43: D.L. Mayfield | When Refugees Become Neighbors and Friends

Danielle introduces herself and shares about working with Somali Bantu Refugees in Portland, OR while she was attending Bible College.

"That experience changed my life and it upended the way I saw the world...I really had to address these two basic questions: Is my religion really good news for people who aren't just like me?...The second, is my country good news for someone who isn't exactly like me?...That is, sort of, where my life has taken me, since I was 19, on this journey with God trying to ask those questions and having my life be changed mostly by refugee communities here in the U.S." 

7:19 Danielle shares how she came to know Jesus. 10:19 The subtitle of Danielle's book Assimilate or Go Home is Notes From A Failed Missionary On Rediscovering Faith.  She shares a little how she failed, and what she discovered about her faith.

"I have been working in refugee communities now for almost 15 years and I have failed to convert anyone to be just like me.  I'm a white, evangelical, middle class American woman and nobody has turned out just like me."

"Then, I was like, now what? In my classes I was never taught what to do when people were like thank you, but no. I sort of had the impression that you are supposed to move on. You are supposed to go find other people. You are supposed to keep going and try to find the ones that will convert and instead I felt God say, 'I want you to stick around. I don't want you to go anywhere'."

Catholic Charities

 16:49 Danielle describes a season in life where she began to shift from the kingdom of God as a spiritual concept to the kingdom of God as being here and now, a changing of the world to reflect what God desires. 

Study how Jesus did His own ministry to further understand the Kingdom of God.

Luke 4

• Proclaim good news to the poor
• Set the captives free
• Recover site for the blind
• Set the oppressed free

SHOW NOTES continued

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