Jack’s Winning Words 8/9/18
“I don’t believe that there are aliens.  I believe that there are really different people.”  (Orson Scott Card)  What’s your favorite…Independence Day or E.T.?    Personally, I like the friendly alien, the stranger who turns out to be one who makes life more interesting for me.  Some of my best friends were once aliens…different (religion, nationality, color), and I was different to them.  Think back over the past year.  Have you made any alien friends?   ;-)  Jack

FROM WALMART REV:  1500 Somali I’m told now live in Willmar, MN and making a home here. Somewhere around a dozen young folk are now working at our local Walmart...I’ve learned four different words of greeting now and use them everyday and time I meet one of them...usually having one of those words responding back to me with a smile and appreciation for the greeting. 0;-) ===JACK:  It's surprising to me...how many Somali refugees have come to Minnesota and have found jobs there.  How did it happen that your state became the place for them?  And, secondly, I believe that most of them are Muslim, right?  Do they have "church-like" gatherings, or overtly practice their faith?  I'm proud that someone like you bothers to learn a greeting in languages other than your own.  Yours is a great ministry!===REV:  The state government must have had something to do with inviting them here...something similar a few years ago with the Mong population in Minneapolis...Willmar has attracted many of them because of the turkey industry (processing plants for Jenni-O and Willmar Poultry)...several local Somali businesses catering to their own needs have developed as well....all Muslims and following the dress code, especially with the women. Interesting dynamic among us to say the least.===JACK:  Is prejudice against them widespread?  Have any  found their way into churches?  Do any of them stop by your table at Walmart?  Just wondering. ===REV:  More prejudices with the older Willmarites as there was with the influx of the Hispanics coming from Texas as south of the border to work the fields and poultry jobs...they were mostly seasonal until they found the government social programs more to their liking than those of Texas.
Some Somali work with a special needs business and find themselves sitting out in the church foyer while their consumer is in the service...I’ll tell them “You and I have something in common?” They always look surprised, and I follow up with, “We both get paid to be here!”  I have many Somali friends at Walmart and around town for that matter. 0;-)===JACK:  Somehow, I'm not surprised by your answers.  You're a good one!

FROM BS IN ENGLAND:  Not only over the past year but over forty years your alien friend.
I truly am an alien as I  carry an alien registration  card!  The little ones at school loved it when I  told them that I  was an alien!!===JACK:  Rather than fear the aliens (immigrants), we should embrace the fact that we have much to learn from them.  I think back to what my immigrant relatives contributed to America.  Think back, too, to what America has gained in culture (religion and music) from the reluctant immigrants, the slaves.  I have certainly learned to appreciate the "culture" of England because of you.  If "little green people" were suddenly to come to earth from outer space... istead of receiving them with fear, we should look upon them as an opportunity for learning.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  ET was a heartwarming movie/story!  We had foreign students or
International visitors from the Chicago Area, one weekend every year, for many years, and young kids from the ghetto who came for a week or two in the summer; one set of brothers (2) came
three years in a row, and we became quite close with that family in Chicago when we served the Dixon church.  Our boys learned first-hand about prejudice when these boys accompanied them
or our family on outings!  As I've said before Traveling the world is a first hand experience with "Aliens" and leads to empathy and understanding of the sameness and the differences among us!  ===JACK:  ...and you were aliens to those Chicago boys.  We are aliens to each other until we get to know each.  Christ is even an alien to us until we come to know Him.  But not so in reverse.  I like the words from Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born."  Though they applied to the prophet, they apply also to each of God's creation.

FROM LK IN NI:  Not just in the past year.   My entire life===JACK:  A newspaper headline declared today that "There are aliens to be found in Ferndale."  How about that?