My Friday morning Welcome Class for new refugee arrivals starts again this morning. I am looking forward to meeting new friends and hope we have a few new ones from Cuba or Venezuela, so I can invite them to join my bilingual English/Spanish conversation group on Sundays.
In a meeting this week, a young woman who is new to teaching asked me my thoughts on teaching this class. She will teach the other one.
My main thought was, “The most important thing is that they know you care. At this level it is not about getting them college ready. It is about helping people who have been traumatized feel welcome. We are the first teachers they will have in America. We teach very basic English and show we care.”
Mother Teresa once said of helping the poor, “Whenever I meet someone in need,” she said, “it’s really Jesus in his most distressing disguise.”
I am always mindful of the fact that during his first years in his earthly life, Jesus was a refugee. The angel warned Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and escape to Egypt because King Herod was sending his troops to kill Jesus when Jesus was an infant. Jesus spent the first several years of his childhood in Egypt as a refugee.
So this morning, I will meet Jesus in his most distressing disguise by meeting my new students.
Thank you for reading. God Bless.
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