Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Cutting Waste And Working Wonders

Worship God. Use money to please Him. God is for immigrants and other people. Deuteronomy 10:17-20 Amplified Bible says, "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the terrible God, Who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger and sojourner, for you were strangers and sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall [reverently] fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and by His name and presence you shall swear."

Satan, the enemy of God and all people, gets some people to use money to please Satan by doing evil. Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote a June 2013 article for the Huffington Post explaining that the Chinese government uses money to pressure people to do its evil will and that it is likely that New York University was subjected to this pressure. Tutu writes, "The university's public relations people say they are not responding to pressure in letting Chen go. Their statements are well worked out. However, the Chinese government's actions have been fairly consistent with businesses or allied countries who fail to do their bidding when it comes to voices they do not approve of. They have squeezed companies financially, dropped contracts, and in other ways have repeatedly threatened and punished those "business partners" who fail to tow the line. When the Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo, one of China's responses was to strangle the Norwegian fishing industry, cutting their fish imports by 60%. In my own country in 2011, Chinese pressure on the South African government resulted in His Holiness the Dalai Lama being denied a visa to attend my 80th birthday party. They have gone so far as to have Chinese embassies contact film festivals and request that films critical of China be pulled from the festival. And they have rewarded those influential individuals who do their bidding handsomely."

New York University can still do good by reinstating Chen Guangcheng. Chen Guangcheng is a lawyer, human rights activist, blind and speaks Chinese. In 2005 he filed a class-action lawsuit against Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations. China put him in jail. Then in house arrest. Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest and became a US immigrant along with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children, Chen Kerui and Chen Kesi.

It's good for America to know about evil in other countries and those who are fighting against it. Helping these fighters to be successful helps to end evil in China and other countries.

We need many good fighters. Some of the evil in China is in America. Elaine Riddick was raped at 13. Then North Carolina state forcibly sterilized her. The sterilization was legal according to a 1933 law that allowed government workers to forcibly sterilize people deemed 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' In the United States more than 60,000 people have been forcibly sterilized. Gianna Jessen was born with cerebral palsy due to an attempted abortion. Jessen survived the abortion. However, since 1973 more than 55 million girls and boys have been killed by abortion.

New York University should go out of it's way to help Chen Guangcheng.

America shouldn't help terrorists and criminals. On April 9, 2013, Chen Guangcheng provided Congress with a list of 44 Chinese officials who have been persecuting his family and recommended that they be investigated and denied US immigration based on crimes committed. Congressman Chris Smith made the same recommendation in a July 29, 2013, letter to Secretary of State John Kerry which also included a request that Secretary Kerry meet with or contact Chen Guangcheng to learn about the human rights situation in China. 

America should help freedom fighters and immigrants. Recently, an African American woman asked if I needed a green card. I was born an American citizen. English was a foreign language to me then, but now I am fluent. I also did not pay a dime to become a citizen.

At one tragic time in American history African Americans who were free had to carry on themselves emancipation papers explaining how they obtained their freedom.

Wouldn't it please God to end abortion and forced sterilization? Wouldn't it please God to welcome immigrants offering them citizenship and to cut government waste like green cards? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Open Your Heart To God, The Unborn, Immigrants And Others

Out of our relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit our relationship with self improves and if we have a spouse our relationship with our spouse improves. Improvement is not automatic. God gives His creyentes (believers) His Holy Spirit to live inside of us giving us power to improve, but we can choose not to use God's power which angers and grieves God. 2 Corinthians 3:18 Amplified Bible says, "And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."

If we don't read God's Bible and live it, our relationships will not improve. Another name for God the Son Jesus Christ is the Word. God never meant for us to just have relationships with Him, ourselves and our spouse. God wants is to have many high quality relationships. Luke 10:25-28 Complete Jewish Bible says, "An expert in Torah stood up to try and trap him by asking, “Rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?” But Yeshua said to him, “What is written in the Torah? How do you read it?” He answered, “You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your understanding; and your neighbor as yourself.” “That’s the right answer,” Yeshua said. “Do this, and you will have life.”"

Who are our neighbors? Luke 10:37 Complete Jewish Bible says, "He answered, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Yeshua said to him, “You go and do as he did.”"

The United States House of Representatives has shown mercy to the unborn by passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act. Now the US Senate needs to do likewise. The US Senate has shown mercy to immigrants by passing immigration reform. Now the US House needs to do likewise.

Christian Minister and Civil Rights Activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said in his speech Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution, "Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God. And without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always ripe to do right."

Christian Ministers Priscilla and Aquila were married and had a church in their home. They were friends with the single Christian Minister Paul. Neither Priscilla, Aquila or Paul limited themselves to their relationships with God, self and spouse. They all enthusiastically sought to relate to diverse, multiple people sharing God and themselves with others.

Priscilla, Aquila and Paul were fulfilled people who desired that others were like them. Acts 26:28-29 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "Agrippa asked Paul, “In such a short time do you think you can talk me into being a Christian?” Paul answered, “Whether it takes a short time or a long time, I wish you and everyone else who hears me today would become just like me! Except, of course, for these chains.”"

Paul wrote in Romans 12:9 Contemporary English Version Bible, "Be sincere in your love for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good." Abortionists are not examples of sincere lovers. Abortionist Kermit Gosnell is in jail for killing people. Sadly other abortionists like him are not in jail and are still killing unborn babies and women. Watch this video of an interview of former abortion clinic employees of Abortionist Douglass Karpen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fhyJItGPko. Watch this video of Abortionist LeRoy Carhart talking about his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIlYXmG287g.

Chen Guangcheng, a husband, father of two children and human-rights lawyer who became blind as a child in China is now an American immigrant. Chen Guangcheng says that China's one-child policy with forced abortions and forced sterilizations affect the unborn, women and men. ""And a few days ago, in Xinyi, Jiangsu Province, local thugs beat up a woman who had more than one child because she couldn't afford the social maintenance fees," he added, referring to the penalty women had to pay for having more than one child.

