In case you have not heard, I have finally received a volunteer visa to Brazil, which means as of JAN 2017, I will no longer need to spend 6 months of each year in the USA. This is a huge victory since visas of this sort are difficult to get. I am very excited to make Recife my home instead of living between countries as I have been since 2011. Every year I think the transition back and forth will get easier, and it does in a way. Navigating the dichotomy between North and South America is starting to feel more natural and less like whiplash. It is comforting to know that our brother, Christ, underwent a similar transition. Jesus said had nowhere to rest his head, even while surrounded by family. His home culture was also in another kingdom – heaven – and he was born to bring that culture to earth. I love culture. It is the collective mindset of a people group, outwardly manifest through their customs, behaviors, beliefs, art etc. Culture has fascinated me from a very young age and living overseas has greatly opened my eyes to a reality far outside a national perspective. Every society personifies aspects of God’s personality that others do not. We are a body made of many parts. You see a unique expression of God in Asia, and an equally important face of God in Ireland, in Africa, in Philadelphia. Just like individuals have strengths and weaknesses, so do cultures. We need each other and in our differences we also refine each other. In the clash of mindsets and brilliance of new ideas the church is molded into a people that embody the kingdom of heaven more fully. That is why we send missionaries overseas and receive them on our shores. That is why even Old Testament law taught people to care for the aliens and foreigners among them. I have given care to the marginalized stateside and it still undoes me to be received as family into Brazil. Parts of my cultural identity fall away daily, and other parts are strengthened as I discern what is truly important. I no longer fit into either nation and wouldn’t want to! We are all aliens on this earth and have the honor of representing a kingdom that knows no boundaries.
As the plaque at the base of the statue of liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”