World Relief, Part 2

This is the continuation of the story about World Relief and a conversation with its Volunteer Coordinator, Joshua Sieweke. Part 1 was posted on June 2nd. Please read it first.

(cont.)

Greg: What is it like for a non-Christian to come to America and be delivered into the care of a Christian volunteer?

Joshua: That is one thing that really excites me about refugee resettlement and the particular role of World Relief. A lot of our refugees are Muslims, and most Muslims have very poor characterizations of Christians. When we help them, we are able to challenge those perceptions and give them new ideas about the Christian faith and what kind of people Christians really are. It is very exciting to be a part of that process.

Greg: Have you witnessed or do you know of any conversions of faith?

Joshua: While there are a number of Muslims who are expressing interest in Christianity, I am more familiar with conversions among the Bhutanese people who are typically either Hindu or Buddhist. Today Michael could tell you stories about Baptisms he has done for the people of Bhutan now living here in Atlanta.

Greg: How do you decide which volunteer to match with a refugee?

Joshua: Our desire is to facilitate the God given passions and gifts of our volunteers. We will base matches on that and the volunteer’s worldly experiences. Many volunteers have a particular language skill or vocational talent that makes them a perfect match for certain refugee families.

Greg: That’s a good lead to my next question. What is the reward for a volunteer who elects to work with a refugee family?

Joshua: I’m sure the greatest reward for a volunteer is the opportunity to tangibly experience God’s love through the care they are providing the refugees. I think all volunteers begin their interaction with the refugees believing they are giving something to the refugee families, and they are. But after a while, as the volunteers get to know the families and understand their unique story, the volunteers begin to realize they are a part of God’s provision for the refugees. It becomes a testimony of God’s desire and ability to provide for all of us. It is wonderful to realize we serve a God who does that. Although most of us will never experience the conditions the refugees have experienced, it is reassuring to us that should we face such adversity, God will be there for us too.

Joshua then wanted to show me a video of the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. It was brief, but powerful. I learned that Christians and people believed not to be of Bhutanese descent were forced to leave the country during the early 1980’s. In the next ten years over 100,000 people became refugees, fleeing to camps in Nepal and India.

In the video I saw where members of Michael’s family had once lived. Members of three generations crowded into a hut made of bamboo and held together with mud and rope. It had a thatch roof and a dirt floor. There was no running water, a hole in the ground served as a toilet, and meals were cooked over a small fire or on the single gas burner of a camp stove. Meals consisted largely of rice. Nearby the school house and church shared the same hut. It, too, was made in the same way as the living quarters. There were no desks or pews, only mats on the dirt floor.

These are the conditions Michael and his family lived in for sixteen years. They were forced to leave Bhutan because they had converted to Christianity.

The time had come for me to meet Michael. Joshua took me to an apartment complex in Clarkston that provides affordable housing to the refugees resettled by World Relief. Michael’s wife greeted us at the door and offered a traditional Bhutanese meal for our lunch.

Dining on a wonderful chicken dish, rice and lentils, spicy bitter greens and sliced cucumber, I listened as Michael told his story. I did not want to make him uncomfortable by using my recorder, so I can only tell you what I remember of what he told me. Rest assured, I was mesmerized.

Born a Hindu, Michael had never heard of Christianity until he was in his twenties, and only then after he caught a glimpse of a picture hanging in a tucked away place on a friend’s wall. It was a graphic image depicting Hell, he learned after asking his friend what the picture meant. His friend then offered to tell him about Heaven, promising Michael that if he came to believe in God, he would never see Hell.

For the next two years Michael and his friend met in remote places, hidden in tall grass or thickets of brush in the forest to evade being caught by the Elders of the community. There they talked about God and Jesus Christ. The Lord’s message spoke profoundly to Michael, and although he feared for his life, he eventually accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and was baptized by his friend. Thereafter, he went to work converting his family, then later a few close friends, and became so in love with the Lord that he overcame his fear and began to evangelize in his community.

Openly living as a Christian and passionately preaching the Word to Hindus and Buddhists, Michael came to the attention of the government officials who had begun the ethnic cleansing of Bhutan. He was given only a few days to leave the country or face imprisonment. He knew prison would mean his death, so he and his extended family left Bhutan for a refugee camp in Nepal.

Sixteen years later, a church in Georgia sponsored Michael and helped him obtain a religious worker’s visa. After entering the US with this visa, he applied for asylum and received permanent resident status as an asylee. World Relief was then able to assist him through its Match Grant Program which serves both refugees and asylees. Michael’s family relocated to Atlanta where he became a pastor and now leads a small church attended mostly by other refugees from Bhutan. He wanted to introduce me to a member of his congregation who lives in a nearby apartment.

In that apartment, surrounded by others from Bhutan who had also come to hear the stories of conversion and flight retold, I listened as another man told me of his experiences as a refugee. His were not unlike Michael’s. And like Michael, he spoke of his love for the Lord, even though he had to leave everything behind in order to live in the open as a Christian.

At the end of our visit I asked this gentleman if there was anything he wanted me to convey in this story. He nodded and pointed to his father who sat silently in a dark corner. He did not speak or comprehend English, but nevertheless smiled at Joshua and me each time our eyes met.

“He is lonely for his country because he has no friends here. If he had friends, someone who reassured him that everything will be all right in this country, he will finally rest, and sleep.”

Before I left I asked Michael to pray for me as I wrote this story. I asked him to ask God to use this story to bring new volunteers to World Relief.

Michael smiled, bowed his head, and honored my request.

And now the rest is up to you.