The nature of the work that we do at Asha’s Refuge is so that we are consistently working with crisis type situations. There is always a need and there are always deadlines to meet. There are always people who are anxious about how to handle things appropriately so that they don’t get into trouble or miss an opportunity for help. Asha’s Refuge tries to not only point struggling refugees in the direction of help or success but we literally make an effort to lock arms with them and walk with them. We want to be their encourager and friend and we believe friends make time for one another sometimes to “get in the mud together”, link arms, and march joyfully towards pressing situations. The tasks at hand are great and Asha’s Refuge realizes that we cannot solve everything. We believe that the only way for real help and success to happen is for prayer to go first.

Seemingly little jobs tend to turn into large, lengthy, frustrating tasks. We may simply want to help someone go and get their prescription refilled. Sounds easy enough. Upon arrival to the pharmacy, we must wait in long lines to drop off the prescription, struggle through a lot of red tape with insurance, the pharmacy, and language barriers with our refugee friends, only then be told we must come back another day to pick the medication up for various reasons. (Keep in mind many volunteers drive 20-30 minutes to get to our friends.)

Maybe we want to make a phone call to the utility company for our friend to help them make payment arrangements for a bill that is late and about to cause a cut-off to occur. (Remember, our friends cannot speak English.) That phone call is often met by customer service employees who are simply doing their job but require the account holder to state things like their name, address, telephone number and birthdate before speaking with an Asha’s Refuge volunteer. The problem is that often the refugee doesn’t understand the simple questions that the operator is asking them. The operator loses patience and denies all our efforts to help. We have to then take the refugee into the utility office, take a number and sit and wait to be called on. When we finally are seen, the patience of workers is often thin and intimidates our refugee friends. I could go on with lists of examples where various volunteers who work with refugees in the Memphis area are met with challenges like these. Some days the challenges are so frustrating, I want to just cry.

I have to remember that Asha’s Refuge is not in a crisis situation. We must not get caught up in the way of the world, but rise above the kinds of things that can try and bring us and our friends down. We must press forward with love in our hearts and a sincere smile on our face. To accomplish this, I feel that we must pray first. We need prayer against the enemy who I believe just loves to keep us in confusion and circling. We must not get entangled in the dramas of the world.

I’m asking for supporters and readers to pray. Will you? Please pray for our refugee friends as they try and weave through the systems in place that can sometimes be so unforgiving. Please pray for Asha’s Refuge volunteers as we grow and learn better how to appropriately work the systems and tap into resources that are already out there and available to help our friends. Please pray for courage and strength. Pray for wisdom, joy and laughter along the way. Please pray for resources and much needed space. Please pray for protection and for opportunity upon opportunity to truly share the love message of Christ. May He make a way as He sees fit.

Thank you for your prayers.