MISSION BITES

and confirming family information that would help us determine their eligibility to renew their status.

The filing process was relatively short, and each family member’s application was sent to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for a decision. Happily, each family member’s renewal application was approved by USCIS quickly, within a matter of months.

God at work!

Fast forward to 2023. As a program director I’ve sought to enlarge our current staff and expand our program’s capacity by hiring a Department of Justice accredited representative. After requesting prayer about this need in our quarterly e-newsletter, Jeanne Anderson at Fredericksburg Baptist Church contacted me. “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 is a refugee,” she said. “Her name is Fainas.”

Last year, we visited a village to install solar lighting at the church. When following up last fall, we learned that the village had several existing water wells. There were a few broken generators around the village, but even when the generators were working, the cost of fuel was too high. With no electricity to pump the water up from 200 feet below, many families spent most of their meager income to buy water each month. In January, we returned to this village, five islands and a couple of flights away from our own, to provide enough solar generated electricity to run the village pump. Now, 38 families have access to free water.

Brooke and Mike serve as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in Southeast Asia.

God At Work

By Greg Smith

Shortly after LUCHA Ministries launched our immigration legal services program in 2016, a Burundian refugee family came to us. She was requesting help to renew their Lawful Permanent Residence status—more often informally called Green Cards.

Along with the family’s father and mother were their children, one of whom was named Fainas. Her siblings sat quietly around our conference room table as we spoke mostly with her parents, answering questions

At first, I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. Quickly enough I realized that 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 at work! Thanks be to God.

Greg Smith serves as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel through LUCHA Ministries in Fredericksburg, Va.

DOUBLE, NOT HALF

By Carson Foushee

Last fall, my daughter and I were at a festival near our home when “Yoshi,” a Japanese college student, approached me and spoke to me in English. This is actually a very rare occurrence as we almost always speak with local people in Japanese. Yoshi, a native of Kanazawa, was intrigued that our family lived in Kanazawa since there are not many internationals in our city. He shared that he is studying both English and German at a university in Tokyo focused on foreign languages and was happy to be able to speak English with an international in his city.

positive aspects of possessing multiple nationalities. It seems so simple, but this kind of language matters and has the power to help others to see the beauty of the diversity of their neighbors.

Yoshi and I have continued to send text messages to each other after his return to Tokyo. While I help him to navigate the difficulties he faces with his multinational background, I try to help him understand that his identity is not in who others say he is nor is it from the names of the nations printed on the passports he carries. He is above all a beloved child of God. He is enough because God has made him in God’s image. It’s a reminder that I hope we all carry as we journey together in faith and recognize the beauty of the diversity given to us by our Creator.

Carson and Laura Foushee serve as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in Kanazawa, Japan.

Hearing In A Heart Language

By Mary VanRheenen

Yoshi and I shared contact information so that we could meet up the next time he was back home. I hoped to be able to take him to a cafe run by a German friend so Yoshi could practice German.

The next time we met, we enjoyed breakfast at the cafe, named Gemutlich or “comfortable” in German, which was a good description of our time together. The conversation covered a range of topics, but identity was a central theme. Yoshi’s father is Japanese and his mother is Chinese. In Japan, this makes him “half,” which is a term used for individuals with one Japanese parent and one of another nationality. Sadly, there is often a negative perception of “half” citizens in Japan. In 2015, the winner crowned Miss Universe Japan was “half” as her mother is Japanese and father is African-American. Critics felt she didn’t fit the traditional Japanese image to represent the nation, and the internet trolling was cruel. This kind of discrimination is common among “half” people in Japan and leads to identity crises as these individuals are forced to make decisions about their behavior to avoid the potential judgment of others in their communities.

Yoshi has felt this kind of discrimination throughout his life both in Japan and China. This is especially difficult since the two nations his parents come from have a history of conflict. He was even bullied by a teacher as an elementary student in China regarding the Japanese oppression of the Chinese during World War II. He has done his best to manage this struggle, sometimes by simply hiding characteristics and talents that make him different than his peers.

I shared with Yoshi that a Japanese pastor in the city of Kobe, married to an American, told me that rather than use the term “half,” his family says their children are “double.” Their family focuses on the

She was our waitress at a restaurant in a small town in Germany. Keith and I were on vacation in a picturesque area about five hour’s drive from our home in the Netherlands. This friendly young woman was answering questions about items on the menu. In addition to traditional local fare, there were some Polish-inspired dishes. Her family ran the restaurant, and her mother originally came from Poland. We chatted about that. Some years ago, Keith and I had worked for two months in Poland, so this led to a friendly exchange. She told us that on Christmas Eve, her father read the Christmas story out loud in German (again, following local tradition), but her mother still insisted on reading it in Polish, too. After we’d enjoyed a really good meal, Keith showed her what we had been doing in Poland: recording a new Polish translation of the entire New Testament, available online or as an App. She listened to a snippet from Matthew with glowing eyes. “My mother will love this!” We pray hearing the Word in her heart language had as much impact on the rest of the family as it did on this young woman.

Mary VanRheenen & Keith Holmes serve as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in Europe.