Praying with Refugees

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Praying with Refugees

A Mother's Prayer

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May 2009

Estimates suggest that 80% of all refugees are women and children. Behind this cold, impersonal statistic stand countless mothers who are the heart and soul of their families. A JRS staff member in Namibia tells of how her love for her own children led her to reach out to orphaned refugee children.

Burmese refugee mother and child, Thailand

 

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Reflection

Today is one of the days for my usual weekly visit to Osire refugee camp.  I work for JRS Namibia as an education officer and my weekly visits bring me in touch with the most wonderful people.

Chatting with one girl, I found out she is nine years old, and she lives with her older sister who attends secondary school. To my question where their parents are, she just shakes her head to give me the message that she does not know.

I think about this little girl in a foreign country with no parents, how hard can life get? Who is there to take proper care of her? Who is helping her with homework? Who will make sure that she has something to eat and drink before going to school, and that she is properly dressed?  I am a mother, but I can only be a mother to her once a week. There are so many to attend to, she is just one of them.

Sometimes I pray for these little ones, a prayer to guide them through the years so that one day they will have a full life back in their motherland, a prayer so that they will make the right choices. What more does a mother want for her children?

Rosalie Nehoya
JRS Namibia

Adapted from God in Exile, 2005

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Suggestion for Prayer

 

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Scripture reading for prayer:

Isaiah 49:13-15

Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted. But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

 

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Shared Reflections

Mother’s love – like God’s – is indeed tender and these pictures portray that so well.  But one thing I missed in this reflection was the fierce, protective embracing with which mothers surround their children.  And of course, if this is part of motherhood, it must originate in God, the source of motherhood and fatherhood.   I rest happily in that loving embrace of God and pray that all people – especially children in need – will know someone who expresses God’s motherly care for them. Beacon, NY, USA

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