September 13th 2019
Oh hello, I guess this will serve as a place to gather my thoughts, and share my experiences as I begin the process of moving to the Middle East to pursue being a Refugee Aid Worker. I’m actually thankful for this outlet, for many of my thoughts remain in my head...I read so many books and intake so many stories all the time, that I find it almost funny to often have so much trouble with articulating what I’m thinking…
For the purpose of this blog, I’ll be going by Lorraine.
So, what’s the backstory? Why the drop-everything-and-move-across-the-world in a few months? Why go?
Last year, after making the decision not to finish college, I had the opportunity to move to Athens, Greece, and work alongside the refugee community in the city. I lived there for almost six months, and I went from not knowing anything about the global refugee crisis to working with two different organizations five days a week… to advocating for this oppressed and mistreated group of people. My perspectives and convictions on life were dramatically changed. When I came back to the States last June, I was devastated to not be doing the work that I felt called to do. I wasn’t going back to school, I had more student loans than you could even think of, and I was living back in Colorado, where I had grown up my whole life. I had just spent the last six months doing work that I love, and my relationship with the Lord was so concrete and clear. I went through a season that evidently produced so much fruit… in my own life, and the lives of those around me, and I could actually see it.
I knew the mountain of student debt was among one of the first problems to chip away at. I managed to start working three different jobs, one at a coffee shop, one taking care of twin baby boys, and one at a rooftop bar downtown. For the past 15 months, I’ve been working 70hrs/week, 7 days a week. I spent half of last year volunteering at an organization that worked with refugees downtown, I got to hold babies while their parents were being taught English.
Honestly, I’m not sure how that happened, it feels like I was almost floating through the year, so focused on getting out of the prison-dark-stormy-raincloud hanging over my head (aka student debt) that I just did it. Reflecting on it now, I realize that a lot of the relationships in my life took a hit from the lack of time I was able to give.
Anyway, right when I came back to America, I received a random email from GoCorps, informing me something about student debt forgiveness, about a way to go overseas for two years, and I was like what, woah I’m so interested in this. I applied in August of last year, taking a glimpse of the programs they offered, and the compassion/justice track caught my eye. After a long application process, I got offered a position to move to the Middle East and be a Refugee Aid Worker.
I chose to serve here because 99% of this country is Muslim, many of the people who live here have never met a Christian. They’ve never even had the option to choose if they want to follow Jesus, because they’ve never heard the Gospel. Well, the hope of God, the simple Gospel, changed my life, so much so that I intend to spend the rest of it serving others, and it would be an honor to introduce that opportunity to people who can’t imagine this hope that I’ve found. I have a big heart for social justice, I want to learn, I want to help, I want to grow! I can’t wait to start this journey. Here we go//updates to come.