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Andrew Strom Date: Aug 25, 2010 12:33 PM ENTRY DENIED. All MEETINGS CANCELED. -Andrew Strom. I am very sorry to announce to those of you who were planning on attending some of our meetings over the next month that we have been denied entry to the USA and sadly will have to cancel all the meetings. My whole family were detained for over 6 hours at the US border yesterday (the USA side), questioned, photographed, fingerprinted like criminals - and sent back to Canada. We were told we could not come in to preach to a series of Christian groups like this - even though their website clearly says we CAN - and I have already been in TWICE THIS YEAR doing exactly the same thing. They let me in then - but no more. They even fingerprinted my 15-year-old daughter. None of us (except our 9 and 11-year olds) can even set foot in the USA again without going to the US Consulate and getting special permission. We literally are now in the "criminal" class according to US Immigration. All this because we were invited by church groups and Christian groups across the USA to come preach a series of meetings. They told me to do that I have to have an "R" visa. (These take months and months to get - often never). This is not what their website says. New Zealand is a "visa-waiver" country and Conference speakers are specifically allowed into the US under those rules. I asked them, "How then can a foreign preacher who is invited by a Christian group to the USA ever get in to preach?" They said maybe that is OK for one or two meetings, but not for a series. So we cannot preach in churches across the nation - even though that is exactly what they have let me in to do before. This is the first time I have ever been denied entry to do that very thing. And now we are all - very evidently - "criminals". Never to darken the door again. My family and I naturally came home from this pretty distraught and devastated. My daughter was crying in the car. Six hours is a long time to be detained like that. But, you know, at the end of the day, God is in control. I felt sure then and I feel sure now that even though this was so distressing, God was still speaking to us through it all. I believe He is the one who is slamming the door shut on America right now - and doing so in no uncertain terms. We have been praying and many others have been praying for too long for this to have just been "man's" decision. I accept it as the voice of God. America is over for us. WHERE to FROM HERE? The most likely thing is a return "Down-Under" to New Zealand and Australia. We have been away from home now - traveling and ministering - for 18 months. Perhaps it is time for a return to what the explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros called the "Great South Land of the Holy Spirit." I just want to apologize again to all those who wanted to attend our upcoming meetings. I am very sorry, my friends. Our family is still pretty shaken by all of this, so we would certainly appreciate your prayers at this time. -Please comment on this article at our website below- http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/ God bless you all. Andrew Strom. |
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