"These things are still happening."

Chen said typically in these cases, pregnant women were seized by the National Health and Family Planning Commission officials and taken away.

"They would go to your home, drag you from your bed - you wouldn't be allowed to put on your clothes - put you in the car, drive you to hospital and you would be operated on. They would abort your baby whatever the conditions were - so long as you hadn't given birth to the child."

Chen said local officials would be under pressure to use all means possible to ensure the one-child policy.

"Not only women, but many men were forcibly sterilised. Both men and women were victims," he said (A May 23, 2013 Reuters Chen Guangcheng interview.)

ChinaAid, a human-rights organization, reports that husband and farmer Zhang Futao was beat up and hospitalized in May 2013 because he and his wife had three children in violation of China's one-child policy.
 
Sakura is the Japanese word for the cherry blossom flower. Sakura has a variety of meanings including beauty, purity and the fleeting nature of earthly existence. Since we don't live long, why not live well?

Open your heart wide to people. If you have God, you have the power to do it, and God commands us to do it. Zechariah 7:8-10 New Living Translation Bible says, "Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other."

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Generosity Or Greed?

The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are Christian ideals that are rooted in the love of God and stated in the American Declaration of Independence. Gospel Singer Anita Wilson sings in the song "Shower The People" on her album Worship Soul, "Just shower the people you love with love. Show them the way that you feel. Things are goin' work out fine if you only will do as I say. Shower the people you love with love. Show them the way that you feel. Things are goin' to be much better if you only will."

God loves His friends and His foes and wants His creyentes (believers) to also love friends and foes. Some foes turn out to be friends.

America is filled with creyentes, but sometimes in America's past and present we have had trouble loving people like God does. The 1913 California Alien Land Law prevented people who were not citizens or not eligible to become citizens from owing land. At the time most Asian Americans were prevented by law from becoming citizens.

Un dicho (a proverb) says, "Que lindo es vivir para amar; que grande es tener para dar" ("How beautiful it is to live and love; how great it is to have and give.") Jesus Christ warns us against greediness when He says in Luke 12:15 New Living Translation, "...“Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”"

God teaches us to be generous to the oppressed and others. Some people leave their country because of hostility at home. Actor and Activist Christian Bale attempted unsuccessfully in 2011 to visit Chen Guangcheng, a human-rights lawyer, in China when Chen Guangcheng was under house arrest for filing a 2005 class-action lawsuit against officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China's one-child policy. Chen Guangcheng left China in May 2012 and is now living in America. Christian Bale said when presenting Chen Guangcheng with a human rights award at the annual gala of Human Rights First, "He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term -- imagine that -- with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women -- who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values -- values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man -- for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years."

God wants us spiritually, mentally, physically, financially -- in all ways -- to be like Him now and eternally. Pray for change in China. Pray also for countries globally to pass immigration, abortion and other laws that love a diversity of people. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 Amplified Bible says, "First of all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men, For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that [outwardly] we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life [and inwardly] a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way. For such [praying] is good and right, and [it is] pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior, Who wishes all men to be saved and [increasingly] to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the [divine] Truth."

Friday, June 21, 2013

Stop Excluding People. Reform Immigration Now!

1 Peter 2:9 New Living Translation Bible says, "But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light." God wants creyentes (believers) to do good like He does good. God also wants creyentes to enjoy the best of this earthly life without idolizing things or people.

One good thing to have is citizenship. The Apostle Paul, a Jew who had Roman citizenship, wrote most of the New Testament. African Americans gained American citizenship via the 14th amendment to the US constitution. Rafael Damani Fowler and I are African Americans, and we value and enjoy our US citizenship.

We also pray that as our legislature is considering immigration reform that many others who are currently being denied US citizenship but value and desire to enjoy it will be granted US citizenship. Diversity in America is good for Americans and people globally. Diversity in America is a world witness as America is the world's leading nation.

Nick Vujicic is of Serbian heritage but born in Australia. Later in life he moved to the United States of America. Vujicic was born without arms and legs not because of a botched abortion but because of tetra-amelia syndrome. Ana Rosa Rodriguez was born without an arm because of a botched abortion. Vujicic, a husband, a father, an evangelist, a motivational speaker, head of the non-profit organization Life Without Limbs and author, writes in his book Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life, "Researchers found that many who successfully deal with physical adversity actually grow in positive ways, including these:

* They realize they are stronger than they thought, and they tend to recover more quickly from future challenges.
* They discover who truly cares about them, and those relationships grow stronger.
* They put greater value on each day and on the good things in their lives.
* They become stronger spiritually."

Rafael Damani Fowler and I enjoy listening to CDs which were invented by the Japanese. Gospel singer Andrea Helms says in her song "Changed" on the CD Ultimate Gospel vol. 2 Women of Gospel Spirit Rising that she was not supposed to be born. She says about the time before she was born, "The doctors said that I would never walk that I would never talk that I would be nothing ... but I was born healthy." Doctors and other medical professionals know a lot, but they are not all-knowing like God. Doctors and others were not able to tell me that my son, Rafael, has autism, but it's okay. Rafael is glad to be alive instead of aborted.

Un dicho (a proverb) says, "No hay tiempo como el presente ("There is no time like the present.") Now is a good time to pass immigration reform not like the wicked US Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 but a law that welcomes people, doesn't burden them financially and treats them with equality.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Spitting In The Face Of God Or Service?

Proverbs 14:21 Amplified Bible says, "He who despises his neighbor sins [against God, his fellowman, and himself], but happy (blessed and fortunate) is he who is kind and merciful to the poor." Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said, "When you treat any human being as if they were less than a child of God, you are not just doing wrong--you are being sacrilegious. You are desecrating someting that is holy. You are like someone who spits in the face of God."

Low expectations of people are a way of spitting in the face of God. China spits in the face of God with its one-child policy that includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action lawsuit against local government officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations. For his efforts Guangcheng, who is blind, ended up in jail for five years and in house arrest for two years.

