The other week, Ros and I had to make a trip down to Bournemouth. Unexpected delays and complications set in on what we had expected to be a straightforward day, and we were left scrabbling around for overnight accommodation without all the usual necessities of life, including sufficient medication. In the grand scheme of things this would barely register a mention, but with two lively young dogs in tow (our own and Dominic’s), and an unfamiliar bed, it was an unsettling experience, and I found myself awake for some hours during the night.

It is always good give the Lord even our smallest discomforts, and He and we together can usually find ways to turn such things into times of prayer for those who are experiencing real suffering. Like many of us, I had been affected by the sight of Venezuelan nationals – gangsters and innocents alike – being carted off to the hell-hole of a mega-prison in El Salvador. What hope have they now of legal representation, let alone release?

With powerful voices in America suggesting that there are too many of these people to make it worthwhile applying due process and investigating individual circumstances before deporting them, I was reminded of the seven million Venezuelans who have fled their homeland since the installation of that nation’s present extreme left-wing ruler. Hundreds of thousands have arrived in the US, no doubt all in a mix of hope and prayer mingled with desperation in their hearts.

As a result of these latest US measures, many are now afraid to go out on the streets, even if they have become nationalised Americans, believing that the rule of law will not only fail to protect them but will actually rush to deport them without trial or charge, like some modern-day pressgang.

Meanwhile, in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele likes to think of himself as the world’s coolest dictator. He has undoubtedly had considerable success in reducing the amount of violent crime in the country through his strong and very necessary crackdown on criminal gangs. But his success has come at the expense of numerous people who are in no way criminal being swept up in the wave of arrests. The nation at large seems prepared to accept the compromise – but that will be of cold comfort to those imprisoned.

To return to our Bournemouth adventure, later the next morning, the Lord brought resolution concerning the bizarre impediments that we had been facing. But I was freshly alert to the vulnerability of those who come up against administrative and political blocks. With the threat of even those legitimately taking part in protests being deported, it is a good time to ask the Lord to guide and protect each person who faces the imminent collapse of their dreams, and who find themselves obliged to return to their original communities, especially those who prayed long and hard to get to get to America in the first place.

My heart went out, too, to the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken to Russia, where they are growing up in an environment hostile to their homeland, language, and culture, and are being deliberately ‘Russified,’ with a view to them being conscripted to fight against their motherland when they are old enough.

While President Trump sought to reassure his Ukrainian counterpart that he is concerned for these children, his administration has actually defunded and halted the program that was committed to helping them.

Imagine how we would feel if it were our children who had been removed from their families! Do keep praying for these Ukrainian children in Russia, and for all who are being deported. We sent out a prayer song last year for these children; this would be a good time to pray it again.

‘What does the Bible say about Migration?’

In an in-depth and balanced article of that name, Dr Strine reminds us that,

‘The central figure of Christianity lived as a marginal, mobile person, mixing frequently and openly with so-called outsiders. Jesus of Nazareth’s lifestyle resembles the perennial movements and cultural marginalization so common among the Roma instead of a settled lifestyle common among those empowered to make judgments about how to treat them.’

His nuanced overview of the topic highlights the complexity of these issues. Calling (and treating) even illegal migrants as ‘animals’ and ‘not humans,’ as Donald Trump does is to fail to recognise their dignity as human beings made in the image of God. Rabbi Baron Jonathan Sacks noted that on only one occasion does the Hebrew Bible command us to love our neighbour – but there are thirty-seven occasions on which we are commanded to love and care for the stranger!

As the Lord decrees in Leviticus:

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19.33-34, ESV)

Almost every one of the prophets repeats this theme throughout, and Jesus, who had lived as a refugee child in Egypt, may well be alluding to this too when He speaks of the King saying to those on his right,

‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me . . . For truly I tell you, that whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ (Matt. 25:34-40)

Familiar though we are with Jesus’ parable about the ‘good Samaritan,’ it is easy to forget just what a radical image Jesus was offering His thoroughly Jewish audience of their much looked-down on northern neighbours. If we are willing to ask the Lord expand the lens of our vision, and to expand the wells of compassion within our hearts, will we not in all probability feel the Spirit stirring within us to cry out to the Lord for His leading and protection for so many who find themselves caught up in this wave of repression, and for all the fear that accompanies it, that is sweeping now through America?

Let’s use the words of the Anglican Morning service to pray for all who have been removed by force or circumstance, and who find themselves outsiders. Pray especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ, as Paul urges us to do. (Eph. 6:18)

O God, make speed to save them.
O Lord, make haste to help them.
We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants,
whom Thou has redeemed with Thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting.
Oh Lord, show thy mercy upon them,
and grant them Thy salvation.
O Lord, save Thy people
and bless Thine inheritance.
O God, make clean their hearts within them.
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from them.

Here are a couple of prayer casts that will help us to identify in this wider way with those who are outsiders from society, and to pray for the Lord’s shaping and mercy.
Pray for those in prison.
Pray for Venezuela.

Photo by Jose Francisco Morales on Unsplash