There are days when I find it difficult to describe the situations that occur as I seek to help my refugee friends to achieve successful resettlement. I often feel that if I hear one more tragic story I’ll just have to scream and run away. Or if I have to deal with one more person that is insensitive, harsh and uncaring to my friends or to me as I try hard to help my friends then I may also want to scream and run away.

To me some of the craziest things happen, but they are opportunities to share love. While I say I feel like running away sometimes, I cannot and I won’t. I believe I’m supposed to be where I am for such a time as this. I know where real strength comes from…Jesus fill me up…I’ve spilled it all out today and I need more! Thank you Jesus that Your supply of strength, grace, hope and love is endless.

I thought I would try and make a list of the incidents or obstacles in our world that I or a coworker have had to face as we’ve been working with our friends. Some are heartbreaking. I think they are all opportunities to show love to others and for me to learn and gain understanding as well.

1. A refugee child was told by school teacher to go home and not come back to school until they had the right shoes on their feet. A child who was once so very excited about starting school was now crying, shamed by a teacher for not having the right shoes. (School requires tennis shoes. We went and bought tennis shoes for the child and the child has returned to school.)

2. A young, college-aged American laughed at the marks on my arms and said, “Did someone get hold of you with a sharpie?”. (I smiled as I told her it was Henna art drawn on me by my very dear friends. No, I had not gotten crazy, irresponsible and wild at a party. It was a neat opportunity to share.)

3. I stood in a school office alone with a refugee mom and her child, ready to register the child for school. After being ignored by two secretaries who were carrying on a personal conversation for  5-10 minutes, our presence was finally acknowledged, as though we were bothering them by simply occupying the same space. One of them very rudely asked, “Do you need something?!” I said that we needed to register a child for Kindergarten. (The Kindergartner had her backpack on and was carrying all the supplies…very excited to be in school for the first time.) We were quite rudely told that we would have to return at another time because they were finished registering children for school for the day. The problem was, the mom was dependent upon me for transportation and help completing the over-abundance of school forms required to enroll her child in school, I live 30 minutes away, and I had several other refugees waiting on me to help them with other needs. In the end, another lady who overheard the exchange, had compassion for us, and over-ruled the other not-so-helpful secretaries. My kindergarten friend was tested and we were given the registration forms to take with us, fill out, and return to the school the next morning so that the child can go to school starting Monday. This type of difficulty in navigating bureaucratic mazes is, unfortunately, something shared even by American citizens, and are particularly treacherous to those who don’t speak the language, don’t understand cultural nuances, and labor to simply get to the location where they’ve been told they will find help. If the people administrating the supposed “help” are bold enough to treat an American citizen with such disregard, imagine the powerlessness and discouragement our refugee friends must feel when they attempt these things on their own. Had this mother attempted to register her daughter by herself she would very likely have left with the impression that she could not register her daughter for school at all. By the time someone who cared enough to check on her was able to determine that there must have been a miscommunication was able to convince her to work up the courage to try again, her daughter would have missed weeks, and possibly months of school.

4. A new family of men struggled to get anyone to come help them fix their stove. After repeated phone calls and messages they were getting hungry not being able to cook and frustrated. It had been a couple of weeks or more. So they asked me, Jamie, to fix their gas stove. I had no clue how. I felt terrible for them and the people they say they called was who I would have suggested to call. I truly prayed and asked God to show me what to do. The Lord told me to pull out the stove to see if it was plugged in. (Plugged??? Gas stoves don’t use electric plugs.) The men pulled out the stove and I saw the gas line and a blue plastic lever. I turned the lever. The gas line had not been turned to on. I (God through me, sorry, but I hadn’t a clue) fixed the stove!

5. When a young child whose mother attends our ESL tutoring times was asked if she could fly anywhere where would she fly she replied, “To heaven to see my mom”. (We are encouraging and loving on this child as we are given the opportunity. Please pray for her. We will call her, Em.)

I could share more but I will save it for another day or for my coworkers to share. I’m exhausted today. It’s been a tough week, but I think a good one. Just love…