He escaped on foot. Then he connected with He Peirong who drove him to the United States embassy in Beijing, China. A deal was negotiated between China and the United States, and Guangcheng came to live with his wife, Yuan Weijung, and two children in New York. Guangcheng has been a visiting scholar at New York University's U.S.-Asia Law Institute since May 2012.

Sophia Hollander writes in The Wall Street Journal June 13, 2013, article, "Chinese Dissident to Leave NYU," that New York University Spokesman John Beckman said that the university had provided Chen Guangcheng with housing, health insurance, food, clothing and electronic equipment, along with an office and language translation support.

Now New York University is requiring Chen Guangcheng to leave the university by the end of June 2013 while New York University denies that Chen Guangcheng's departure is connected to their opening of a university campus in Shanghai, China.

Creyentes (believers) are called to treat all people non-disabled and disabled well.

Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs not because of a botched abortion but because of tetra-amelia syndrome. Vujicic, who is an evangelist, motivational speaker, head of the nonprofit organization Life Without Limbs and author of multiple books, writes in his book Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life, "I may be disabled, but God is abled." Vujicic is also married to Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara. On February 13, 2013, this married couple celebrated the birth of Kiyoshi James Vujicic, their son and first child, and they hope to have at least four children.

Some think that the disabled are destined to live a ridiculously bad life and recommend that those who are disabled or may be disabled be killed before birth via abortion. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act seeks to place a national prohibition on abortions of non-disabled and disabled unborn girls and boys 20 weeks and older. Twenty weeks is the age when the unborn begin to feel pain. Instead of spitting in the face of God, serve Him and humanity by praying for Chen Guangcheng, the Chen family, New York University officials and the unborn and by sending an email to your member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 1797 the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and to support the bill as is without changes: http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=62650516&type=CO.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Children Are People Too

Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco, California, to parents who were Chinese immigrants. He decided to take a trip to China in 1895. When he came back to the United States, he was told that the laws didn't allow Chinese immigrants re-entry into the United States. Wong Kim Ark wasn't an immigrant.

He took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court which in 1898 ruled that children born of immigrants in the United States are automatically US citizens.

Creyentes (believers) are reinas y reyes (queens and kings). We are called to stand up for justice. Proverbs 31:8 Amplified Bible says, "Open your mouth for the dumb [those unable to speak for themselves], for the rights of all who are left desolate and defenseless."

Even before children are born they are people. On Christmas of 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the following words: "Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God…Man is more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons or a wisp of smoke from a limitless smoldering. Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such….And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won't exploit people, we won't trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won't kill anybody."

Righting the wrongs done to immigrants, the unborn, parents and other people is a process. Some pieces of the process are to be informed about legislation and to pass good legislation. Here's a link of a former abortionist, Anthony Levantino, who is now against abortion and supporting H.R. 1797 the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8szDctI9lXM&feature=youtu.be. Here's a link to send an email to your member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 1797 the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and to support the bill as is without changes: http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=62650516&type=CO.

Our Creator wants us to be a moral people who do not mistreat people by killing them through abortion or discriminating against them in immigration laws or in any other way. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 7:12 Amplified Bible, "So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do also to and for them, for this is (sums up) the Law and the Prophets."


Monday, June 10, 2013

Un Corrido Nuevo (A New Ballad)

Zacchaeus was a rich government worker who had cheated people financially. Then he met Jesus Christ, entered into a relationship with Christ and restored by four times the things he had stole as a chief tax collector. Luke 19:1-10 Amplified Bible says, "And [Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through it. And there was a man called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and [he was] rich. And he was trying to see Jesus, which One He was, but he could not on account of the crowd, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass that way. And when Jesus reached the place, He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down, and he received and welcomed Him joyfully. And when the people saw it, they all muttered among themselves and indignantly complained, He has gone in to be the guest of and lodge with a man who is devoted to sin and preeminently a sinner. So then Zacchaeus stood up and solemnly declared to the Lord, See, Lord, the half of my goods I [now] give [by way of restoration] to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I [now] restore four times as much. And Jesus said to him, Today is [Messianic and spiritual] salvation come to [all the members of] this household, since Zacchaeus too is a [real spiritual] son of Abraham; For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

America has benefited greatly from the labor of voluntary and involuntary immigrants without always treating them well. Now is a good time to begin to right the wrongs. Immigrants shouldn't have to pay to become citizens nor should they be denied tax benefits available to others.

God wants all people to be treated well no matter where they live or who they are. Desmond Tutu of South Africa said in a sermon delivered in Norway, "At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: "Raise your hands!" Then I've said, "Move your hands," and I've said, "Look at your hands--different colors representing different people. You are the rainbow people of God."

And you remember the rainbow in the Bible is the sign of peace. The rainbow is the sign of prosperity. We want peace, prosperity and justice and we can have it when all the people of God, the rainbow people of God, work together."

Jesus Christ wants us to have spiritual, psychological, physical and financial prosperity.

The Chinese invented paper money. God teaches us in the Bible book of Deuteronomy chapter 28 that when we do right money comes. Let's make a new corrido (a ballad) about America doing spiritually, psychologically, physically and financially right by immigrants.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Isn't It A Blessing To Have American Citizenship?

In the United States the second Sunday in June is National Puerto Rican Day. A few years ago Rafael and I paid tribute to Puerto Rican heritage, culture and traditions when we vacationed in the US commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

For many Christians Sundays are a vacation to love God.

The Chinese invented matches. The Bible can be used as a match to strike a fire burning up the idea that one can love God without loving people. Mark 12:29-31 Amplified Bible says, "Jesus answered, The first and principal one of all commands is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord; And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."

An African proverb from Zaire says, "A kind person is the one who is kind to strangers."

The United States is a country mostly founded by strangers who voluntarily and involuntarily immigrated from other countries. Immigrants have come to the United States throughout our history. It is wrong that they have not always been treated well.

Let's welcome strangers/immigrants and treat them well like we want to be treated well. Isn't it a blessing to have American citizenship?

Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virgina 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Courage And Common Sense

Courage should be coupled with common sense. After Frederick Douglass published his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, Douglass sent his former slave owner, Thomas Auld, a copy of the book.

The Chinese invented the umbrella. Sometimes we need our friends to cover our courage, so that a bad situation doesn't rain on us.

Friends helped Douglass to get out of the United States and to seek refuge in England, which had abolished slavery in 1807.

By 1846 friends purchased Douglass' freedom from Thomas Auld. They also gave Douglass money to start an anti-slavery newspaper. By 1847 Douglass published the North Star. Former president and friend of Abraham Lincoln Benito Juarez said, "The respect for the rights of others is peace." The North Star was not only concerned with the rights of African Americans. The motto of the North Star was "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and all we are brethren."

Proverbs 3:27-28 Amplified Bible says, "Withhold not good from those to whom it is due [its rightful owners], when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, Go, and come again; and tomorrow I will give it—when you have it with you."

Douglass' friends could have spent their money on something other than purchasing Douglass' freedom and his newspaper. To have chosen to spend their money elsewhere would have probably meant that Douglass would be returned to slavery, separated from his wife and children, unable to provide for them economically and an international voice of inspiration for human rights would have been silenced.

Is God telling you to help someone?

Instead of making excuses, why not consider all the ways good could come out of it, and do what God says to do. A Japanese proverb says, "Do quickly what is good."

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Is Anyone Safe In China?

Reverend Desmond Tutu of South Africa writes in An African Prayer Book, "...we are made to live in a delicate network of interdependence with one another, with God and with the rest of God's creation. We say in our African idiom: "A person is a person through other persons." A solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. A totally self-sufficient human being is ultimately subhuman. We are made for complementarity. I have gifts that you do not; and you have gifts that I do not. Voila! So we need each other to become fully human."

One of the ways that Tutu is trying to complement humanity is by serving as Honorary Co-Chair of Freedom Now. Jared Genser, Freedom Now pro-bono counsel for Chen Kegui, sent an April 29, 2013, letter to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, seeking medical treatment for the appendicitis of Chen Kegui who is in Linyi Prison following a trial "that failed to meet international standards for due process" and an arrest close to the time that Kegui's uncle, human rights activist Chen Guangcheng escaped China.

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class action lawsuit against local government officials practicing forced abortions and forced sterilizations as part of China's one child policy. Guangcheng suffered time in Linyin Prison and house arrest before escaping house arrest. Then the United States and China negotiated Chen Guangcheng coming to America in spring 2012.

Speaking about China's one child policy in a video released in December 2012 to mark Human Rights Day Chen Guangcheng says, "It is a sin, because life is sacred."

China's one child policy is anti-life, anti-family as are all policies that permit abortion and involuntary sterilization. In addition to the baby boys and baby girls killed by abortion, Tonya Reaves, Christin Gilbert, Jennifer Morbelli, Denise Montoya are some American women killed by botched abortions. Maria Santiago is another woman recently killed at an abortion clinic. Read more about Maria Santiago and the abortion clinic she went to at http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/29/hispanic-woman-dies-after-abortion-clinic-staff-had-no-cpr-training/. Some unborn babies survive botched abortions. Ana Rosa Rodriquez is a living girl missing an arm because an abortionist trying to kill her as an unborn baby sliced off her arm. Some other unborn babies who survived abortions are Gianna Jessen, who has cerebral palsy, and Gospel singer Fred Hammond, who has no physical damage from the attempted abortion.

Some people are trying to preserve and to promote life. Husband and wife Du Yiliang and Guo Yanling and their three children are refugees in Thailand who would like to live safely in their homeland China, but can't due to China's one child policy. Is anyone safe in China? In 1995 when Guo Yanling was eight months pregnant, she was forced to undergo an abortion. In 1999 she was forcibly sterilized. In 2006 Guo Yanling was imprisoned for not being able to pay a fine for having more than one child. Du Yiliang's and Guo Yanling's three children cannot attend school or receive government benefits because the unpaid fine is used as a block to obtaining household registrations for their three children. The household registrations allow children to attend school and to receive government benefits. Du Yiliang's and Guo Yangling's family experience is typical in China. What is not typical is that they have been granted refugee status in Thailand in 2011. For more on this family whose troubles are not over and others like them read http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/07/sister-guo-yanling-christian-in-guangxi.html.

Having the opportunity to live in equality, freedom, justice, safety and love are God's desire for us. God wants what is good for us. The devil (the thief) wants what is bad. The devil is the author, maintainer and promoter of China's one child policy and abortion and involuntary sterilization globally. Jesus Christ says in John 10:10 Amplified Bible, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."

Let's kick the devil off the planet. Embrace God and people.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Imagine Opening Our Arms To Immigrants And The Disabled

Kaldi and the Dancing Goats is a story from Ethiopia. Kaldi was a goatherd, who one day was grazing his goats on a mountain side, but by the end of the day he could not find them.

Kaldi searched, and he searched, and he searched. Finally, he found them dancing around a bush whose red berries they had been feasting on. Kaldi decided to try the berries and found himself inspired to dance.

Kaldi took the red-berry treasure to some monks in a nearby monastery. One monk felt the red berries were a work of the devil and flung them into the fire. The fire brought out such an exquisite aroma from the red berries that the monks rescued the berries, ground them and made the hot, black drink we know as coffee. What they at first thought was a work of the devil, they later decided was a gift from God because coffee kept people awake during their prayers.

Some people feel that allowing a short, easy path to citizenship without economic burden for immigrants is a work of the devil. However, many immigrants are Christians fleeing from places of persecution and/or poverty to places that treasure things like freedom, equality and economic opportunity. 

Religious freedom is not a reality in northern Nigeria. Also other parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, have absorbed about as many people fleeing from northern Nigeria as they can help. Nigeria is about 50 percent Islam, 40 percent Christian and 10 percent other faiths.

