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Denver Newsroom, Aug 14, 2020 / 05:05 pm (CNA).- A Portland street evangelist whose Bibles were burned in an Aug. 1 street protest says although he is disappointed that some of the Bibles he distributed were destroyed, he believes the positive impact of his ministry outweighs the negative actions of a few protestors.

Alan Summerhill, an Evangelical Christian, told CNA he has been giving out free Bibles out of his truck in cities across the Pacific Northwest ever since his retirement three and a half years ago. He said he typically buys cases of Bibles, for about a dollar per book, to give away.

He told CNA his evangelistic mission has brought him to cities throughout the US, but his main focus is the Portland, Oregon area. In addition to giving out Bibles, Summerhill said he also prays outside the local Planned Parenthood several days a week.

When the protests started in Portland around May 28, Alan was on the road. When he got back, he said he was somewhat reticent to approach the protests, but ultimately decided to go because of the evangelistic opportunity. So he parked his truck near the federal courthouse, the epicenter of most of the protest activity.

The Portland protests often have taken the form of crowds of hundreds of masked people protesting, ostensibly, against racism, police brutality, and fascism.

Summerhill, who told CNA he is “nearly 60,” said that he gave away dozens of free Bibles to street protestors in Portland during the week leading up to Aug. 1— most of which were surprisingly well-received.

“When I’m out, I find a great hunger and desire for the Word,” he said.

He said between the night of Sunday, July 26 and the following Friday, he gave out 68 Bibles in downtown Portland, all “to people who appeared to eagerly want them.”

But in the early morning hours of Aug. 1, masked protestors burned two Bibles, along with several American flags, in a bonfire in the street during the protest outside the federal courthouse.

Summerhill did not witness his Bibles being burned, but he says when he saw a video posted online of the burnings, there was no mistaking the red-and-white cover of the New King James Version (NKJV) Bibles that he distributes.

While reports of the incident from both local sources and national media, mentioned “a truck” giving out free Bibles that night, Summerhill said no one had contacted him to ask if he had provided the Bibles until he was reached by CNA.

Some media outlets reported “stacks” of Bibles burned in the streets on Aug. 1, which Summerhill and other sources have confirmed was not accurate. Summerhill “unequivocally” denied that any of his Bibles were ever unsecured, stolen, or taken in “stacks” to be burned.

Despite his disappointment that a few protestors showed such disrespect for the Bibles he gave out, Summerhill is optimistic that the many Bibles he distributed will make an impact, even if the burned ones are gone.

“I see maybe two being burned after a week where almost 70 were distributed. Many more were prayed with. Many, many more welcomed us. The Gospel is proclaimed,” Summerhill said in an Aug. 1 tweet.

“Jesus is declared. There remains an unreported story.”

Summerhill told CNA that in his ministry, he has given out about 450 Bibles this year, and talked and prayed with many passersby. He stressed that his ministry is not about him or his own fame and recognition, but rather about meeting people where they are and ministering to them.

Every time he hands out a free Bible, Summerhill says he asks the recipient to read it and be willing to discuss it with him if they see him again. He says nearly everyone agrees to those conditions.

Summerhill said his ministry is different than what most people might think of when they envision Evangelical street ministry. He does not carry a bullhorn, does not preach, and he does not aggressively push his Bibles on passersby, he said.

Instead, he merely puts up his “Free Bibles” sign and waits for people to approach him, he said.

“And I’ve averaged about a Bible an hour over the past three years,” of being outside with the sign, he said.

Handing out Bibles at the Portland protests was not without danger, he said.

Federal agents responding to the protests in Portland have garnered criticism for using tear gas and other forceful methods against protesters. Summerhill himself says he was, at one point, caught in a tear gas assault as federal agents attempted to break up the protests.

Some of the protests have been accompanied by riots and looting. In addition to extensive property damage in the city’s downtown, there have been occasional incidents of violence within or adjacent to the protests, including shootings and stabbings.

Despite this, Summerhill says he has observed mostly peaceful demonstrations in the downtown area where he and a mission partner have worked to spread the Gospel.

“The three days I was there…I would say we were welcomed. The narrative of what’s going on seems to be fueled by people with a political agenda,” he opined.

Summerhill pointed out that neither he, nor anyone else who has yet publicly come forward, knows who exactly it was who burned the Bibles on Aug. 1. He said he thinks it could easily have been provocateurs from either side of the political divide.

“I have every reason to wonder who was burning the Bibles. No one has claimed responsibility, no one has identified anybody,” he said.

Summerhill noted that he sees God among many Black Lives Matters protestors. As a firsthand observer of the protests, he said the widespread perception of the protestors as a monolithic, Godless, and Marxist movement is inaccurate.

He added that he does not support the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, an organization that promotes LGBT ideology and is often an organizer of Black Lives Matter protests.

But Summerhill said he personally has met many protestors, both in Portland and Seattle, who told him they identify as Christian.

