recent thoughts..

I have recently become fascinated with the immigration policies in the U.S. For those of you who know me well, you understand how I would love to use my education and experience to better assist the immigration population. I have a great amount of respect and appreciation for the organization I volunteered with for a year, C.L.U.E.S (www.clues.org) which has multiple resources for the latino community of the twin cities to utilize like a free clinic, job training, english courses, and legal advice. Beyond, that our nation is awaiting Immigration Reform which Obama had promised, there is much to be studided. As Barack is slow to move the nation grows weary...200,000 immigrants marched in D.C. this month hoping to see change, quoting "si, se puede" yes, we can! As some states take matters in their own hands...such as Arizona who has been deporting immigrants by the thousands. Today I read an update on a blog which I follow and realized just how serious is this matter, "Let me be clear. What we do to and with undocumented immigrants – the strangers in our midst – is a moral issue, a religious issue, a biblical issue. As Jesus said in Matthew 25, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me … just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Now, more than ever, we must boldly declare that it is time to address the brokenness of our federal laws by enacting comprehensive immigration reform so that all people are treated with respect and dignity. It’s time that all of us work together – in Arizona, Washington, DC, and beyond – to build and shape our nation into a place of welcome, of justice, and a place we can all be proud to call home.
Let us create one of the most powerful movements of prayer for compassion and justice that this nation has ever seen, one which will bring winds of change to Washington, DC, and lay the foundation for fair and just immigration reform. Because loving your neighbor should never be against the law. And if a law of the state makes Christian compassion illegal, know that Christians will disobey that law."

this is heavy on my heart. and though, there is little I can do...I am going to pray. In my four years of studying culture, in my adventures around the world, and the close relationships I have developed with foreigners...I realize those of another culture are extremely misunderstood and incredibly underestimated, not poor and unskilled as assumed. As I, myself, am living as a foreigner in another country, I simpathize with the incredible torment of being in a place you must be, be it for financial reasons, job experience, or educational purposes, where the people look/treat you differently and respect is not a luxury, far from your home country which welcomes you with open arms. "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners for you yourselves were once foreigners" Deuteronomy 11:17-19

*this is but one of the many thoughts which crosses my mind on a daily basis. more to come....*