One tradition says that the reason Abraham of the Bible had to immigrate from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan is because he was being persecuted. God will use persecution and other situations to move us from one place to another for a good purpose. Genesis 12 records that Abraham coming to Canaan would be a part of his family being a global blessing to people.

The Brazos River flows through the middle of the American state of Texas. This river was originally named Los Brazos de Dios (In the Arms of God). Creyentes (believers) serve a big God whose arms are so big that they could never be too many people for Him to hug. Creyentes are God's physical arms on earth. Hugging immigrants is a blessing to us and to them.

Christian Minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., says, "[People] often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they do not know each other; they do not know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated." Demonic fear is designed to divide and to destroy people.

An East African proverb says, "When minds are the same, that which is far off will come." If we stay in fear, we cannot unify and do the great works God said we are to do.

Demonic fear produces irrational thinking. Imagine the extensive psychiatric problems in China due to China's one child policy with forced abortion and forced sterilization. Inflicting psychiatric problems reduces productivity. Productivity is essential for people to survive and thrive.

The idea of killing people and/or disfiguring them for social advancement is ancient and modern. In America and in other countries abortionists kill unborn baby girls and baby boys. Sometimes abortionists also kill babies born alive after botched abortions, adolescents and women. Abortionist LeRoy Carhart killed Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old who had Down syndrome, and her baby. Gilbert is not the only woman killed by Carhart, who does late-term abortions. People with disabilities are discriminated against in the womb and out of the womb. Robert Ethan Saylor, was a young man killed in a movie theater because people didn't understand someone with Down syndrome.

We must learn to distinguish among foreign invaders/enemies and the potential friends of immigrants and people with disabilities.

Share some stories of immigrants and persons with disabilities overcoming discrimination. Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, VA 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30. Recommend this article on Google.


Enjoy Memorial Day on Monday.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Strange Isn't Necessarily Bad

Walking is one of the best exercises to help maintain good health. Rafael Damani Fowler and I walk regularly. On Sunday part of our walk included walking on the shoulder of a road. A car stopped us, not the police, but another mother and father with a daughter who has autism. My son, Rafael, has autism.

Jesus Christ walked a lot. His heart was healthy physically and spiritually. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 7:12 Complete Jewish Bible, '“Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets."

The Ethiopians adopted a flag in the 1990s which has a star with rays in the center. The rays of the star stand for equality. Creyentes (believers) are reinas y reyes (queens and kings.) Being equal does not mean that we will all be the same. Rafael prefers to eat with his hands; so do some Ethiopians, Nigerians and others. Others may find eating with the hands strange.

Some people want to erase the differences among women, men, races and ethnicity, but God designed human beings with diversity. God made each person unique. Even twins and other multiples do not have the same finger prints, eye prints or scent.

While Canada and Russia have a lot of land, China has the world's largest population with some 1.3 billion people. Maybe God has a special thing for the Chinese since He created many of them.

Some really hate the Chinese. More than 330 million Chinese have been killed via abortion since the implementation of China's one child policy which includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

A Japanese proverb says, "Do quickly what is good." Immigration is a hot issue today. It's important to know about the countries immigrants come from. What is life like in Iran, China and other places? What can we do to make life better?

Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini is in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, connected to starting Christian house churches in Iran and a secular orphanage. Write a letter to Pastor Abedini and sign a petition at http://www.savesaeed.org. Is there religious freedom in Iran? How many people in Iran are in jail because of their religious faith?

Even when a life is saved from a forced abortion in China, the family still faces persecution. Husband and wife Li Fu and Cao Ruyi currently live in China with their only child, a son named Li Dahai, which means "our help came from overseas." When Cao Ruyi was five months pregnant she was forcibly taken to a hospital to have an abortion because she did not have the proper paper to have a child. No hospital bed was available. Her abortion was delayed enough for ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith to intervene. Cao Ruyi gave birth in a secret place, but she and her husband still face a $15,000 fine for the unauthorized birth of Li Dahai. Read more of the story at http://www.chinaaid.org/2013/03/cao-ruyi-whose-near-forced-abortion.html.

Abortion is a big problem in America too with 55 million abortions since Roe v. Wade was legalized. The following LifeNews.com link shows that Kermit Gosnell is not the only abortionists killing late-term unborn babies, babies born live after botched abortions and women: http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/15/another-gosnell-report-shows-texas-abortion-doc-kills-babies-born-alive/.

How many abortionists are like Kermit Gosnell and Douglas Karpen? Where is the extensive media coverage of what goes on inside abortion clinics?



Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Pastor Saeed Abedini Out Of Solitary Confinement; Struggle for Freedom Continues

Matthew 25:34-40 Complete Jewish Bible says, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you made me your guest, I needed clothes and you provided them, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the people who have done what God wants will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you our guest, or needing clothes and provide them? When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ The King will say to them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did them for me!’ Talking to God, writing to Pastor Saeed Abedini and signing the petition at http://www.savesaeed.org are having a beneficial effect. Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini has been released from solitary confinement and returned to the general prison population in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. Ask someone today to pray, to write to Pastor Saeed Abedini and to sign the petition.

Solitary confinement is psychological abuse. In 1952 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela spent time in solitary confinement. He nearly went mad having no one to talk to and nothing to read.

The fight for Pastor Abedini's freedom is far from over. His struggle shows a lack of religious freedom in Iran. Pastor Abedini had been helping to build Christian house churches and a secular orphanage when Iranian authorities decided to place him in house arrest and eventually in jail for threatening the national security of Iran! Oppressors fear things like love, equality, freedom, diversity and truth.

Christian Minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., says, "Freedom is never given to anybody. For the oppressor has you in domination because he wants to keep you there."

Please share some unusual prayers and efforts to get people to write to Pastor Abedini and to sign the petition for him. Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P.O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virgina 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.


Can Pastor Saeed Abedini be freed from Evin prison? Yes.

