Jesusluvsall's Blog

Sunday afternoon we had a picnic in a local park that allowed my friend Alexey and his family to meet a family from Tajikistan. My friend Alexey was born in Tajikistan and lived there until he was 19 years old, so Alexey speaks Tajik as well as Russian and Ukrainian.

Alexey and the husband of the Tajik family hit it off and talked for a long time. It was a blessing to observe. It went so well that Alexey, the husband, and I will meet for coffee tomorrow afternoon.

The experience was another example for me of how Jesus is at work. When I stop and think about how my city that is in the middle of the country in a largely farm state is a targeted refugee resettlement city, it amazes me. I remember when my city had almost zero diversity when I was a teen. Now we have literally thousands of people from many countries. Watching Jesus connect people among the groups so they can hear about Jesus is amazing.

Alexey is certainly a classic example in my mind. He left his birth country Tajikistan due to war when he was 19 and went to Ukraine. In Ukraine he became a Christian, got married and started a family. Life was good for him in Ukraine until Russia invaded a year and a half ago. Alexey came here to my city with his family and now he can connect with people from his birth country in my city that none of them had heard of before coming here.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and our coffee meeting. It will combine two things I love- interacting with other cultures and of course coffee. Life is good. 🙂

Thank you for reading. God Bless.