God at Work

Shortly after LUCHA Ministries began our immigration legal services program in 2016, a Burundian refugee family came to us requesting our help to renew their Lawful Permanent Residence status, or as the process is more often informally called, the renewal of their Green Cards.

Along with the family’s father and mother were their children, one of whom was named Fainas who along with her siblings sat quietly around our office table as we spoke mostly with her parents answering questions and confirming family information that would help us determine their eligibility to renew their status.

The filing process was relatively short, consisting of only a couple of face-to-face meetings before each member signed their own separate application which we then sent to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for a decision. Happily, each family member’s renewal application was approved quickly by USCIS, within a matter of months. God at work!

Fast forward to 2023. Since last year, as program director I’ve sought to enlarge our current staff and expand our program’s capacity in light of future need.

After including a blog post last December in our quarterly e-newsletter requesting prayer to find someone to become a Department of Justice accredited representative like I had been – halfway believing finding such a person was virtually impossible – Jeanne Anderson at Fredericksburg Baptist Church contacted me and said, “I think I’ve found the perfect person to apply to work with your legal services team assisting immigration clients. I’ve known her for almost her entire life. She’s young, smart and highly driven to serve the refugee and immigrant communities now so she can prepare herself to become an immigration attorney. And can you believe it, she came to the US as a refugee. Her name is Fainas.”

At first, I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. And then, quickly enough I realized, this is God at work! This is God providing a way, not just for the future viability and capacity of our program, but much more importantly this is God providing for the immigrant and refugee community.

God is a God of welcome, a God who demonstrates that the Spirit never stops working to extend welcome and care to the most vulnerable, even working in the hearts, minds and passions of the children of refugees, asylees and others. Immigrant children are themselves becoming the love and welcome of God for our neighbors in the immigrant community.

How can I be so sure God is raising up immigrant children to love the immigrant stranger? I am sure because our current Department of Justice accredited representative, Melani, is herself the daughter of a Salvadoran mother and Mexican father, who came to us three years ago and told us that her deepest desire was to work alongside Bill, our volunteer immigration attorney, and me while finishing her college education on her way to studying law and becoming an immigration lawyer.

Similar story. God at work!

Jesus, himself a refugee and the child of refugees, clearly and unequivocally tells his followers that we must welcome the stranger, that is, the immigrant, refugee and asylee. I’m grateful to serve in partnership with our friends and supporters like many of you reading this post, as well as alongside our encourager churches Fredericksburg (VA) Baptist Church, River Road Church, Baptist (Richmond, VA) and Orange (VA) Baptist Church, in fulfillment of this call on my life.

But Jesus is clearly not calling people who only look like me. Christ is calling and raising up many others, including the daughters and sons of immigrant parents, to become God’s welcoming and helping presence. God at work!

Thanks be to God.