At the request of this person they need to remain anonymous as well as the country where they live.
I am deeply grateful for people such as this friend whose heart has been transformed toward people with very different beliefs and views than they have.
"Thanks for posting this Brian. Sounds similar to the situation in my country. Just makes me think how important it is for the church to become a place where true reconciliation happens, xenophobia is challenged and fear of the other is banished. It is up to us to have the courage to reach out to those around us, to not fear those who are different from ourselves. As I have done this with people around me, befriending them, inviting them into my home, without exception I have encountered people who are lonely and isolated, lost in their host country, living in poverty and accustomed to being treated with disrespect and hatred on a daily basis (one friend was punched in the face 3 times by a man in the street because of her headscarf). With all of these people, who have become friends, until we met, they had never had an opportunity to get to know Westerners, to form friendships with people who are different from themselves and to begin to learn something of the values and the culture they find themselves in. They had rarely experienced love, respect and acceptance in their host culture. Time and again we have seen these friends be touched and transformed as they encounter the fragrance of life. These friendships have proven to be transformational for all involved... and to fuel me with hope every day that Jesus teachings of reconciliation provide us with the way forward. If we stay in a place of fear, with a desire to protect ourselves from the unknown and different, and never move towards others, then we continue to allow the gulf of separation between us to deepen. It is easy to hate people that you don't know, have never talked with, laughed or cried with. But once you begin sharing meals together, becoming community, love and concern for the other comes along and this hatred becomes impossible, even ridiculous... and this is when each time we come across something that separates us (beliefs/practices/politics/whatever) we instead seek for what unites us, and learn to peacefully and respectfully live alongside each other.....all the while both sides, 'them' and 'us' being mutually transformed. When Jesus taught ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ he was speaking into a politically charged situation, where people felt deep anger & hatred towards their Roman oppressors. They were looking to Jesus for some kind of solution. These words went against everything their flesh and good sense told them, yet Jesus presented them with a way forward of love, peace, humility, forgiveness and sacrifice."
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