If fear of flying, trouble getting a passport or the logistics of traveling internationally have prevented you from being able to take the gospel to the nations in the past, congratulations.
The government has solved the problem for you.
Just ask Andrew Kelley.
From where Kelley stands, he can see about 40 nations, all a stone’s throw from a Walmart and a closer drive from Alabama than a lot of SEC away games.
Iraqis. Haitians. Somalis.
Bhutanese. Sudanese. Filipinos.
And 30-plus more, many of whom were in refugee camps back home before coming to tiny Clarkston, Ga., via the United Nations under the U.S.’s immigrant quota.
The needs are great, Kelley said.
When the several thousand refugees got there, “they got a government subsidy for a few months and were told to learn the language and find a job on their own.”
So the opportunity to ease the burden and make an impact is huge, he said.
“We want to experiment to try to partner people with these people groups and reach the nations here at home,” he said.
One people group — Bhutanese refugees — have already found such a friend in First Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association.
And the Bhutanese definitely needed a friend.
Nepali by birth, this group of people migrated naturally over the course of time from Nepal to Bhutan. They nested there — farmers by trade, Hindus by religion — for a couple hundred years until one day in 1990 when Bhutan, a Buddhist nation, decided it was time for ethnic cleansing.
They told the Nepali-Bhutanese people to grab what they could in their hands, smile pretty for the camera so they’d look happy about leaving, relinquish their Bhutanese citizenship in writing, then get out of town.
It happened in a little more than a week, Kelley said.
“They carried whatever they could at night to escape, then headed to India, but they congregated on the border there and India wouldn’t let them in,” he said. “They sent them to Nepal, but Nepal didn’t want them.”
Nepal put them — 100,000 of them — in refugee camps. They stayed there about 18 years until seven nations including the United States agreed to assimilate them, Kelley explained.
Bhutanese refugees, welcome to Clarkston, Ga., population 7,000.
When some members of First, Montgomery, heard about this microcosm of the world just outside of Atlanta, they went this summer to see for themselves.
And they saw that it looked a lot like other places, like India, and not a lot like Georgia at all.
“This is an international missions project three hours down the road,” said Chris Mills, a member of the 20s singles class at First, Montgomery. “We realized the first time we went that the opportunity was much bigger than we ever dreamed it could be.”
Mills has led several teams to minister to Bhutanese refugees since that first trip in July. Starting with the 20s singles class, then the whole singles ministry, the project has expanded into the entire church body. The groups have led Vacation Bible School, visited door to door and had tea with the Bhutanese and on Thanksgiving threw a block party with a full Thanksgiving dinner and games for the kids.
“The goal of the Thanksgiving project was to go into the apartments to draw out the community, see who’s there and what their beliefs are,” said Mills, who also serves as an associate in communications services at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “Our goal is to see churches planted among the Bhutanese people there.”
That’s Kelley’s goal, too.
The local Stone Mountain Baptist Association already works with 14 different language churches in the area, including one Nepali language church. But transportation to churches can be a problem for refugees, and some pastors are spending $60 to $90 each Sunday busing people in for church.
“So we are trying to take the church to them by starting home churches in these apartment complexes,” Kelley said. “We are needing churches to come work among these other ethnic groups here. You name it (a nationality), and the nations are right here.”
Some peoples have fledgling groups of believers, but others, like the Somalis, don’t have a known believer among them, he said. “When a group like Montgomery comes in (to help with a people group), it helps us make contact with other people who need to be reached and build relationships.”
It also has opened up a world of opportunity for members of First, Montgomery, to have their eyes opened to missions.
“Going far away is great — wonderful — but a lot of times especially our members in their 20s don’t have that kind of money or time away from work to go that far,” said Kathy Cooper, minister to single adults at First, Montgomery. “This provides a chance for the nations to come to them, where we can fulfill the Great Commission right in our own backyard.”
Singles went, couples went and families went and took their children to the Thanksgiving project, “the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in years,” Cooper said. “We showed up and God showed up.”
And once they show up, church members don’t come back the same, Mills said.
“Anyone that’s been will tell you it’s eye-opening,” he said. “It’s a huge encouragement and a huge challenge. My heart is breaking for these people.”
Kelley will say quickly that seeing hearts break for the nations there in Clarkston is not something he takes lightly. He and his wife, Rebecca, are hoping to head overseas soon to work in an area of Asia where the gospel is not prevalent, among a people group similar to some of the ones he’s working among now.
“My wife and I were in the application process to go overseas, but various things delayed us. We had trouble selling our house, then the International Mission Board had funding issues it was facing,” he said.
So while they waited, the Kelleys decided to spend their time getting to know the people they hoped to work among one day — or even to get a head start on reaching them for Christ.
Clarkston is the kind of place that has the potential to spread the gospel around the world, Mills said. “If [the refugees] were to ever go back home, or to communicate with others back in their countries, they could share the gospel there in ways we never could.”
“God has brought the nations to us,” he said. “As believers, we have responsibilities to take the gospel to the nations, and that has never been easier than it is now.”
For more information about working among refugees in Clarkston, contact Stone Mountain Association at 770-483-2776.
Editor’s Note — Some of the names have been changed for security reasons.
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