Written by Jared Benoit
What a blessing it is to serve the Lord who hears and responds to the marginalized! As people created in God’s image, we’re expected to respond to the same needs. I can’t help but remember what Paul recounted after his interactions with the apostles in Jerusalem: “They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do” (Galatians 2:10). There is something special that happens inside of us when we participate in the life-giving activity of remembering the poor. I once heard a pastor say he thought this was because we are created to image God, who is completely selfless, and when we act in a manner that is selfless, we image the Lord most closely.
We completed our 6th cycle of Language in Action for refugees from the DR Congo last month. The lessons were focused on health care through knowledge of English words connected to the body. It’s hard for me, as an American, to imagine the struggle of being in a country where no one understands what I’m saying because I don’t speak or understand the common language of the land. It is hard to imagine the feeling of helplessness to communicate that my child is ill. For our brothers and sisters among the Congolese refugee population in Nashville, it’s their reality.
This year has been challenging for nearly every person on the planet. We have all come upon struggles in some manner, and have had to take them on individually and collectively depending on what considerations we’re making in this year of the novel coronavirus. It’s been difficult for many to find the light with all the darkness they’re feeling and the loneliness they’re experiencing. We recognized that what our Congolese friends were experiencing many of us cannot even consider, so our team began to pray about what we could do.
After more time apart than any of us expected, we shifted our program online, meeting together virtually once weekly, and sharing educational videos once weekly for participants to view and practice. It has been a very enjoyable and functional format of teaching, and has allowed people who were previously unable to come to the in-person classes to join us now.
This has led to more one-on-one time with participants in each level of learning, allowing for more language development for everyone. The students’ eagerness to learn has been present just as much, if not more than before.
One participant, Flavia, was trying to use what she’d been taught to describe something her son was experiencing. All she could really get out was that he saw a doctor. One of the facilitators, Mika Berry reached out to Esther, one of the participants who knows both English and Flavia’s mother tongue. Mika asked Esther to call Flavia to find out what was going on with Flavia’s son. Together they discovered that he had been at the hospital for some time already and was very sick.
This is how the Lord works! Mika’s sensitivity went further than offering the English lesson. Esther, an advanced program participant, helped uncover a dire need and then respond. Mika has since been working with the family to ensure they’re getting the medical and financial assistance they need.
When I witness the body of Christ come together the way I’ve just described, the more I see that together we can be world changers, capable of more good than any one person can do alone. Together we can reach the world, becoming a blessing to all the nations.
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Prov 31:8-9)
Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)
*names of participants have been changed
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