Tyler and Emily in PNG

When flying internationally it is a requirement to complete the postcard size immigration form. Questions such as have you been on a farm, you have nuts or fruit, do you have more than $10,000 on your person, etc. It also asks for the obvious such as passport number, nationality, place of residence, etc.

While traveling back to the USA in March our port of entry was Honolulu. I have processed through immigration and customs in Hawaii twice before so I knew the drill for that airport. As always, I complete my immigration form as honesty and truthfully as possible.

As a citizen of the USA, I am also a resident of the State of Alaska. I have a drivers license and voters registration to prove it. However, I am also a resident of Papua New Guinea since I live and work there. I have government documents to prove it as well. On the line that asks for country of residence, I wrote down, USA. I consider myself a resident of my home country, why would I think likewise.

During the interview at the immigration kiosk, the woman asked where we came from. I said, Papua New Guinea. What do you do there? We are missionaries with Pioneer Bible Translators. How long were you there? We live there as missionaries, but this stint was 15 months. She looked at our immigration form and saw we wrote down, USA as our place of residence. She crossed it out and wrote PNG. She replied, you are residents of PNG. I didn’t question her judgment and she proceeded by returning our immigration forms to us and we proceeded to customs.

This made me think, where is my residence? I thought I was a USA resident though the immigration official corrected me as a PNG resident. I guess both statements are true depending where I am coming from. Who knows?

However I think we are all wrong, our residency is not of this world nor does it have a country name. My residence has been stamped heavenly bound.

[As Pilate was trying Jesus he had Jesus many questions to one] Jesus responded, “My kingdom doesn’t belong to this world.” John 18:36