Peter Dishman, Emigrant for the Gospel

Written by Peter Dishman, missionary to Mexico City and the guy in the middle with the tie - his website is here.

A long time ago, Ken asked me to send him a blog from Mexico City, where I work as a campus minister with Mission to the World (MTW) and Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). After a computer meltdown which may send me over to the dark side of Macintosh and a lot of end of semester activities, I am finally getting around to making good on my commitment to do something for BITB. Here goes…

On my desk I have a little green booklet that is very important to me. Inscribed on its drab green cover are these words: "United States of Mexico, Government Secretary, Non-Immigrant Migratory Document. FM3." This document brings joy to my heart.



Why do I love my olive colored booklet "printed in the graphic workshops of the nation"? First, because it represents a great deal of time fighting through bureaucratic madness. Although the National Institute of Migration has been upgraded substantially over the last several years, you still have to take the time to figure out that the "official payment forms" are to be found outside of the building at the snack bar, or that your picture will not be accepted unless it is precisely the right size and your hair is brushed off of your forehead so as not to obscure any potentially distinguishing marks.

Eventually you make it through, though, with the appropriate forms filled out, the appropriate documents translated, the appropriate lines waited in for hours, the appropriate moments spent wringing your hands and hoping that the agent won't be having a bad day or somehow take offense at you. It could take days, weeks, even months, but finally you are issued your new migratorial lifeline.

But my little booklet is important to me for another reason as well – it's my Mexican security blanket. When I take a trip out of Mexico and return, it says to the immigration agent that I am a legitimate visitor here. When I get pulled over by the police for a random check, it says to the police that they shouldn't impound my car since the green book protects it. And when I think about some official person asking whether I belong here or not on a long trip to a different part of the country, my little green book gives me increased confidence that even in that scenario things might still turn out OK. The little green book says that I belong here, if only temporarily.

All of this makes me wonder – what must it be like to live on the other side of the border, your side of the border, without a little green book? Definitely something to ponder and have a position on, given that an estimated 10% of Mexico lives in the United States, much of that percentage sans book.

And in a larger sense, what does it mean that our citizenship isn't ultimately in a country here on earth, but that "our citizenship is in heaven….[from where] we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body"? (Philippians 3:21)

Are we a little too dependent on our blue and green books for comfort?