11:30 a.m.
Joe, Kathy, Firuz and Sohelia go to the Persian grocery for special
ingredients, and have lunch while there.
12:30 p.m.
We go to the big grocery to get the bulk of the food—tomatoes,
cucumbers, lemons, turkey, dates, rice, milk, sandwich supplies,
eggs and so on. The food is divided between what I will prepare,
what will be prepared by Firuz (our refugee friend)at his apartment,
and what will be prepared at the church.
2:00 p.m.
We drop off food and Firuz. We put Firuz’s TV in the car
to take it to the repair shop. The TV was a gift and for four
months it has not worked. On the way home, there is a huge traffic
jam of holiday shoppers and generally bad drivers, so the 20-minute
trip takes an hour.
3:00 p.m.
We drop off the TV and go three more blocks to our home and put
away some of the groceries.
4:00 p.m.
We try to send a fax for a refugee but the number is wrong. Several
phone calls are made but no luck getting the right number. He
will call back. The TV repairman calls to ask for the security
code for the TV. Several more phone calls made.
5:00 p.m.
Joe and I have a quick dinner before setting out again.
6:00 p.m.
I meet with the director of the Center for Victims of Torture.
We have heard about each other’s work through the refugees
but have never met. We talk about our respective work and organizations
over a cup of tea, and plan for some collaboration in doing training
and caring for a group of Somali youth in two of the refugee camps.
Meanwhile, Joe takes the remainder of the groceries to the church
and puts them away.
8:00 p.m.
I meet Joe at home. The TV repairman calls to say that the TV
is repaired. It just was a loose connection due to poor soldering.
8:30 p.m.
We receive a phone call from a Pakistani refugee. I first talked
to him two days ago, and he has now contacted the Hungarian authorities
to apply for asylum. He is concerned that the seven people who
came from Pakistan with him are in the jail in Gyor, a Hungarian
city 120 kilometers west of Budapest. The smuggler that brought
them to Hungary told them not to ask for asylum because they would
be sent back. They tried to cross the border into Austria and
were caught and jailed. They are terrified, and he wants to know
how to help them. We agreed to meet tomorrow.
In some ways this day is absolutely typical. We are working with
and for refugees, and Joe and I often work together. We don’t
always have this many meetings or phone calls with refugee emergencies.
Many days we spend time with refugees, listening, laughing, praying,
and loving them. We always attempt to create a place where God’s
presence can be known and felt. We are not always successful.
At times we forget that God is the leader and we are the followers.
In spite of us though, God is busy at work. We often notice that
reality.
To all of you who happen to read this letter, please pray for
the many people around the world who have had to flee their home.
They hope that they will find someplace to call home that will
be better than where they came from. However, life along the way
is dangerous, unpredictable, and lonely.
Please pray for our ministry. Pray for opportunities to engage
more church members in ministering to these strangers we call
refugees. Pray for hearts that will hear God’s call. Pray
for my (Kathy’s) language learning. Pray for our wisdom
as we work with institutions that find change very difficult.
Pray for the coming of God’s kingdom here on earth. And
most of all, pray prayers of thanksgiving for Emanuel, God with
us.
Your partners in God’s service,
Kathy and Joe Angi
PS. This letter is being sent to all of you after the horrible
Tsunami disaster. Please include all of those affected in your
prayers. As we get past the acute emergency phase of the work,
Kathy will likely be involved in caring for some of the caregivers
in the area or training in psychosocial care. Your prayers for
wisdom and energy are very appreciated.
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
180 |
