Across the fence

It’s not Lesbos. It’s been a few years since they stopped trying to find a home in various countries. Separated from her parents as refugees. Now her siblings are split over several continents. Our new friend, a mother with her family of seven children, has been here five years. Moving several times, she finally has found a place for her family, where they have lived for two years.

The difficulties remain though. No job. A broken home. A new culture she does not yet understand. A language so different from her own with one of the more difficult accents in the English-speaking world. In all this time in this country no one has become her friend. Alone, bringing up her offspring without support, her pain continues.

When we returned to N Ireland for our daughter’s wedding, we found ourselves situated in a neighbourhood new to us, praying for the LORD’s ‘other plans’ for our time here during these next months. Across the fence from our back garden a Syrian family was living and we decided to bring them some Jordanian dates as they broke the Ramadan fast one evening. The shock and surprise and sheer emotion on this dear mother’s face, as she told us no one had ever befriended her before was heart-breaking for us.

Each day as I have seen the house, and the family members coming and going, my heart has been breaking with the LORD’s love and longing for this family to find their home in Him. The LORD began showing me things about the family and this week we have begun to see how it all clicks together.

We find ourselves praying for ways and efforts through which we can support this dear family and also for ways that we can be His instruments, pointing them to find their peace and comfort, their real home in the One who considered each of their lives so valuable that He was willing to die to pay the price for their freedom and redemption. What a privilege to partner with this amazing Creator God, the Father of the homeless and the foreigner in our midst!