Anticipation
There is a family coming in June.
Right now, they are waiting for tickets to board a plane for the United States. Maybe in two weeks. Maybe three. They’ve passed multiple background and security checks, and they’ve just learned they will be able to make a home in a place called Montana…Billings. They are probably practicing saying “Montana” to each other, rolling the sound around on their tongues. They are tired from years of existing away from home, but are excited now, and apprehensive.
They have reason to be excited. They are part of the 1% of the world’s refugees who will be “resettled” to a safe country this year, selected due to their vulnerability in the country to which they originally fled and their inability to return home. And they are understandably apprehensive. All they have is question marks. What will their housing be like? Will anyone speak their language? Will they be able to find something to eat? Will they be able to work? At what? Will their kids be safe? How hard will it be to arrive as a foreigner in a strange land?
This family–our soon-to-be new neighbors–likely fled their home in desperation, escaping violence or persecution with only what they could carry. Maybe they are members of the “wrong” ethnic group, maybe they made a critical comment about their government or a rebel group controlling their area, or maybe bombs crashed down on their town and they escaped for their lives. It’s likely been a decade that they’ve tried to eke out an existence in a refugee camp or impoverished community outside their home country. And now, though “Montana” sounds strange on their tongues, they’re feeling a glimmer of something they remember–hope.
The family arriving in June and the several families after that will arrive with real stories–though stories we don’t yet know. What do we know? That no one is a refugee by choice. No one leaves behind home and sometimes family, community, traditions, familiar ways of existing, and everything they worked hard for unless they are forced. Forced to weigh the risk of staying with the risk of running. It’s a roll of the dice in an uncertain, un-asked-for game.
We also know that when they arrive in Montana, we will be here to welcome them. We know that God has been drawing hearts and hands together into a tapestry of friendship and community support in Billings. Nations to Neighbors is nothing short of a network of community residents who are dedicated to supporting refugees as they begin to integrate into our community and find a sense of belonging. Here. We recognize our new neighbors’ inherent dignity, being made in the image of God, and know their stories began long before they earned the label of “refugee.” We are preparing to come alongside them and learn from them, with great anticipation.