Today I visited a refugee family from the DRC. Therese is a single mom with six kids. Her husband recently left her, so my dad was asked to visit and bring her some food and other things. We asked if she had a Bible and we were told that she didn’t have one in Swahili. We didn’t think she could speak English but we were really surprised when we went there and she greeted us in English and was talking constantly in English. She said she was trying hard to learn English so that she could get a good job.

We brought a lot of food for her – cabbage, tomatoes, squash, green peppers, sweet potatoes, onions, rice, beans, peanut butter – and boxes of used clothing for her and her kids. She was so happy! Then we gave her the Swahili Bible and when we asked to take a picture with her, she got really excited and wanted to change into her best clothes! It was good to see her get so excited about simple things like used clothes, cabbage, and a picture. I might take those things for granted. We said goodbye and as we drove away, we could hear her shouting “thank you!” through our open windows.