I wrote my book, Loving the Stranger: Welcoming Immigrants in the Name of Jesus, as the outflow of several years of ministry welcoming immigrants in the US. It was published right before I moved to Ethiopia, where my husband is from, for a few years. When we moved there, many things that I theoretically understood about the immigrant experience suddenly became viscerally real in my life as I struggled with culture shock, homesickness, language learning, cross-cultural communication, and creating a new normal as a stranger in a strange land. Those years have made me even more committed to sharing the message that God loves strangers, and we should do, both to be a blessing and to experience blessing ourselves.
When I think about being part of helping immigrants thrive, I think about building a house. A house needs a foundation first and foremost. The foundation of this house, this house of thriving for immigrants, is RELATIONSHIPS.
It is through relationships with safe individuals that I like to call bridge people that immigrants become able to thrive in a new culture. Bridge people are people who prove themselves to be “safe” by being sincerely interested in a person from another culture and who are ready to help them in any way they can (whether with language, local knowledge, or simple friendship), become a bridge for that immigrant to connect confidently with the wider society.
Bridge people don’t offer anything special. Just accepting hearts, listening ears, and a willingness to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and ask questions in order to understand. We need more American Christians to be bridge people.
If you want to become a bridge person, read this book to find out how. If you want your church group or small group or ministry group to become bridge people together, becoming a collective bridge for many immigrants in your community, read this book together, using the discussion questions in the back.
And after you read the book, come on over to lovingthestrangerblog.com where we continue the conversation. I’d love to be in touch! Thanks for watching!