A couple of months ago I asked for prayer due to our high need for translators and volunteers. The Lord has been so gracious to provide amazing people for His work. For Tea House, specifically, there has been great need for a female translator and for volunteers who are invested and consistent. We have a young woman from Syria who is translating for us now. Not only is she incredible with the women and children, but she fluently speaks Arabic, English, Turkish and Kurdish. I will admit, I had felt even more discouraged with volunteers. I could clearly see the needs at Tea House and areas where we could grow and improve, but we just didn’t have enough people. We now have a few new volunteers that are incredible, but one couple stands out to me. They are engaged, the man is from Syria (he is fluent in English) and the woman is from Germany (also speaks English and Turkish fluently). They have only been helping a few weeks but from the beginning their dedication and love for our refugee friends was apparent. They have full time jobs but spend half of Saturday at Tea House and have asked to join us on house visits as well. They even went out of their way to buy a cake (enough cake to feed 60 people) for a little girl’s birthday last week so we could all celebrate together.
I know that, with this type of work, the seasons of need will come frequently; people come and go with so much fluidity that it can be hard to keep up. But this last Saturday, when I stood and watched everyone at Tea House together singing happy birthday (in Arabic, Turkish and English), I was overwhelmed with gratitude for how perfectly the Father provides, above and beyond what we need, in His time. And I am so happy that I get to witness moments like this and share them with all of you.