to help. For those on the fence, this book provides questions for thoughtful discussion and plenty of compelling stories.
November 20, 2018
Beginning with the simple question about refugees and immigrants asked by his son, “Are we for them or against them?” Kent Annan leads the reader to answer this and much more in his new book “You Welcomed Me.” I tend to lean toward the ‘let them in and care for them’ attitude and find it challenging to counter arguments against migrants & refugees so I was pleased with how he counteracts the usual arguments. In sharing some personal stories he reminds us of the importance of getting to know people, to really hear their stories. This crisis is not going away and we need guidance in how to respond, whether or not we are followers of Christ. I highly recommend this book for those who want to move forward with love and compassion to help.
*I received an ARC of this book as part of the Launch Team. My review was not influenced by this participation.
*I received an ARC of this book as part of the Launch Team. My review was not influenced by this participation.
November 20, 2018
What bravery it took Kent to write on such a heated topic.
In a world of intolerance, fear and misleading governmental rhetoric, Kent brings in the parable of the Good Samaritan and other supporting biblical doctrinal approaches that welcomes the immigrant, refugee and those in search of a better life of peace and advancement. The law of Christ is truly bearing the burden of others (Galatians 6:2).
My prayer is that this author’s burden, which is actually the burden of Christ, become the burden of all those who claim to be Evangelicals/Christian.
I particularly enjoyed the quotes of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Get your copy today and spread the good news of opening your heart to the stranger and those who look view differ from you.
You can get your copy on the release date, which is November 27th! Where ever books are sold!
#launchteam
#kentannan
#youwelcomedme
In a world of intolerance, fear and misleading governmental rhetoric, Kent brings in the parable of the Good Samaritan and other supporting biblical doctrinal approaches that welcomes the immigrant, refugee and those in search of a better life of peace and advancement. The law of Christ is truly bearing the burden of others (Galatians 6:2).
My prayer is that this author’s burden, which is actually the burden of Christ, become the burden of all those who claim to be Evangelicals/Christian.
I particularly enjoyed the quotes of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Get your copy today and spread the good news of opening your heart to the stranger and those who look view differ from you.
You can get your copy on the release date, which is November 27th! Where ever books are sold!
#launchteam
#kentannan
#youwelcomedme
November 29, 2018
I recently read this book as a member of the launch team. I was truly excited to read a book that would challenge Christians to consider our relationship with the refugee population in our world. I was particularly interested in the reflections of Kent Annan because of his immense experience working with this population. In spite of my interest, the book began slow. In spite of the rough opening, I found the writing grew on me and by the end I appreciated the steps through which Annan guided me, as the reader, to grow my heart for the refugee.
This book would be very helpful in guiding a group discussion about refugees or leading a congregational response to our growing refugee crisis as it grows at our border. For those seeking to respond to current events, this would be a helpful guide. The practices make this an engaging book for conversation and for spiritual growth.
This book would be very helpful in guiding a group discussion about refugees or leading a congregational response to our growing refugee crisis as it grows at our border. For those seeking to respond to current events, this would be a helpful guide. The practices make this an engaging book for conversation and for spiritual growth.
November 29, 2018
With exceptional clarity, passion, and breadth, Annan writes to engage readers across a broad spectrum of theological, political, and geographical commitments. I appreciate how he takes seriously the real concerns that people have regarding immigration and the migrant crisis: there are few voices publicly advocating for anything between open borders and building a wall, and this is a refreshing voice speaking to people within that vast middle ground.
Annan is also skilled at deeply engaging the emotional and the practical concerns people bring to this an other complex social issues. His chapter on knowing and telling our own stories of migration is particularly compelling.
I recommend this book to anyone seeking clear, practical, faithful analysis of how Christian faith can and must inform the conversation and practice of responding to the global migration crisis.
Annan is also skilled at deeply engaging the emotional and the practical concerns people bring to this an other complex social issues. His chapter on knowing and telling our own stories of migration is particularly compelling.
I recommend this book to anyone seeking clear, practical, faithful analysis of how Christian faith can and must inform the conversation and practice of responding to the global migration crisis.
November 14, 2018
Liked this book. It is very thought and prayer provoking and encourages the reader to examine their views on refugee’s and immigration. You Welcomed Me is written based on biblical text and the writers personal experiences interacting with refugees. I think this book should be read by all ministers of every religion. Churches can be very supporting of refugees and welcome them into our country. You Welcomed Me gives reassurance to those that are shy and a bit afraid to assist new refugees to our Land of the Free. It is worth the bit of time to read this thought changing and encouraging book.
November 21, 2018
In a world flooded with opinions regarding refugees, this book is a refreshing change of pace. It is a healthy dose of perspective for those who are Christians. It offers a Biblical perspective on immigration and refugees.
Kent wrote with bravery on a topic that is often heated and very controversial. I have struggled with my views on where to stand on the refugee issue, and this book offered me great insight that helped me decide where I stand on this issue.
Kent wrote with bravery on a topic that is often heated and very controversial. I have struggled with my views on where to stand on the refugee issue, and this book offered me great insight that helped me decide where I stand on this issue.
November 28, 2018
Kent Annan created this work to provide a framework for discussing refugees and immigrants. He utilizes data to explain the realities of immigration in the United States, as well as Scripture to support a Christian response of welcoming. You Welcomed Me is a good resource for discussion groups of all ages and church backgrounds. Supplemental material is available online to facilitate exploration of the refugee crisis.
December 7, 2018
Excellent book. A must read for all Christians. Easy to read. Biblically based. Great stories. Honestly deals with the Biblical basis for welcoming refugees and immigrants. Doesn't stay away from the challenges of being welcoming. Addresses them head on. Gives practical suggestions as to how we can be like Jesus and welcome the foreigner.
December 28, 2018
Read this book over the advent season and it gave heightened meaning to Christmas. It’s a welcoming read to those on the fence, trying to marry heart of compassion with rule of law and faith. It’s personal, digestible and practical. Multiple true stories woven throughout brought me to tears. Highly recommend!
January 22, 2019
Excellent book! Kent Annan does a phenomenal job helping the reader start their journey from a place of empathy instead of from political ideals. He then takes the reader to a place of practical response keeping the book from being simply an emotional appeal. I highly suggest this book to anyone curious about how they should respond to immigrants from a Christ follower's perspective.
January 30, 2019
Fairly well written argument for our duty and privilege to welcome and serve immigrants. It presented facts and stories that are compelling. Unfortunately, I did not find it the most interesting or gripping because I already agreed with the premise of this book. None of this was earth shattering to me. Good book for those who disagree with the premise, less so for those who already agree.
April 17, 2019
I enjoyed this book! It was a good balance of informational and persuasive. The author wants to move the readers closer to helping immigrants and refugees. He offers good arguments to do so. I least enjoyed his talk about his children. I most enjoyed his giving a two-sided argument, which refuted (partially) reader arguments about the dangerousness of immigrants.
December 10, 2018
With everything going on in the U.S. about refugees etc., this book is a great wake up call for me. It has opened my eyes on how we need to be more compassionate toward refugees, and God loves them and welcomes them as well. Great book!!!
December 19, 2018
As someone who works with refugees I wish everyone would read this book. It's practical, straightforward, and powerful. When people ask me why I do what I do I will be referring them to this book from now on.
January 21, 2019
I appreciate the way this book confronts fear and Biblically casts it out. Kent Annan shows us how to welcome the immigrants and refugees in our communities because Jesus first loved us. The practice steps at the end of each chapter are particularly helpful.
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