The Theme of Refugees

If you read my last post about getting to serve in the Sudanese Refugee School in Cairo, you'd notice I mentioned God has been developing a theme in my life since 2007... a theme of being interested in and caring about refugees.

It started when I read the personal memoir of a Somali refugee in The Netherlands (Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali). The first part of her book described her life before fleeing as a refugee. The second part of the book describes her life as a refugee in a Western country. And even after she was settled in her new country, she also served for years as a translator for other refugees. The stories she told about the lives of refugees were so crazy to hear! I literally wrote in the margin of the book several times: "If only there were refugee camps in Austin!" and "I wonder how someone in Austin could help refugees." I read several more books with similar stories and continued to highlight and underline stories about refugees and still wondered "are there refugee camps in the States I could get involved in?"

Low and behold, during our church's fall vision series they aired a video of people in our church who were "living missionally".

Synergy from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.In the video I learned that:
A) there are refugees from all over the world RIGHT HERE in Austin! and
B) that there are volunteer opportunities to serve the refugees RIGHT HERE in Austin!
WHAT?! How exciting is that!!

So, I got online and checked out Caritas to see about volunteering with their organization to help the refugees here in my city. It was so easy. I filled out the application, had an interview, took their training classes, and am about to get my first client. I am thrilled! Stay tuned for more info on serving refugees here...