Anticipating the Arrival {with Courage}


We haven't received an arrival date for our refugee family. But we've been asked to get our house ready by March 1, 2016*.

Oh boy.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you feel you are clearly over your head in your ability to lead and equip others to lead? There are days I do feel like an imposter and wonder why in the world the Ministerial affirmed me to be the Volunteer Coordinator for supporting our refugee family. Are you sure? Me? Okay then...

Yet, have you ever had a "such a time as this" moment? Dear kids, you are familiar with the story of Queen Esther. She was beautiful. She was made Queen for a foreign King. She found out that one of the King's viziers, that is Haman, had hatched a plot to kill the Jews. Esther was a Jew. Esther had to make a choice. Speak up and face the possibility of death by approaching the King without his permission or watch her family be killed (and probably be killed herself anyway). Mordecai, Esther's cousin, challenges her with these words:
“Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)
 Esther responds in courage:
“Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:15-16)
Esther's story ends victorious. The King listens to her. And through a few evenings of hospitality courtesy of the Queen, Haman is brought to justice.

Now, I'm not saying I'm Esther. My life is not being threatened and neither is my race being marked for genocide. My life is fairly comfortable. We are quite safe in prairie southwest. Our biggest threat is some F5 tornado ripping a path through here or, bigger yet, being lulled into complacency by materialism.

However, our refugee family is fleeing for their lives. I do not know what atrocities they have witnessed. I have no idea what trauma they have suffered. I cannot even begin to imagine the physiological scars of experiencing the images and screams of their city being bombed to the ground.

So, it is time for me to step up and be courageous for their sake. My momentary insecurities in my leadership skills, my panic over the seemingly insurmountable task list, and my struggle with my mind when it can't stop whirling as I try to go to sleep are... well... worth it!

The truth is, I will not be able to do this coordinating job perfectly. And that's okay. It will be good enough. And it will be accomplished with a large dose of courage coupled with God's limitless -- and glorious! -- grace.

*Our house doesn't mean my residence. Rather, it refers to the house that the Committee has found for our refugee family.

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