December 12, 2008

The wounded bird

Dear Friends,

This story was written by Joe about some of our work with refugees. There are wonderful moments while we work with them—sharing meals, laughing at our collective language struggles, celebrating God’s gifts. However, there are also many difficult days when we are feel so powerless to change the realities of the system. This is one such story.

I was watching a nature program on TV recently. It was about wounded birds recovering in a sanctuary. The birds were injured in many ways: electric wires, fishing line, storms, careless people, and even being cared for by inexperienced people. The goal at the sanctuary was to get the birds well and send them on their way if possible, or take care of the ones that  couldn't leave. It struck me how much this was like working with our refugees here in Hungary. They too are wounded. Some by war, some by famine, some by storm, some by hateful people, some by caring but inexperienced people. Some have been wounded many times over. Some permanently. Some constantly, still. Sometimes it breaks my heart to stand helplessly by.

I would like to tell you about one wounded "bird." I will just call her Sara. She came to us over  four years ago and was baptized six months later. Her story came out slowly. She is Kurdish from Iran. As a girl of 12, she was given (sold?) to an older man. She had six children by him. He beat her often and in time left her for someone else and took her children. She was not even 30.

Her family of 12 had emigrated to Finland soon after she was married. They had all been living in a refugee camp in southern Iraq, and they were among the lucky ones who were resettled in Finland, since they would never be able to return to Iran.

After being abandoned by her husband, Sara tried to join her family. It was difficult. She had never had the opportuntiy to go to school, so she could not read or write. She relied on smugglers  (as do other refugees) to get her to Finland. The first stop in the journey was in Hungary. Here, the government listened to her story and she received refugee status (recognition that she needed protection). This is  something that the refugees want because it means that they will not be sent back to their original country. After this, she was taken to Finland.

Unfortunately, she did not have a visa for Finland, and she did not know that she should have gone directly to Finland to gain refugee status there. She was caught and sent back to Hungary because her refugee documents are from here. She arrived in great dispair. She has not seen her children in years, she has no country to return to and is terribly alone. The Finns do not want to let her in because she entered once illegally. We went with her many times over the years to the Finish embassy to ask for a visa even to just visit her family, only to be turned down, after months of waiting, over and over.

Sara did her best to survive. She learned rudimentary Hungarian by ear. She worked illegally as a dishwasher, twelve- to sixteen-hour days for a couple of years just to survive. The stress of all this has done its job. She is depressed, her legs swell like balloons, her body is failing. She is on medication. She was hospitalized for a month for acute depression. We help her when we can and pray and suffer with her when we can't. She often says we are all she has here.

Finally, we hear that she may have a chance to get to Finland under a family reunification program, but its going to take some time, and I don't know if she will make it. Please pray with us that she does. She is just one of many wounded birds.

Almost a year after I wrote the  last line I can finally  finish this story on a happy note. A number of months ago Sara was allowed to visit her family, and while she was there the Finnish government granted her permission to stay. She can now start to recover in the care of her loving family. I wish all of our stories could end on such a happy note. Praise God.

Joe

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 180