The End of an Era

African Youth Choir

     One of the main reasons I got involved in my church in Dallas is because the very first Sunday I visited they had a very specific prayer time set apart for the many refugees that now call Dallas "home." I was sold. A huge part of my decision to move to Dallas was because I wanted to find a way to work with refugees whether that was through an actual, paying job or just being able to spend time with them in a hang out kind of setting. My church had and still has a pretty active relationship with a group of refugees from Burundi and Tanzania. Several months after starting to attend my church I heard about an opportunity to partner one on one with a refugee friend and practice English skills. I attended a meeting about this and was assigned a partner. My partner ended up being a young girl named Joseline. She lived with her family in a low income apartment close by where I was living at the time. When Joseline and I first became friends and English partners, she was 22 I think and I was 26. During our time together we learned about each other's families, each other's cultures and a tiny bit about the English language. I have never had any kind of ESL training so basically I bought an English workbook and we worked out of that. Probably not super beneficial when actually teaching English but we made it work. We laughed a lot especially when we just did not understand each other which was often. But I got to meet her family and got to know her younger brothers and sisters pretty well. Joseline and I met for about a year and a half every Wednesday evening. Ok, not every Wednesday, but pretty consistently! 

Joseline and I at my birthday party in 2009. 

Emily and Fainanse

Around this same time the outreach pastor at our church contacted a friend of mine who was also interested in hanging out with refugees and let her know of a need that the church had. A van driver was picking up several of the Burundi children and dropping them off for the 11:15 service at our church but there was no class for them to go to. So my friend, Emily, and I headed off to the church gym one Sunday morning and started a class for these Burundi kids. This class has changed many times and took on many shapes over the last several years. It started out as Emily and I playing soccer with 20 or so children, ages 5-14. It morphed into a small Sunday school class that met in the old junior high room at one point and we had worship time and Bible study. Some Sundays we would have 5 kids and some Sundays we would have 25. We never knew what Sunday morning would look like. It has been stressful and exhilarating all at once. It has been beautiful to begin to understand this wonderful culture and it has been painful to know some of the things these children have been through and to see how this has affected them. I have watched children that started out as what I would call "disrespectful" and "hard" turn into young men who smile and say "yes ma'am" and "how are you?" when they used to ignore any comment headed their way. 

Alex 

Christmas party-Noella and Emmeline

Happy and Divin. :) 

     It has been hard and many tears of anger and frustration have been cried. Many prayers have been prayed, some answered, some not yet. It has also been really refining for me and for many friends who have also taught and hung out with these children for various time frames. And now it has come to an end. 

     The last several months we have only  had about four young men showing up regularly. And for the majority of this time, my friend Bethany and I have been the main teachers. There have been so many great people to come along to help in this class over the last couple of years. Several really amazing guys that have been so consistent and have taught the truth of God's word in ways that I can't imagine doing myself. It has been wonderful to watch these young African boys listen intently to these men teach from the word of God and then play basketball, dodgeball or soccer with them right after. But lately as Bethany and I have had the privilege of teaching the boys, we have felt that God probably didn't call us to work with pre-teen and teenage boys (although God definitely has a sense of humor). We have also just realized that it is time to be finished with this class. Both of us struggled with letting this go, but we both have realized over the last several months that God is bigger than either of us and He has the power to protect the faith in these boys that has been planted, not solely by us but by their parents and by the Lord himself. So we let the boys know that the last Sunday in August would be our last Sunday but that we would continue to see the boys and their younger sisters at their African church service occasionally and that we would also come visit them at their houses. 

     Today we sat down with these four boys and talked about things we have learned over the last few years. Things that were mentioned: patience, understanding that God is in control of our situations, learning that the God who gives is also the God who takes away, forgiveness, and that anything good that is in us is because of Christ. Then we had a really sweet time of prayer where we each prayed. Happy God (who is going into ninth grade) prayed for Bethany and I and for all the leaders/teachers that have helped over the years and thanked God for us. I did tear up a little at this point. I almost broke down crying a few weeks before at the thought of leaving these boys! But I know that the Lord is good and faithful and I'm committed to praying his protection over these boys, that they will always turn to Jesus and know how much they are loved by him. 

Dodgeball- Stephan showed no mercy.

Tusseigne - thankful for this smile. 

There are so many memories with these boys, from the many injuries (especially Enock), Easter Egg hunts, building the Ark of the Covenant, taking them all to the water park and to the Children's Museum of Nature and Science and just the many amazing God-inspired things they have said and also the sayings that were probably not so God-inspired! It really has been one of the biggest blessings of my life to love and fight for these kids. Here are pictures throughout the last couple of years. 

 

Our group at the Museum of Science and Nature

One of my favorite smiles from Divin,
Milking a cow at the Museum.

Bethany helping measure out a
piece of wood for the Ark. 

Joseph, Enock and Russell

Putting in the 10 commandments.

Ark of the Covenant! 

Our faithful four- Happy God, Alex, Divin and Enock.

Finally a smile! 

They love basketball!  

I can only imagine what amazing things the Lord has in store for these kiddos. I know that he will use their stories to bring glory to His name! Praying that they will grow up to be men and women after the Lord's heart.