Celebrating Citizenship

On September 9, 2023, we celebrated our US citizenship. Below the videos, read the notes that I prepared for my (and Sue’s) speech. Matthew’s speech was improvised, so there are no notes!

Special thanks to Samantha Powell for providing the raw video for both pieces below, as well as to Matthew Holmes for editing the various clips into the more seamless videos with titles and some added still graphics.

Jim’s Video

Matthew’s Video

Life in One Act and Six Scenes So Far. . .

Thanks to Mel Duncan, the girls Megan and Claire, Dr. Megan Stapleton, the seminary, (and Sue for all her behind-the-scenes work to make this happen) and to you all for being here to share this day with us. And thank the Lord for His providence that we can be together in this way.
Sign our visitors’ book, please.
Take a flag as a memento of sharing this day with us.

Today, we stand in front of you as three new American citizens, but it was not always that way. Join me in your mind’s eye—your imagination—as I take you back some decades to the dark continent of Africa, where life is quite primitive

Scene 1:

Here’s a little boy who sees TV and movies for the first time. It’s cowboys and Indians, it’s chasing robbers, and it’s glamorous people in California living in mansions, high-rise buildings, and driving fast cars (on the wrong side of the road).

A little later in this scene, it’s tourists with funny accents and loud voices visiting Africa—people who seem to brag a lot and swagger when they walk.

This little boy in Africa doubts if he would ever even want to travel to America, never mind live there or become one of them!

Scene 2:

Here’s a man in his late thirties with his beautiful wife; he’s matured somewhat since scene 1, but he’s still doubtful about Americans. But the executive director where he works calls him into the office and says, “I want you to often visit America and meet our customers, and I want you to sell books there. Go there with your wife for a week and see what it’s like.”

Not many weeks later, that man and his wife are standing in Logan airport in Boston looking somewhat bewildered and feeling even more so. They are on a ten-day visit that will take them from the northeast through Mississippi, Oklahoma, and California. The man is thinking something like, “I hope this visit goes by quickly so we can get back home.”

But just a few days later, this same man is thinking something like, “Americans are just like me; they are ordinary people (apart from driving on the wrong side of the road). They don’t swagger, and I have not heard any of them brag. He asks his American counterpart, “So Mike, do you think you could see me and my wife living here in America one day?” His answer is quick and unequivocal: “Yes!”

Scene 3:

This man, now in his forties and with more than thirty transatlantic flights on his record is standing on the campus of the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, (MacArthur’s church) at a Shepherds’ Conference. There’s a big, smiling, friendly man with a southern accent he meets there. He works for Ligonier Ministries. “Jim,” he says, “I would love for you to come to Greenville, SC; it’s a beautiful place and you would love the people there!”

Not too long after that, someone else from Greenville SC persistently invites him, so on one of his visits from the UK, he adds more flights to his itinerary and takes a weekend in South Carolina. He finds himself thinking, “Hmm, this is a really nice place; I think I could live here. There’s Bob Jones University, a school where my son could go to, and the people are so friendly.”

Scene 4

Some years have passed and this African-born man, now past the fifty-year mark, is loading several luggage pieces into a rental car having just arrived at GSP. His wife and son are with him. They are exhausted after nearly twenty hours of traveling from Britain. He’s come to America on a work visa with a mandate from his British bosses: “Stop flying to America all the time. Go there and build the business!” Soon they are settled in a rental property near BJU and driving a beat-up old Volvo with nearly quarter of a million miles on the clock. Their son is checked in at the elementary school and they are learning the new language of American!

Life is not easy for this family. There are health and economic hardship challenges to navigate. No one in this family was born with a silver spoon in the mouth. There is, as it were, blood, sweat, and tears. They learn to “Suck it up, Buttercup!”

Scene 5:

Now into the 20-teens, this same family—now much better at speaking and understanding American and loving being in South Carolina—are praying that their Green Card application will be approved. There have been some hiccups in the process and he’s feeling, to quote John Calvin, that “We’ll need to have a lot of luck if the authorities really do approve this application and we will likely have to return to the UK.” It’s that sinking feeling in your gut.

But many people are praying for the family. One man from Ohio says, “Jim, you have embraced us, and we have embraced you.” Another man from Pennsylvania says, “Jim, you were an American long before you ever came here.” There are two factors at work here: prayer and the providence of God. Late one night, as he is viewing the status of their permanent residence application online, he calls his wife to the computer: “Sue, look at this—do you read it that our application is approved and we will get a Green Card?” They are ecstatic!

Scene 6:

It’s now 2023 and, much sooner than expected, there are three official-looking pieces of mail in this family’s mailbox. They are being asked to report to the Department of Immigration in Greer in February to take the US Citizenship test. With a rush of blood to their heads, these three family members begin to review the citizenship application test questions and soon they know more than 100 aspects of American history and values—and in February, they swear the oath of allegiance to become genuine Americans—just like you all here!

As we close off this speech, we want several things to be clear to you:

Acts 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; (KJV)
Phil 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; (NASB 1995)
Ps 16:6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. (KJV)
2 Peter 3:13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (NASB1996)

I was on a plane last week in the northeast and met with a US army serviceman. I expressed appreciation to him for his service and told him we had recently become citizens, but I found it easy to say this to him: “Scott, I’m first a Christian and then an American; everything else flows out from that.”

We left our earthly family in Africa and Britain. We have no blood relatives on this continent. But we have new friends who have become family to us, and many of you are blood-bought children of God—saved by His grace. You are His family, and you have become our family.

God bless you all; and God bless America!