Pew Research posted a brief article last month on global remittance flows. It contains an excellent interactive map worth your time. In 2016, an estimated $574 billion dollars (US) was sent by migrants back to their home countries. While that number is slightly down from the previous year, that is still a ton-o-money. And this amount is almost double what it was a decade ago. Dollars earned in other countries are sent home to support relatives and develop communities.
And here is the point for us to keep in mind: People move, relationships remain.
“Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth” (Ps 67:4, ESV).
Those Moroccans down the street have strong friendships in Tangier. The Somali in your local coffee shop have loved ones in Mogadishu. Your Nepali server at dinner last night has children in Pokhara.
Do we have Great Commission eyes to see the fields around us and the transnational relational bridges our Sovereign Lord has allowed to remain in place?
Those relationships carry the dollar to distant lands. Why can’t they carry the gospel too?
Who will you “see” this week? A man or woman standing in front of you? Or, will you also see their social networks?
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