As I looked up into the shuttle bus, I spotted his nametag. Desire. I assumed it was not a verb. From his appearance and combination accent—French and some unknown dialect—I guessed he grew up in Africa. He took my bag, and I noticed we were going to be all alone on this Saturday evening trip to DFW. Nice set up for a conversation.
“Where are you from?” I asked him.
“Burundi. Do you know where that is?”
“Yes, just south of Rwanda. I was in Kigali last year and have friends there.”
He got very excited. Just talking to someone who knew where he was from gave him a thrill. We chatted a little about my trip to Africa, and I learned how he fled to the U.S. in 2009 to escape genocide. Turns out, we have multiple connections I could never have imagined. I tried to explain to him what I do, but it left him bewildered.
By that time, we were at my terminal and I had to catch a plane to preach somewhere the next morning. On my way out the door, I gave him my card and asked him to contact me the next week. I didn’t expect to hear from him again.
Next week, I got an email. His apartment was only two miles from our offices. I asked him if we could get together, and he came to visit with me and Sam Shewmaker, our director for African missions, who lived in Kigali from 2008-2011.
We sat transfixed as Desire told of living through the murder of his father, and later watching his mother killed with a machete. He showed us the large scar on his arm where he defended a deadly blow before escaping and hiding overnight in a banana wine-press. We learned about his harrowing flight to the U.S. embassy and his relocation to Maine, which was too cold, and then Texas. He told of the ordeal he endured to get his family to the states.
Sam and I talked with Desire about his faith and how he gives credit to God for saving him. He has no bitterness over the evil he experienced. As we prayed with Desire, the tears flowed. It was a holy moment.
Of course, we invited Desire to go to church with us, and we promised to be family to him. He and his wife and boys have been in church just about every week since. We are preparing to start a Bible study in their home for other Africans in the area. He believes in God, but doesn’t know much about the Bible. The version he reads is in French, which neither of us speak. Still, he is eager to know.
Despite coming from a successful business family in his home country and having a degree from a University in Bujumbura, Desire has only been able to get a minimum wage job in the states. He understands English well enough, but his accent makes it hard for locals to understand him. We are working to help him find a better job. Desire is on a good path to hope on many levels. He is hard working, honest and seeking God with a good heart. It is an honor to be his friend.
Now, let me ask you? How does this happen? How do you find people like this?
Easy. Just pay attention. God places people around us all the time that he has prepared for us to love in his name. All we have to do is be aware and live with an expectancy of divine appointments and follow up. God has already done the hard work. The fields are already white unto harvest. We just need to pray, go and join what God has already set up.
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:34-38)
