I was alone with Mohammed for about 15 minutes as we drove together in the cab of a truck. We were helping a friend move into a new apartment. Quickly, Mohammed shared how over a year ago, while already living as a refugee in another country, he had returned to where his family was staying at the time only to find the place empty and everyone gone. While he was away, the authorities had come and deported his entire family out of the country, and now they were lost! Read the rest of this entry »
People are created in the image of God, and this gives us all common ground that I want to support and relate to.
I had supper last night with the national champion of Uganda in the 100 meter dash named Kevin. He was orphaned at the age of 7. At his parents funeral, Kevin along with his siblings was sent to live with different relatives. He longed to be together with his own family again. It was a hard time, and some days he thought how his parents must be in a better place. Read the rest of this entry »
I met Oliver a few weeks after he was released from detention as an illegal immigrant. I was talking with him about what he had been through, fishing for some way to open up a conversation, when all of a sudden I said something only halfway literate, “This has been a long journey for you, and in a way every body is like a refugee. We are all on a journey.” Uh oh, I thought with that I better just watch t.v.
Oliver perked up, “I like how you say everybody is like a refugee, because this is true. We are first people before we are anything else. Becoming a refugee for me saved my life. Only when I was detained and every dream and hope I had was taken from me did I finally stop to ask God, ‘Why am I here?’”
Okay! -forget myself, listen to Oliver!
As he shared from his experience, I realized that his witness as a Christian has been shaped by what I would call the human factor. Oliver lives in a refugee house with several others. There are asylum seekers from Nigeria, Somalia and the middle-east, Christians and Muslims all living under one roof.
I could tell it is not an easy dynamic. One bathes in the kitchen sink, another plays his music real loud and everyone wags their finger at the other when they can’t communicate. Yet, despite the differences, Oliver as a Christian has been able to build a friendship with one of his muslim roommates.
I think Oliver has discovered the importance and value of building on the human factor. He said, “we have focused on what makes us the same as people. For example, we all have the same stress as asylum seekers. God has made us all alike in body and soul. If a girl breaks your heart in some way, then you feel a pain, and it is the same pain for all of us, and it won’t go away.”