Hospitality and humility are at the forefront of Christian living and Jeung’s journey reminds me that I can be more of both. Much more.

Sometimes we are foreign in our own faith and homeland. I’m currently reading At Home in Exile: Finding Jesus among My Ancestors & Refugee Neighbors by Dr. Russell Jeung. I find his words gripping when he speaks of social justice and following Jesus into the Murder Dubs (Oak Park, California) to live among the oppressed.

Can we be as Nehemiah when he rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls? Jeung urges his reader to “..be set apart by our solidarity with the poor and concern for the common good.” Sometimes we glorify poverty. We idolize our efforts to be able to bring relief to the impoverished, but how ignorant a mindset.

To know Jesus and to identify with him means to identify and connect with our marginalized ancestors, our own history.

Jeung identifies as Chinese American and takes the reader on a journey through the history of Chinese immigrating to America and their marginalization here in the United States. It’s alike the Latino(a) experience in so many ways.

Although this book didn’t reveal any AHA! moments to me, I was still humbled by the journey and work ethic of Chinese Americans. I long for books which reflect social justice and the Christian journey. What is it to be both? What does that look like and are we doing the best we can to fulfill our duties as Christians by defending the oppressed? I keep researching and reading.

I’m glad I happened upon this book in my research. I recommend it if you’d like a tame approach to Jesus and social justice as one unit.

Encouraging read will bevr3commending as indicated from counseling

At Home in Exile

Finding Jesus among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors



by Russell Jeung

Zondervan Academic

Zondervan



Biographies & Memoirs

Pub Date 04 Oct 2016

I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of At Home In Exile through the publishrr and Netgalley:

In 1992 Russel Jeung moved in with Dan Scmidt an Urban missionary in Oakland California. His move to the Oak Park apartments a Cambodian village in the American Ghetto.

The Oak Park Apartments were in the middle of what was referred to as The Murdered Dubs, the neighborhood between 20th and 29th Avenues.

The Oak Park Apartments was a far cry from his highschool career at Lowell Highschool a magnet school in San Francisco. His class, the class of 1980 included A Nobel Prize Winner, A Pulitzer Prize Winner and a best selling international author.

After graduating Stanford University he would spend 1985 and 1986 in Wuhan China teaching English. While there he would read everything that they had in English in the area because he could not watch television not being able to understand the language.

After returning from China he began attending Grace Community Church, a church that combined his Evangelical Faith, and Social Activism.

Russel Jeung lived at Oak Park during the height of the crack academic, and he would face very real danger.

Russel opens up about the danger he saw the way some children in this impoverished area would get sick from lack of proper nutrition.

In 1999 The Oak Park Apartments were condemned forcing its residence to look for a new place to live.

At Home in Exile is one man's story, a story of a willingness to make a difference, to make sacrifices in order to reach out and help those in need.

I give At Home in Exile five out of five stars.

Happy Reading

Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone can tell their story very well. This book is very well written and thought provoking. I absolutely love this book! It's different from any other Christian book I've read. I'm glad I read this book because it made me think a lot, and I plan to share it with others.

I want to say to Russell Jeung, thank you for sharing your beautiful story with us.

A copy of this ebook was generously provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.