Can we overcome the fear of women, immigrants, people from the ghettos and barrios and others? Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Hispanic Christian Organization with more than 40,000 member churches, said in a Martin Luther King, Jr. service speech that we need a Joshua generation that does not acquiesce to or allow itself to be manipulated by the donkey or the elephant; we need a generation sold out exclusively to the agenda of the Lamb. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said in her Declaration of Sentiments at the first US women's rights convention, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal."

Can China's one child policy with forced abortion and involuntary sterilization be stopped?  “Anything is possible in this world,” said Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer and human rights activist, to an audience at the Christiania Theater in Oslo, Norway on Tuesday regarding changing human rights abuses in China ("Chen Guangcheng: Chinese Government “In A State Of Madness”" May 14, 2013 article by Rosie Gray, BuzzFeed Staff.)


Sunday, May 12, 2013

All Mothers Work

Embrace a variety of motherhood methods. Galatians 5:14 Amplified Bible says, "For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself."

Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. She was the eldest of eight children. Her parents died in 1878 of yellow fever. As a teenager Ida got a teaching job to financially support her brothers and sisters. Being a teenage parent did not discourage her from motherhood. In her 30s in 1895 she married Frederick Barnett, and they had four children. Before and after marriage Ida B. Wells was a journalist, speaker and activist for the rights of African Americans and women. In addition to speaking out against lynching and segregation, in 1896 she helped to found the National Association of Colored Women, the National Afro-American Council and Women's Era Club.

Wells said, "I had...found that motherhood was a profession by itself, just like schoolteaching and lecturing." What about eliminating the term "working mother?" All mothers work. Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.


Instead of having multiple careers simultaneously, Angela Yuan chose to be a domestic engineer while her and her husband's two sons were minors. Careers have their high points and their points of humiliation. A high point for Ida B. Wells was in 1887 when she became part owner and reporter for Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. A point of humiliation was when in 1891 she was fired from her teaching job because of the content of her writing. A high point for Angela Yuan was when her son, Christopher Yuan, began work on his dental doctorate degree. A point of humiliation was when he told her that he was practicing homosexual sex, was not going to become part of his father's, Leon's, dental practice or stay connected to the Yuan family. 

Romance novels are half of all mass market paperback books sold in the United States. Adventure, incredible sex and other excitement are often included in romance novels. The intensity of real life hardship is often missing. Naghmeh Abedini married her sweetheart Saeed Abedini in 2004. Later the couple had two children. In July 2012 she and their children were separated from Saeed indefinitely when Iranian authorities placed him under house arrest, then in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, for threatening the national security of Iran by helping to set up Christian house churches in Iran and also a secular orphanage. Now Naghmeh is a married single mother. Help free Saeed, who is also a pastor, from prison, by writing letters to him and by signing a petition at http://www.savesaeed.org.

Sometimes mothers are not missing their husband, but they are missing their children. More than 330 million boys and girls have been killed by abortion in China; many of these abortions are done forcibly. A ChinaAid March 24, 2013, "With ChinaAid's Help, Two Victims of China's One-Child Policy Granted UNHCR Refugee Status" article reports that in 1995, when Guo Yanling was eight months pregnant, she was forced to have an abortion. In 1999, she was forcibly sterilized. In 2006, she was imprisoned for not being able to pay a fine for having more than one child. The Chinese government also refused to issue household registrations to her and to her husband, Du Yiliang's, three children without which they are unable to attend school or receive government benefits. With ChinaAid’s help, Guo Yanling and Du Yiliang  have been granted refugee status by the UN High Commission on Refugees. Notes of encouragement to Du Yiliang and Guo Yanling, requests for interviews and financial contributions to ChinaAid's Emergency Relief Fund can all be submitted to ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu at (267) 205-5210.

Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, who is the president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Hispanic Christian Organization with more than 40,000 member churches, writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial "Trust Act Seeks to End Trivial Immigrant Arrests," "Juana Reyes provides for her family by selling homemade tamales outside a busy Wal-Mart not far from where I live. At least she used to.

Last month Juana was arrested for selling her tamales without a permit and was held in jail for 13 days, while her two children were placed in foster care. Juana was just released, but she now faces deportation back to Mexico, despite having lived in California for 20 years and being the sole caregiver to her children, both U.S. citizens." Many Latino and other immigrant mothers and fathers are being separated temporarily and permanently from their children by American immigration policies.

Motherhood and fatherhood are honorable professions. Exodus 20:12 Complete Jewish Bible says, "Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land which Adonai your God is giving you." Happy Mother's Day!



Friday, May 10, 2013

Rich, In The Middle Or Poor Family Planning Persecutes All

Just because God loves us does not mean that He does not get mad at our behavior. Some ancient Jews practiced abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing. Psalm 106:37-40 Complete Jewish Bible says, "They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. Yes, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to Kena‘an’s false gods, polluting the land with blood. Thus they were defiled by their deeds; they prostituted themselves by their actions, For this Adonai’s fury blazed up against his people, and he detested his heritage."

The reasons for abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing may change with the times, but sadly the practices are still common today globally. God didn't like these practices in the past, and He hasn't changed His mind in the present. Hebrews 13:8 Amplified Bible says, "Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages)."

God created us as sexual beings. Sexuality has multiple beautiful, balanced, Biblical expressions. One expression of sexuality that pleases God is when a married couple enjoys sexual relations and in addition to the closeness of the couple, a new life is created. While sex is the means through which new life may be created at certain times of the month, God is the one determining if new life will be created. The author of human life is God and not the government or any other human being.

But in China and other places, human beings are trying to take the place of God. China has a one-child policy which includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

The New York Times "Chinese Filmmaker Is Investigated by Family Planning Officials" May 10, 2013, article by Edward Wong says, "China's most celebrated film director, Zhang Yimou, is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws, an official said Thursday, confirming reports in the state news media.

Family planning officials are examining discussions on the Internet that say Mr. Zhang has fathered up to seven children with four women. If he is found to have violated the laws, he could be fined nearly $27 million because the fines are based on the offender's income, according to a report in the online edition of People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party."

