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 below.

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom..