A unique opportunity

I'm in Phoenix right now at the home of some very close friends. In less than three hours I'll be speaking at a local church here that houses a small church made up of refugees from a country in Southeast Asia. The vast majority of these precious people have spent at least the last 10 to 15 years or more living in refugee camps inside Thailand--and now they live in America!

I've spent time with many of the Karen people in the largest of those refugee camps in Thailand and there is a possibility that I may be given the blessing of actually meeting some of the ones I met over there. It's incredibily surreal.

Since I discovered a few days ago that I would have this opportunity, I've been begging the Lord for just the right words from Him to share with them. Having factored in some of the huge challenges they are facing with their transition to life in this country and the reality that they may be here the rest of their lives, I've concluded that He would have me speak to them from that letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote to his own people who had been taken from their land and were then living in exile in a very foreign and strange country.

One of the verses from God's word that is commonly used as a word of encouragement is Jeremiah 29:11, (check it out.) That particular verse is actually just a portion of the letter that I mentioned above. I'm going to share with my Karen brothers and sisters what Jeremiah had written to these people regarding the attitude they should have, what they should be doing, and what they should be seeking and praying for as they were forced to adjust to life in a place that they never dreamed they'd be living in. The world has come up with a summary phrase for what Jeremiah instructs them to do: "Bloom where you're planted."

If the world gets the concept and the Word of God certainly teaches the concept, have we gotten a handle on it yet? Just wondering.

Blessings,

Jeff