In 2001 Rick and I led a refugee Bible Study and prayer group at Victory Court Apartments on Sunday nights. On any given week people from Rwanda, Congo, Togo, Mauritania, Sudan, and Afghanistan were likely to be in attendance. It was a pretty amazing experience to be surrounded by prayer in so many languages.
Some of the people from that group have remained our close friends, and others we've lost touch with. Yesterday a woman from the group who we haven't seen in a very long time came to see us. Her teenage son is in jail and facing very serious charges. She's heart broken and confused. She doesn't understand the system here. She makes no excuses for the trouble her son has caused in the past, but this time she's worried that he's just an easy target for the police. Her dream of a better life in American is crumbling. She's sick and losing weight. She can't sleep at night, thinking about what will happen to her son in jail. And she doesn't want people to think that all refugee boys ae going to be crimminals, just because they've been through hard times.
We prayed with her, and said we would try to help her understand what's happening with her son's case. But I felt kind of helpless. We know how to help with things like rent assistance or car repair or explaining papers that come in the mail, but this was nothing we could fix with a few donation dollars. And sitting with her made me think about all the mothers in this country who have sons in prison. We've got to help the Church find a way to be with these women. This is just one of the reasons it's long past time for the Church to be a lighthouse in Aurora.
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