Time well spent

I recently enjoyed spending the morning with two sweet ladies—one from Gambia and the other from Iraq.

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Aja is a Gambian woman to whom I have been teaching English as a Second Language for the past month and an half. Twice a week, I have gone to her house, sat on her couch and worked through the alphabet and basic words, trying to make the English language a little bit easier for her to understand. Usually, when we are finished with the lesson and I explain what she needs to do for homework, I ask if she has any questions or concerns, and then go on my way.

On this day, as I was getting ready to leave, she looked at me and asked, “Do you have to go, or can you stay for a while?” Seeing that she really wanted someone to sit with her, I stayed. All we ended up doing was watching SpongeBob with her kids. We barely talked about anything other than the silliness of the show.

Once I left her house, I went to visit Maha. I went to help her fill out a job application and to take it to the business to turn in. After we had done these things, I was taking her back to her house with the expectation that I would just drop her off and head back to the office. When we arrived at her house, she invited me in for coffee and thinking I should be polite, I accepted. After drinking coffee, we sat and talked for close to an hour about her life back in Iraq, her family, and the commercials on TV.

Both of these woman clearly needed someone to just sit with them—another woman who would take the time to just be a friend and spend time with them. It didn’t matter if we watched SpongeBob or commercials, if we talked about life or just sat in silence. They just needed someone to care enough to take time to be with them. That’s ministry right there—showing the love of Christ through simple things like not rushing off to sit in traffic or drive through What-A-Burger. It’s living and recognizing the needs of the people around you.

Ashley Whitaker, a student at Howard Payne University, is serving with Go Now Missions at World Relief, a ministry to international refugees in Fort Worth.


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