The LORD watches over the sojourners; He upholds the widow and the fatherless. – Psalm 146:9
Since the era of Moses, God has instructed His people to take care of marginalized members of the community. The Psalmist reminds us of the Lord’s concern for these people in need: widows, fatherless, and sojourners. We know who widows and fatherless are; but who are the sojourners? Throughout Israel’s history mention is made of those who lived and worked among the Hebrew community yet they are from outside the nation of Israel. Other translations refer to them as “strangers”, “those residing outside their native land”, and “the foreigner”. In Exodus 22:21 the Lord instructed Moses, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt”. In today’s world, we refer to them as refugees, asylum seekers or immigrants. The LORD has concern for those who reside in our community, but who are from another culture or country. The Lord protects and watches over them! Why? Because God’s chosen people experienced what refugee life is like. They are displaced, vulnerable, and isolated. Like the widow and the fatherless, they need help, support, and Jesus. If the Lord has such compassion and concern for sojourners so the church should reflect the same concern for them.
The AIM Diaspora Region is another strategy to achieve AIM’s vision of “Christ Centered Churches Among All African Peoples with priority for the unreached”. Since our vision is specific to unreached Africa people groups our focus is those unreached African sojourners who live as immigrants and refugees outside the continent of Africa. The new Diaspora Region of AIM seeks to have a Gospel witness among every African unreached people group residing in other parts of the world.
Each week thousands of African refuges arrive on foreign soil. Many arrive with little or no preparation for their new homes, unable to speak the language, understanding of their new host culture, shopping, jobs, transportation, medical care etc. But most importantly many of them come from countries that are closed to the Gospel and are in desperate need to hear the Good News. Immersed in a new setting many African diaspora have the freedom to explore the truth of Christ that they did not have in their home country.
In Australia the greatest numbers of African immigrants are found in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. These include Africans from South Africa, Egypt, Zimbabwe and Mauritius.
The AIM Diaspora Region will strive to identify where unreached African communities exist throughout the world so that we can encourage, train and partner with local churches and like-minded ministries to engage with the unreached Africa diaspora. To accomplish this it is our hope to start 40 new teams by the year 2020
Building on our previous experience, we currently have new teams working in the USA, Canada, Brazil, the UK and in Southern Europe, serving in teams and working with people from local communities and missionaries called by God to minister to African diaspora. New opportunities are always opening up.
For information on how to reach out to the African diaspora near you contact personnel.au@aimint.org
