Creating expectations must be part of our nature. No matter how hard I try not to, I always develop an expectation. I had many expectations for my trip to Africa. Though I knew I wouldn’t truly understand what it’s like without experiencing it, part of the way I prepare for something new is by imagining what it’s like.
Having never met someone from South Sudan in my life, I did not know what to expect. They’re a reserved people, quiet and observant. I’m sure this part of their culture was magnified because we were new people visiting their homes and churches. The people of South Sudan have a quiet strength like no other person or people group I’ve met.
While visiting with the women and children who live in Rhino Refugee Camp, I was struck by their willingness to be vulnerable and share their stories with us. I was honored to sit with them in their grief. I gleaned wisdom from them as they spoke gently about war, their journey to the camp, losing children, suffering from various ailments and treatable illnesses. Here was pain in their voices. While their stories were tragic, there was hope and vision for the future that no amount of suffering could stomp out. The only reason they have hope is because of Jesus.
Their lives are hard, but their reality lies in the spiritual realm. They cling to the promises of God, truly believing Him with all of their hearts. And because they KNOW what He says will come to pass, every day they live out James 1:27:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
Every woman I spoke to has at least one child she is caring for that is not her own. Many are caring for widows as well as the children they’ve taken in, while many of them are widows themselves.
We all wonder, what would I do if I lost everything I have, everyone I love and everything I’ve ever known? The South Sudanese have given me the answer. I would be ok; I would press into Truth and the love of Christ. Because I am a child of God. As His child, I am a part of His family. As a part of His family, I am cared for and loved beyond measure. When sin and the world rip everything away from us, the body of Christ steps in.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and see his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 4:16-17
In the Rhino Refugee camp and South Sudanese communities around Uganda, love is tangible and being lived out in deed and in truth. As brothers and sisters in Christ in the US and across the globe, we have the capacity to lay down our lives for one another, to abide in His love and to live out what we often only talk about – love in deed and in truth.