While attending a remembrance about the ongoing atrocities occurring in the Congo, my husband and I attended our friend, Emile's, Congolese church.
One of the things I vividly remember about that worship service was the young children. There were...
Image Credit: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees
Like so many others, I wept when I saw the image of the dead Syrian boy on the news the other night. How can you...
Twice over the weekend, people told me that I should see The Good Lie, a 2014 movie starring Reese Witherspoon about some of the lost boys of Sudan – children who fled Sudan as refugees without either parent.
As someone who's stood in a refugee...
I hate international mission trips.
Not all, but some.
More specifically, I hate international mission trips that plop teens down in an exotic location far from home and fail to make the connection between what goes on there and what goes on at...
A well-meaning woman at church recently asked me, “You're not still taking kids to Rwanda, are you?”
Unsure what she was referring to, I said. “Yep! We leave July 19.”
She then proceeded to tell be about the “border war” between Rwanda and the...
My husband and I recently visited the Field Museum in Chicago. Knowing we'd soon be leaving for Rwanda, we made a point of visiting the museum's Africa exhibit. Near the start of the exhibit, there was a room intended to equip people with basic...
I'm thrilled to be guest posting at Rachel Pieh Jones' today as part of her fantastic series, "What I Learned."
Ask me to describe a refugee camp and I’ll start with the smell.
It’s the smell of far too many people living in far too...
A month from today, I'll be leading a team of high school students on a short-term mission trip to Rwanda through International Teams. In honor of that, today, I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy in this month's edition of Twitterature in...
A few weeks ago, our friend Emile, a Congolese refugee, attended one of my mission trip meetings to help prepare a team headed to Rwanda for what they will see and experience in the Kiziba Refugee Camp.
As part of our time together, I interviewed...
Our friend, Emile, is a Congolese refugee. He was resettled in the United States three years ago, after spending more than a decade in Kiziba Refugee Camp in Rwanda.
Since being resettled, Emile's English has improved immensely. Nevertheless, he...