by Caroline Plummer

The Bethany Families in Service project has left a lifetime imprint on our family—an imprint that has marked each of us profoundly, to look beyond ourselves and our own narrow world view. Our intent was to give … but what we took away! Bethany’s “Families in Service” outreach with World Relief opened our family’s eyes to one of God’s great miracles that transformed our summer of 2007 - getting outside of ourselves and giving to others. And then God just gave it all right back to us again - tenfold.

There is nothing God cannot redeem.

On our first day working with the Refugees, we were welcomed at World Relief by Kelly Pearson, Cal Uomoto and Kelsey Jones-Casey, our dear host and interpreter for the week. Kelsey educated us on “What is a Refugee?”; the history of violence between the Banyamulenge Tutsi (devout Christians) and Hutu; the massacre at Gatumba in 2004; and the heart rendering, tragic story of “our” refugee family—survivors of this massacre.

I was completely unprepared for what Kelsey told me. I fell apart as she described their story of tragedy and loss. Hansanika’s (the mother) two babies were killed. She suffered a deep gunshot wound to her arm, which left it hanging and unusable. Her ten year old son, Bienvenue was shot in the back of the kneecap so that his leg was growing bowed from the wound, and he walked with a limp. The mother, father, two sons, two sisters, and two brothers escaped the massacre and were granted refugee status to come to the United States, where they now reside in a refugee camp in Kent.

How was I going to explain this story to my two young boys! We had been preparing for this week, praying for refugee families. Our greatest fear had been centered on how we were going to communicate in our different languages. How trite this language barrier now seemed.

Using their painful story, God nudged us “outside of ourselves” and our own fears and pulled us into the huge hearts of this lovely family. And as only God can do— in the midst of creating new relationships, opening our ears and eyes to the great needs of the poor and oppressed—He poignantly showed us our common language. It was as if He said, “Don’t you see, I made each and every one of you. You are all my sons and daughters, so of course you can talk to each other and understand.”

So we got to “talking.” Our children climbed trees together in the Seattle Center Park. I don’t think Seattle has ever seen a young boy climb a tree (barefoot!) like 14 year old Jagoba. And when my son tried to compete with him and froze in the high branches with fear, Jagoba climbed back up to guide him down to safety, carefully placing his feet in all of the right indentations.

Without speaking a word, these boys were talking their unified God-given language—showing kindness to one another and sharing laughter and joy. Together, our children soaked their clothes as they ran mazes through the International fountain, with shared screams of pure delight and innocence. They played the universal game of hide-and-seek, understanding each other’s rules perfectly! No language barriers there. We decorated ornaments in their apartment with whole sand dollars collected from the ocean. Kelsey translated for the Tutsi father; “God, makes such beautiful things,” as he looked in awe for the very first time at a sand dollar.

And we broke bread many times, sharing African and American meals in their home, bowing in prayer to our God. Although we did not understand a word of their prayer, we shared a more unifying and powerful language than any words spoken—we shared the strong, undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit.
There is nothing God cannot redeem.