“Again?” I’d just received word of yet another wrinkle in a very difficult situation that one of my students was walking through. I felt worn out of all the worry, all the difficulties, all the hoops we were trying to jump through to help her find an answer. At the same time, my social media feed was showing me comments condemning refugees, calling them trash, disparaging their worth as humans. A message from a co-worker dinged on my phone, a lament over the discouraging remarks her family members were making about her involvement with refugee friends. An update email arrived, detailing yet more unjust decisions that block avenues of asylum and help for refugee women facing domestic violence. What is going on in this world?
Let me be honest – the work isn’t easy. We post pictures of our lovely gathering times, of our classrooms and projects. Yes, these are beautiful. But they are all happening against a backdrop of looming trouble. For all of the staff and volunteers at Make Welcome, the current immigration landscape is bleak as the future for our legal (yes, completely legal and vetted) refugee students appears to be headed towards an all-hands on deck disaster. How do we help? What do we do? Is vocational training even useful now? The problems our students face feels so overwhelming that it can feel like we’re trying to empty the ocean with the proverbial teaspoon.
Reality check: It’s not about us.
Dr. Diane Langberg, in her excellent book Suffering and the Heart of God, issues a challenge to Christians to stop looking for comfort and to start following Jesus into places of darkness. “When our God interfaces with this world, he leaves the higher and descends. He leaves beauty and enters chaos. He leaves purity and goes into filthiness. And he demonstrates that our God does not just speak words, but also acts…we are called to love and obedience to Jesus Christ, no matter the cost.”
We feel weary of the new obstacles thrown in the paths of our refugee sisters. They feel completely helpless and anxious. We get overwhelmed by too many needed food deliveries. They have no way to actually feed their families. We are tired of hearing bad news and lamenting over injustice. They are staring down the barrel of family separation and deportation to countries where imprisonment, starvation or death awaits. To be commited for the long haul means leaning into walking with THEM and not giving up just because the work is harder for us.
“Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor—never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.” Elie Wiesel
Yes, we get tired, depressed, discouraged. But walking alongside a friend means that we are there no matter what. Proverbs reminds us that “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for times of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). If we step away now, then our claims of friendship and community building are empty. One thing that we’ve had to come to terms with is that we can’t always fix every situation. Sometimes things are going to go really, really bad for a family and we are helpless to fix it. This is when it’s easy to turn away and give up. As a ministry, we can’t do that and we won’t. To continue walking with our friends in even these seemingly hopeless places means weeping with those who weep, being broken by the injustice, and sitting in the pain. As Americans, we want easy answers and a good outcome, and walk away when this doesn’t happen. This, my friends, is not following Jesus.
We serve because these precious women are not just our students, but our friends and our sisters. As we enter a new stage of legal challenges and troubles for the refugee community, I want to affirm that Make Welcome will be there to walk alongside. We will make food deliveries. Show up in court hearings. We will advocate. Provide case management. We will help with paperwork. Sit and cry together. And with our programming, we will continue to offer classes because we’ve heard again and again that coming to the Women’s Center is place of comfort and community and joy.
A call to pray
Pray for Make Welcome in this season. Pray for our students to be safe, to be at peace, to know they’re valued and loved. Pray for God’s provision for their needs. Pray that Charlotte churches would step into welcoming the stranger, to loving their neighbor as themselves. Pray for our teachers to know when to teach and when to listen, when to follow the laid out schedule and when to provide trauma care. Most of all, pray the words of the prophet Amos, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”