Karen Gonzalez and the God Who Sees
Jan 31, 2024Karen Gonzalez is a native of Guatemala and is a speaker, writer and immigrant advocate. Karen works for World Relief and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology. Her first book is The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong. Today, Karen shares what it is like moving to a new country, how Christians can help immigrants, and what the Bible really says about how immigrants should be treated. While immigration is a political hot potato of a topic, Karen helps us take a fresh look at those around us and see them with God’s eyes.
Listen to Karen’s story now!
Stories Karen shared:
- Growing up in Guatemala in a Roman Catholic home
- Always being interested in faith and seeing different ways of interacting with God
- Leaving Guatemala due to war
- The difficulties of integrating into life in the United States
- Going to church with her grandmother and giving her life to Christ
- How to handle undocumented people in a Christian way
- Moving to Florida after receiving Green Cards
- Losing her mother to cancer
- The tug and pull between the two cultures she found herself in
- Discipleship as a college student
- Questioning things like the death penalty
- Discovering that the Gospel doesn’t “work” everywhere
- Going to seminary to get a more robust
- Why she wrote the God Who Sees using immigration stories
Great quotes from Karen:
Migration is a really traumatic experience.
What’s morally right and the right thing to do as a Christian is often at odds with the right thing to do as a U.S. citizen.
Seminary saved my faith.
Nobody’s faith is static.
Resources we mentioned:
- The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong
- Karen’s website
- When Life and Beliefs Collide by Caroline James
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