The church needs to be around foreigners, lest we forget what it’s like.

The church needs to remember what it’s like to be far from home, lest we begin to feel at home.

The church needs to witness what it’s like to leave the place of one’s birth behind, lest we forget that our homeland lies ahead of us, not behind.

The church needs to see the struggle of being different, lest we forget how different we are called to be.

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11–12)
“Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:19–20)
“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” (John 17:14–16)
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13–16)

The church needs to be around foreigners, lest we forget what it’s like.