“It is flat wrong to say that there is no Christian element in what is going on in Portland,” he said.

“The answer to our problems is Jesus Christ. And if we can’t figure that out, we might as well throw in the towel.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Dec 19, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- The death of a seven-year-old asylum seeker in federal custody is a reminder that immigration policies can have life and death consequences, the U.S. bishops’ conference migration committee chairman said Tuesday.

“We are extremely distressed at the news of seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin’s death shortly after crossing the U.S./Mexico border with her father and turning themselves into CBP in search of asylum in the United States. Our prayers and heart-felt condolences go out to Jakelin’s family,” Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, chairman of the USCCB committee on migration, said in a Dec. 18 joint statement with Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso and Bishop Gerald Kicanas, temporary administrator of the Las Cruces diocese.

“The death of a child is always a moment of great sadness, a jarring disruption of the natural order of life.”

“From this tragedy, we must remember this profound human consequence of our failed immigration policies, including also that restrictions on the flow of asylum seekers at the border can push more families to seek entrance between ports of entry which place them at greater risk, the statement added.

Maquin died Dec. 8 in an El Paso hospital. She was apprehended two days earlier with her father, along with 161 other asylum seekers who turned themselves in to U.S. agents near a port of entry south of Lordsburg, N.M.  She and her father had traveled to the U.S. border from the small village of Raxruha, Guatemala. The journey to the U.S. took nearly a week. The pair were not a part of the so-called “migration caravans” that have sought entry into the United States in recent weeks.

In Guetemala, the girl lived a “tiny wooden house with a straw roof, dirt floors, a few bedsheets and a fire pit for cooking, where Jakelin used to sleep with her parents and three siblings. The brothers are barefoot, their feet caked with mud and their clothes in tatters,” according to the Associated Press.

At that house, “a heart constructed out of wood and wrapped in plastic announces Jakelin’s death,” the Associated Press reported.

Maquin began having seizures more than eight hours after she was apprehended. She had a fever that exceeded 105 degrees, and according to Customs and Border Protection officials, she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

She was airlifted to Providence Children’s Hospital in El Paso, however, she went into cardiac arrest and died less than 24 hours later.

Federal officials says that Maquin’s father did not report that he or his daughter were ill when they were apprehended. Her father, Nery Gilberto Call Cruz, has insisted that the girl had food and water during the journey, according to the Guardian.

“Jakelin’s father took care of Jakelin, made sure she was fed and had sufficient water. She and her father sought asylum from border patrol as soon as they crossed the border. She had not suffered from a lack of water or food prior to approaching the border,” a statement from Cruz’ lawyer said.

Cruz’ lawyer has also claimed that forms requesting information about his daughter’s condition were made available only in English, which Cruz does not speak or read. While Cruz apparently spoke with border agents in Spanish, his primary language is Mayan Q’eqchi’, a fact which may have added to a failure of communication between Cruz and federal officials.

While federal officials say that food and water was available to Maquin while she was in custody, some have reported that available water in immigration detention facilities is often dirty and in limited supply.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen told reporters Friday that federal officials did all they could in the situation.

“What happened was they were about 90 miles away from where we could process them. They came in such a large crowd that it took our border patrol folks a couple times to get them all. We gave immediate care, we’ll continue to look into the situation, but again, I cannot stress enough how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally,” Nielson said Dec. 14.

On the same day, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that Macquin’s was “a needless death, and it’s 100 percent preventable. If we could just come together and pass some common sense laws to disincentivize people from coming up from the border and encourage them to do it the right way, the legal way, then those types of deaths, those types of assaults, those types of rapes, the child smuggling, the human trafficking that would all come to an end. And we hope Democrats join the president.”

When asked whether the presidential administration bore any responsibility for Macquin’s death, Hogan responded rhetorically: “Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country? No.”

For their part, Vasquez and the U.S. bishops’ conference are awaiting the results of a federal investigation.

“We welcome the investigation of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General. We recognize the work and commitment of CBP officers to ensure our safety, but urge CBP leadership to critically review policies regarding the care of vulnerable populations in their custody. We pledge our assistance to help CBP do so.”

“As we prepare to celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus, himself a child whose parents were told ‘there is no room,’ we continue to recognize and affirm that seeking asylum and protection is legal. As a nation, we have the obligation to receive distraught individuals and families with welcome, compassion, and humane treatment. We must heed the words of Christ that ‘Whatsoever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,’” the bishops concluded.

“Jakelin’s death is a tragic reminder of the desperate situation that many fleeing violence, persecution, and poverty face – both in their home countries and now at our border.”
 

[…]

St. Paul, Minn., Nov 3, 2019 / 03:10 am (CNA).- Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion are too important for pro-abortion groups to eliminate through a single lawsuit, pro-life defenders of the 13 challenged laws have said.

Paul Stark, communicati… […]