| Mari Florence was faithful to
God, and God was faithful to Mari Florence, but she had to help
her pastor see that this was true. When she was unsuccessful selling
in the streets, she obtained a job as a live-in maid. However
her employers treated her like an animal, and as an illegal immigrant
she had no legal recourse. When she was in the midst of the process
to become legal, the immigration law changed and the process was
paralyzed. In the end, her money ran out, and her extended family,
asked her to return home.
Where was God for this faithful sister in Christ? This was my
question, not hers, as she assured me that God was right by her
side! I discovered this when I invited her to my home for lunch
the day before she left Spain. “God will be with you,”
I said in a vain attempt to console a woman who needed no consolation.
In fact, she responded to me with great conviction, as if surprised
by the tinge of doubt in my voice, delivering a little sermon
that did me quite a bit of good: “What happened to Abraham
and Sarah? God promised them a son and God gave them a son. Nothing
is impossible for God! And is he not the same God today? What
happened to Hagar in the desert when her son was dying of thirst?
God gave her a fountain. Nothing is impossible for God! And is
he not the same God today?” With example after example,
Mari Florence reiterated to me that despite all appearances, God
had not abandoned her nor turned a deaf ear to her cries.
As others have written, and as to me it has become apparent,
the question of how God can be all-good and all-powerful and still
allow suffering to exist is a question more often planted by the
privileged, or by agnostics who use it to avoid commitment. Poor
and oppressed Christians know that prosperity is not divine payment
for human faithfulness, nor poverty evidence of divine punishment
or neglect. Too often, rather, poverty is the result of the human
corruption and structural injustice from which God desires to
set us free.
Also, contrary to the opinion of Marx, the faith of immigrants
like Mari Florence is not an opiate to keep them content with
their situations. Rather, it is a source of strength in their
struggle to provide for their families and a source of the hope
that causes them to immigrate. I am thankful that most of our
foreign church members meet with more outward success than Mari
Florence did, but I am also convinced that nothing is impossible
for the God who surely continues to uphold my Haitian sister in
Christ. Please pray for her and for our ministry with the immigrants
who worship and serve with us at the Iglesia de Cristo.
Rev. Melanie Grace Mitchell
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
183 |
