From a Team Expansion worker:
I had coffee with my friend E on a snowy New Year’s Eve afternoon when, if I were being honest, my first preference would have been to stay home.
Usually, we meet for Bible study over lunch, but E was not able to meet at our usual time and wanted to get coffee later in the afternoon. He is a believer from Burundi who was resettled in Dearborn through the immigrant lottery system .
As we each sipped Yemeni lattes, I asked E if his family had any New Year’s traditions. He said he didn’t, but that his family would gather for the new year and eat some food, any food. Then, they would think about the past year and thank God for what happened. Finally, they would share what each hoped for in the coming year, then pray together for those hopes and the year. (No traditions indeed!)
Asking E what he was thankful for in the past year, he said he was grateful to be in America. When he came, his pregnant wife stayed in Zambia. Though it was scary, his second son was born after he arrived in the US, and the baby and mom were healthy. E was thankful he had found a job in America, which allowed him to send money home to his family. And he was grateful for the new friends he had made in America.
I shared that I was thankful for new friends, like E, this year. And I was grateful our daughter graduated and found a job. Finally, I was thankful to be living in Dearborn. When I asked E about his hopes for the next year, he explained that he would pray to know how to obey God, to do what God wants him to do. He also wants his family to be together in the new year — here in America. He wants to apply for his green card now that his first anniversary is approaching. He hopes that, if he tells the immigration officer when he applies, they will let his wife and two boys come to America so they can be together.
Entrusted Prayers
There in the coffee shop, on a Yemeni-style sofa, E and I prayed. We thanked God for a good past year, and we lifted up his request to reunite his family in America. We prayed together to know God’s will and His heart, and to be obedient to Him.
I told E that I did not know how God would answer the prayer to reunite his family, though I hoped He would. E looked at me and spread his hands, “Everything I have given to your hands to pray, God has answered quickly. My Social Security card — you prayed and it came. A good job, friends in America.”
E kept talking, but I couldn’t hear; I was overcome. He immediately knew specific prayers that he’d “given to my hands to pray” — prayers God had answered! But I’d forgotten most of those prayers. I was moved by E’s faith to thank God and then entrust our hopes to Him for the following year, even when the most profound hope of his heart seems impossible.
I didn’t want to get coffee on a dark, cold, snowy New Year’s Eve. But God gave me a friend who reminded me of answered prayer and God’s faithfulness. And now, I can’t stop thinking about it.
