The question has come up before about the government's timing in bringing refugees to the US in the midst of an ecomomic calamity. I think it's a good question and as Christians in America, we can have a good response. I have very limited knowledge of our country's immigration policy, but I have learned a few things:
1) Only 1% of those in the world who live in refugee camps, who number in the millions, have the opportunity to take part in "third country resettlement" (they left their own country, are in a camp in a second country, and we are their third country). ONE PERCENT.
2) The wheels of progress moving someone like Tika Acharya from Nepal to Phoenix have been turning for years. The resettlement efforts started well before American greed poked a giant hole in the world economy.
3) It is our both our heritage as Americans who for the most part come from immigrant families (the exception being Native Americans) and our legacy that we build for our own children to believe that we are a welcoming nation. The Statue of Liberty is for all of us, including newly arriving refugees and other immigrants.
4) Federal policy exists, which also was established well before the recession, that dictates how many immigrants from how many countries are welcomed into the US each year. Refugees are not immigrants, as refugees have no choice and their very lives are at risk.
5) The most important reason we can hold as part of our Christian world view is that our God is beyond politics, economics and boundaries of nations. God is not part of American protectionism, Bhutanese "one country, one people" policy, or any other man-centered policy. God acts to bring people where He wants them, when He wants, by whatever means He wants to use. God does not seek permission from Arizona politicians, US congressmen, or from us. If we can hold a Christian world view over and above an American world view, then that allows us to rejoice that God has designed it that we only have to drive a few miles to have the privilege of being missionaries and we don't have to raise support, or leave our homes and families. Most importantly, people are hearing the Gospel of Truth and Liberty and Light, and are being called out of bondage and darkness. I don't claim to know God's purposes or His mind, but scripture reveals that God moves as God desires, and we get the privilege of being a part of His far reaching love for people.

Acts 17:24-27 NIV
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."




I can see God's hand in our work at TBC, and see that eternity is being impacted here. It's a privilege to see it happening in all of you and your relationships and efforts with our Bhutanese friends. Thanks for being faithful.

Carla