WHY WE're BANNED FROM AMERICA - Andrew Strom
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
by Andrew Strom
Over the years people have asked me why I no longer preach in
the United States. The sad fact is - it has now been almost ten
years since I and my family were banned (indefinitely) from entry.
I have sadly not set foot in that nation ever since.
It was during our move to Ontario, Canada, that we were banned.
We were set to hold 19 meetings in the USA over a period of 30
days along the way. But we got stopped at the US border and all
our meetings had to be cancelled. They made it clear this was
an indefinite (or permanent) ban. Since we had done nothing wrong
and had always exited the country on time - we were quite shocked.
I tried to show the officer all my emails with our Realtor in Canada -
but he didn't want to see. I asked him to look me up on the Web
to prove I was indeed a known preacher - but again, he seemed
not to care. I even asked him if it was "against the constitution"
to prevent Christian meetings like this. All to no avail.
In the end, I simply came to the conclusion that we were no
longer meant to minister in the USA - and left it at that. Our
family returned home to New Zealand soon after.
However, just last week, since it has been so long, I felt I should
fill out an online form with the United States CBP to check if the
ban was still in place. I have yet to hear back - but we would
appreciate your prayers over this, my friends. Possibly we will
hear back in a month or two.
Meanwhile, below are some extracts from the original email that
I sent out ten years ago to give everyone the sad news-
ENTRY DENIED. All MEETINGS CANCELED.
-Andrew Strom. (25 Aug 2010).
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
... and sent back to Canada...
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...
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.
God bless you all.
Andrew Strom.