Chinese authorities do not just use fines to enforce China's one-child policy. In October 2012 Actor and Activist Christian Bale presented Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer and human rights activist, with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First. Bale said, "He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term -- imagine that -- with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women -- who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values -- values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man -- for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years."

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action lawsuit against a local Chinese government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife, Yuan Weijing, and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.

Last spring He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing, so that he could escape house arrest in Shandong, China. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?

After Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy, the US and China worked out a deal, and Guangcheng escaped to the United States.

Guangcheng and his nuclear family got out of China, but his extended family is being intensely persecuted. Freedom Now, a human rights group, has written an April 29, 2013, letter to the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture seeking to get Chen Kegui, Guangcheng's nephew, to a hospital for urgently needed medical treatment and out of jail for a sentence that appears to be retaliation for Guangcheng's outspokenness on Chinese forced abortions and forced sterilizations and other Chinese human rights violations. Also yesterday morning, Guangcheng's brother, Chen Guangfu, was beat up by unidentified men who stopped him while he was riding his electric bike.

Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin. The April 2013 Freedom Now letter says in part:

"Chen Kegui is currently suffering from appendicitis, and although prison authorities may have administered intravenous antibiotics, he is in severe pain, has been denied access to a doctor, and has not been taken to a hospital despite reports that his appendix has begun to rupture.

Chen Kegui, 33, was detained by Chinese authorities shortly after his uncle, a prominent human rights advocate, escaped from illegal house arrest and sought refuge at the United States Embassy in Beijing. On April 27, 2012, police, local party officials, and government thugs stormed the family's home and arrested Chen Kegui's father, Chen Guangfu, beating and interrogating him about Chen Guangcheng's whereabouts. Authorities returned to the home and savagely beat Chen Kegui and his mother, Ren Zongju. When Chen Kegui attempted to defend himself from the intruders, a local party official was injured. After disappearing Chen Kegui for a number of days, the government formally arrested him in early May and ultimately sentenced him to three years and three months in prison on November 30, 2012, after a trial that failed to meet international standards for due process."

Families are being torn apart by China's one-child policy. Kegui and his son, Chen Fubin, are just one family that has been separated. Families are also being torn apart due to our American immigration policies.

Samuel Rodriguez, president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Hispanic Christian Organization with more than 40,000 member churches, writes in a "Trust Act Seeks to End Trivial Immigrant Arrests" editorial for the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Finally, as a pastor in the Hispanic community, I am constantly confronted with families that have been torn apart when a parent is deported, often times after minor contact with police. The long-term consequences for the children are devastating."

Let's stop China's one-child policy, anti-family immigration policies and abortion/involuntary sterilization everywhere. 

A Yoruba Nigerian love poem called "The fulfilment of this earth's law is love" says:

"The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
With love two can live happily in the smallest of rooms
Without love even in a palace two cannot live in peace.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!

The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
Love is above the law, and it is the law completely,
Without love there'll be no help of one another.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!

The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
Love comes before marriage of a man and a woman,
Without love cause for separation is not hard to find.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!

The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
With love two may enter the closest friendship,
Without love even twins may be irreconcilable.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!"

Please share Nigerian and other people's love songs, poems and prose by writing to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

The greatest love of all is the love of God because it is effective for people in the past, present and forever. God loves people, and He desires from His creyentes (believers) to act like las reinas y los reyes (the queens and kings) He made us to be. God's royalty helps the oppressed. Proverbs 31:8-9 New Living Translation Bible says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A Way To Help Family And Friends

1 Timothy 5:8 Amplified Bible says, "If anyone fails to provide for his relatives, and especially for those of his own family, he has disowned the faith [by failing to accompany it with fruits] and is worse than an unbeliever [who performs his obligation in these matters]." The Llamoca family may or may not be creyentes (believers). They are followers of the practice of provision advocated in 1 Timothy 5:8.

Nelson D. Schwartz writes in the May 6, 2013, The New York Times article "Wave of Immigrants Transforms a Small Town," "Fourteen years after she arrived from Lima, Peru, and started working as a baby sitter, Itziar Llamoca now owns Fiesta Place, which makes traditional decorations and balloon arrangements for family events like baptisms, weddings and the girl's coming-of-age party called the quinceanera. She earned her associate's and bachelor's degrees from colleges in Westchester and bought the store with her sister from its original owners several years ago.

Ms. Llamoca, who now holds American citizenship, did not rely on bank loans to make the purchase. "For us, it was easier to borrow money from the family," she said."

A Twi African proverb says, "Poverty makes a free man become a slave." Owning a business is one of the best ways to escape poverty and to live in the freedom of financial independence. Family can help family find a way to financial independence through financial contributions to get a business going, by working together in a business and by other ways.

Giving donations are better than giving loans. Romans 13:8 Amplified Bible says, "Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor [who practices loving others] has fulfilled the Law [relating to one’s fellowmen, meeting all its requirements]."

Booker T. Washington, an African American leader and head of Tuskegee Institute, believed in combining education and work training. He wrote in his book Up from Slavery, "Great men cultivate love ... only little men cherish a spirit of hatred."

Christopher Yuan, the son of Chinese immigrants, had to overcome hatred of Christians. At one time in his life he was an illegal drug abuser and dealer who had frequent sex with men. Time in prison and a HIV-positive diagnosis helped him to read a Bible. Christopher Yuan eventually co-wrote with his mother, Angela Yuan, the book Out Of A Far Country A gay son's journey to God. A broken mother's search for hope. In the book he writes, "As I continued to read the Bible, I came across Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 (NASB)--passages normally used to condemn gays and lesbians to a fiery fate. "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." But I realized that God didn't call lesbians and gay men abominations. He called it an abomination. What God condemned was the act, not the person. For so long, I had gotten the message from the Christian protestors at gay-pride parades that the God of the Bible hated people like me, because we were abominations. But after reading these passages, I saw that God didn't hate me; nor was he condemning me to an inescapable destiny of torment. But rather, it was the sex he condemned, and yet he still wanted an intimate relationship with me."

