Today is a pretty normal Tuesday for me…I’m on a plane (literally) heading somewhere to meet some people to talk about some exciting stuff, etc., but I cannot help but think of some other friends and what today holds for them.

First are the friends we met at Passion City Church Sunday night, a refugee family from Bhutan who just arrived in Atlanta on October 29. Dad, mom and their four children have been living in a UN Refugee Camp in northern Nepal for over a decade. No rights. No home. No freedom. This family, like 100,000 others of Napalese descent, while citizens of Bhutan, were expelled from their homes in an effort to cleanse Bhutan of any other national origins. Given they are actually Bhutanese, they cannot return to their ancestral homeland of Nepal, thus landing them in a refugee camp and placing them at the mercy of the international community.

Fortunately, this precious Bhutanese family made it to our city, and though the road ahead is uncertain, we are reaching out to them (and other families like theirs) through our partnership with World Relief. Over the past few weeks, Passion City Church people have provided the items necessary to furnish over 20 refugee apartments. [The UN mandates that 56 basic furniture and household items be in any apartment before a refugee family can be settled there.] The good news is that together we have provided enough items to exceed our 20 apartment goal! It was beautiful seeing people gather for church with brooms, dishes, linens and tables!

In an effort to put a face on Atlanta’s refugee population, we invited this family to join us. For them, who are Buddhist, it was their first church gathering of any kind and they do not speak English. (If you’ve ever sat through any long meeting in a language other than your own, you know how miserable that can be!) But we wanted to extend our hearts to them, share smiles that transcend language and be face to face with real people God is bringing into our very own space. Meeting them and having them with us was a huge honor.

Now for day one. As they left and we were visiting through a Nepali-speaking translator, I learned that the four kids [14, 12, 10, 8] would be starting their first day of school yesterday. What!?!? They speak little to no English, have only been in a new country for less than 10 days and now they are off to what is already challenging under the best of circumstances, their very first day of school. So for a solid day I have been wondering how that must feel, what challenges it must bring and how they made it through day one. And I want to lead a church that cares and moves into action to help bridge the way for them into a brand new world.

Day One-Part Two.

As well, Hannah (from the Blog!) was with us at PCC. If you don’t know her by now, read down a few posts and get caught up on her story. It was so good having her with us, especially after all she has been through over the past two months. A few days before she sent this update:

“im doing good, seriously, it kind of blows my mind how much God has taken care of me and my family. in the midst of this life changing darkness, He has already given me back so many memories of my mom and new adventures with my dad and brother. a couple weeks ago, we took the great american family vacation to the grand canyon and las vegas, it could have only been improved with an rv and minivan! great times with the family but just a tip for daughters everywhere, dont go to vegas with your father and brother…it’s just awkward.

i got to attend the last passion city church and i have to say the message was great. to have a set of truths to speak to myself everyday is incredible. to put it into a set of simple truths from scripture makes it that much more real in my life. i came home and attempted, for a long time, to write the truths into bozokan, the language of the bozo people. after giving up several times and realizing the amount of language i still have to learn, i finally got most of it, and am excited to take them back with me to mali soon. hopefully in the future we will be hearing my bozo chief say “I am somebody, a saint, by God’s grace, in Christ!” that’s the mission, that’s the prayer, and i can’t wait for that day to come.

i’m heading back to mali on nov 9th, ahh scary and exciting all at the same time. however, God has prepared my heart for this, forcing me to put everything i have on him, leaning on Him to guide each step and expecting Him to do great things beyond my imagination among the bozo.”

So Hannah was with us Sunday, and we had the chance to pray over her before she boarded a Monday flight for Mali. So that makes today day one.. back in Africa, back among the Bozo, thousands of miles from home for the sake of the Gospel. I can’t stop thinking about Hannah today, wondering what it’s like being back among the people you love so much having lost the only mom you’ve ever had.

Lord, for each of these we are grateful…mostly blown away by the confidence we have in You and the assurance that your mercy comes up with the sun. Great is Your faithfulness.

Louie