Loving God and Loving My Multi-ethnic Neighbors

Years ago I moved to a cul de sac—a neighborhood street closed at one end. This neighborhood is very multi-ethnic, with the majority of the community including Middle Eastern, Jewish, Indian, and Asian-born outside the United States. I see the growing multi-ethnic population as a good opportunity to share Christ. From my understanding of the Scriptures, everyone is an ambassador for Christ, and we are all called to love, obey and serve Christ which includes sharing the Gospel to all nations. Since my multi-ethnic neighbors are right in front of me, reaching out to them is part of being obedient to Christ.

I was convinced that I needed to be obedient to the multi-ethnic community and not favor the communities with whom I am most comfortable. I do not have the opportunity to travel due to my personal responsibilities to care for the older and younger generations in my family. However, glocal missions present me with the opportunity to be a missionary all over the world by being a missionary to the multi-ethnic people within my community.

There are 36 homes in my neighborhood, and I endeavored to get to know the names of all the families in those homes. I started by introducing myself while trick-or-treating on Halloween with my children when they were small. From there I built up my knowledge of my neighbors by chatting with them every time I caught a glimpse of them. A few weeks ago I hosted a COVID-compliant block party for a long-time neighborhood family who were moving away. More than 25 neighbors stopped by to say goodbye and chat with each other. The new family who bought their house also came by, and I got to introduce them to many neighbors.

To make my neighbors feel that they are important to me, I drop what I am doing, walk over with a smile, and greet them whenever I happen to see them. This is a way for me to build relationships, and the neighbors respond well. At Christmas I pass out my family newsletter to all 36 neighbors. And when my kids were young we went door-to-door singing Christmas songs during the holidays. Several years ago when my son was battling cancer, I shared with my neighbors the link to the blog we kept during his treatment and eventual passing. Now when neighbors go through hardships, there is a way for me to show them the compassion of Christ.

When a neighbor is going through a rough time, I offer to pray with him or her. So far, I have prayed with Jews, Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Eastern Orthodox, and some whose background I do not know. I think because I knew their name, the names of their family members or pets, and also because they were going through a hard time, they allowed me to pray with them right there on the street. When I hear of a neighbor who has lost a loved one, I pop a card in their mailbox, and sometimes I attend the memorials. For some of the widows around me, I share food from my home. I often walk with my 77-year-old next door neighbor who is a widow with no children, and my husband fixes her computer problems. Through our care for the neighbors, we are able to share our faith without being too direct.

Sometimes my Christian outreach is not welcome by my neighbors. The family practice doctor who lives across the street from me told me several years ago to stop offering to pray with her and to stop inviting her to Christian events. My husband and I remain her closest friends on our block. My husband has an opportunity to help her regularly on issues with her aging house since she has no husband of her own. I have the opportunity to listen to her and admire her yard work. We pray that someday she will ask us about faith in the Lord. 

Two weeks ago I went to the memorial of a neighbor with whom I had a very long friendship. My mother-in-law and I were the only ones who could not understand the Russian spoken at the memorial. Sergey and I connected through walking our dogs to the same location and having many long conversations while our dogs ran around. Though he could understand English well, it was hard work for him to speak English. When his health began to suffer, I brought over Scriptures that I assembled and printed out to comfort him. I prayed with him several times even though as an Eastern Orthodox Christian all he knew of prayer was the crossing of the heart as the priest prayed at mass. And when he went into the hospital, I reached out to his wife. We held hands, prayed, and hugged many times as she worried about her husband. She texted me just a few hours after he died. After that I sent a group email to my neighbors to let them know of Sergey’s passing. Many emailed back grateful to know so they could send his widow a card. 

Sergey’s recent death at age 65 reminded me once again that I must not overlook any opportunity to share Christ with my neighbors. I am becoming more intentional by listing at least two neighbors to reach out to each week. Besides, I find the more I reach out to my neighbors, the more I care about them. To serve outside the church is to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and I hope that giving people a very attractive picture of Christianity will draw them to Christ. I believe that it is possible to bring the multi-ethnic community together through genuine friendship, and showing the neighbors my care for them.

I am inspired by my father-in-law and mother-in-law who also live on our cul de sac. Many years ago my father-in-law built and sold homes in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and the Los Altos area. One of his buyers was a Japanese man and his wife. They were so grateful because several homes on which they had made offers, they were blocked from buying because of post World War II lingering prejudice against the Japanese. For the rest of this dear Japanese man’s life, he would come over to my father-in-law’s house and trim his four fruit trees in gratitude for selling him their home. My husband has many fond childhood memories of this Japanese man.

It is my prayer that I can be a witness for Christ, and my ‘friendship evangelism’ out of my love to God and neighbors will bear fruit for HIS Kingdom. 

Author: Anne Bahl and her family lives in the heart of the Silicon Valley of California. She has been working with Juno Wang for her multi-ethnic park outreach ministry since September, 2017.