God wants an intimate relationship with all kinds of people. God also wants all kinds of people to love each other as much as they love themselves. Family and friendship are for everyone. A Korean proverb says, "The fortunate man has bread and friends."

What are some wonderful ways family and friends have helped each other to be financially independent? Write to:

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, VA 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Love Immigrants

An East African proverb says, "When minds are the same, that which is far off will come." When 3,000 Mexican soldiers faced 6,000 invading French soldiers, a Mexican victory looked far off.

But Mexican soldiers asked Mexican farmers called campesinos to help fight, and united they defeated the French on May 5, 1862, in Puebla, Mexico. Mexican President Benito Juarez, who was of Native American heritage, made the victory a national celebration called Cinco de Mayo (the 5th of May).

The French used defeat to renew their determination to fight and fought with Mexico while the Civil War was being fought in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy. France was interested in defeating Mexico, so that they could weaken the Union. France favored the Confederacy. Mexico was an ally of the Union.

Mexican President Benito Juarez and American President Abraham Lincoln both grew up in poverty and later on became lawyers and presidents of their nations; they were also political allies.

The Mexicans kept defeating the French and celebrating each May 5th. After the Union defeated the Confederacy, President Lincoln sent soldiers to America's border with Mexico to help Mexico fight off the French. Of the 30,000 US troops sent, 20,000 were African Americans. Finally in 1867, France had enough of war and left Mexico.

A free Mexico was good for Mexicans, the Union and African Americans.

In the Bible book of Joshua God gave the Hebrews the Promised Land. God also has a nation for various groups of people. Boundaries can be beautiful.

Sometimes people need to leave the nation of their birth or choice and join another nation. Today and throughout American history Mexicans and other people have sought to join America. The Bible way is to welcome strangers and to make them friends and family, not to shackle them with debt, a long path to citizenship and splitting apart families.

Proverbs 17:17 Amplified Bible says, "A friend loves at all times, and is born, as is a brother, for adversity."

During African American slavery many friends helped runaway slaves escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad. While many advocates of slavery practiced splitting apart African American families, many abolitionists found ways to keep families together. God put children and parents together.

May 5th is also celebrated in Japan as Children's Day. Parents honor children by flying carp-shaped kites or banners.

Happy May 5th! Share stories of U.S. citizens helping immigrant families. Write to:
 

Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, VA 22195
 

Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.

Even more wonderful than being a free citizen family in an earthly nation is to be one in an eternal kingdom family. Today is Resurrection Sunday for Orthodox Christians when the resurrection of Jesus Christ from His death is celebrated. Are you a family member of the eternal kingdom of God? Talk to God and allow Him to give you a new kingdom life. John 1:12-13 Complete Jewish Bible says, "But to as many as did receive him, to those who put their trust in his person and power, he gave the right to become children of God, not because of bloodline, physical impulse or human intention, but because of God."

In China Qi means the foundation of courage, will and intention. Courage requires conviction in love. Immigrants and all people need love. 1 John 4:7-11 English Standard Version Bible says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Interconnect

Raizy Glauber and Nathan Glauber were 21-years-old, Orthodox Jews of the Satmar Hasidic sect who had been paired by a matchmaker before marrying about a year ago reports The New York Times. The Glauber's were also killed in a car accident Monday, but doctors were able to perform an emergency Caesarean section to save the life of their son who was born at 24 weeks gestation, according to The New York Times's March 4, 2013, article "Emergency-Room Crisis: When Pregnant Woman Is Dying."

The Glauber baby boy is the age of babies now protected from some second-trimester and third trimester abortions in some American states. Read my article "Abortion Hurts."

Because of the age and place of residence of the unborn they are being discriminated against. The unborn have few legal rights.

Issues are interconnected. Christian minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." King also said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The injustice of discrimination is widespread. During segregation African Americans and other people of color were compelled to sit in the back of buses and to go to colored only public places. The Voting Rights Act got rid of things like poll taxes, literacy tests and other administrative barriers erected to block African Americans and other people of color from voting. Are today's citizen tests, English tests, long waiting periods to become citizens like the past discriminatory poll taxes and literacy tests?

All Rafael and I had to do to become American citizens was be born. We thank God that we are not slaves, undocumented or living in countries where much of the population is living in circumstances comparable to segregation and even slavery.

Is anyone advocating for making American citizenship for immigrants almost as easy as it is for those born citizens?

A proverb from Zaire says, "A kind person is the one who is kind to strangers." Matthew 7:12 New Living Translation Bible says, "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." It does not matter if people want to stay in a country permanently or temporarily, God encourages us to treat them like ourselves. Deuteronomio 10:17-18 Palabra de Dios para Todos dice, "porque el SEÑOR tu Dios es el Dios de todos los dioses y el Señor de todos los señores. Él es grande, poderoso y terrible. Él no tiene favoritismos ni acepta sobornos. Él se encarga de hacer justicia a las viudas y a los huérfanos. Él ama al inmigrante que habita contigo y le da comida y ropa." Deuteronomy 10:17-18 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty and awesome God, who has no favorites and accepts no bribes. He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing."

Of course, we would not want to offer citizenship to drug lords, terrorists and other real criminals, but many foreign people will add great value to our American society by becoming citizens. Ruth, who was from Moab, was also in the human heritage of  King David and Jesus Christ. Ruth said to her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi, in the book of Ruth 1:16-17 English Standard Version, ". . .“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”"

Ruth was brave enough to escape the paganism of Moab. For other escapes, read my article "Audacious Escapes" and "Only One is All Good."

Ruth married the Jewish Boaz and lived the rest of her life in Israel. The women of Israel said to Naomi about Ruth in the book of Ruth 4:15 New Living Translation, " . . . your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons."

How much value and goodness are we missing through discriminatory practices like abortion and the process for foreigners to become citizens?