Over the past couple months I’ve experienced the refugee plight in a more significant way than ever before. I know my experience has been just a taste of what it means to be an outcast without much hope of a future in this world, but even a taste has been impactful. It has also served to bring truths of scripture to life in a whole new way. I’d like to specifically highlight one of these stories.
As you may know, a few young Afghan and Iranian men from a refugee shelter made the decision to follow Christ, and a couple teammates and I have been supporting them through their journey in any way we can. Recently, a few of them recently had to leave the shelter for a variety of reasons, and three of them, *Tam, *Kam, and *Had, were left homeless. My teammates and I decided that brothers don’t let each other go without shelter, and so we embarked on a quest to remedy that. Little did we know how challenging and extensive the task would be, and it wasn’t until a few weeks of navigating the Turkish housing system that we finally found a suitable place.
During that time, I was struck with the reality that, besides us, these young guys had no community or even governmental safeguards in this context to assist them. They were completely on their own to simply find a place to sleep every night. Not only that, but as we spent so much time together in the house hunt, we were also able to enter into more involved discussions about their future. We talked about the current freeze on all Afghan refugee cases, and how those cases have very little hope of ever getting accepted. It sunk in that these brothers currently have little hope of getting to a place that would grant them access to what we consider basic human essentials, like the right to work and receive an education.
Despite the discouragement associated with experiencing more intimately what it means to be refugee, many scriptures have come to life in a new way, and truths that I may have previously passed over now jump out with a new flavor. God’s promise to “work righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed” is more appealing. Jesus’ blessing on those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” makes more sense. And I long more for the mustard seed-like kingdom that Jesus brought to be fully grown, where there won’t be “mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.” The scriptures have also shown themselves trustworthy in these guys’ lives in many ways. James’ remark that “God chose what is poor in this world to be rich in faith” rings true in them. The tremendous growth I’ve seen in them in such a short amount of time is a great testimony to the positive effect of suffering and challenges, and how we truly can “count them all joy.”
And despite the difficult situation these men are in, God has been working for them in ways visible to everyone. He has provided them with a new house and support network, and given them opportunity and drive to pursue education and sustainable work. I look forward to seeing what else He has in store for them.