Article January 13, 2020 Issue

Assignment: To pray for the world’s displaced people

Ashley David Penrose

When our daughter started her first year of compulsory school at age four (where we live in Switzerland), she found a cheerful young playmate in her class who helped her feel at ease in this important transition. As we got to know the boy’s family, we found out that his parents, who are of Turkish/Kurdish origin, live here on a refugee status permit. 

On daily school runs we would have friendly interactions with this family. There were times when our families would call on each other for mutual child-care support. My wife was able to offer language skills, advice, and assistance in developing the mother’s CV (curriculum vitae—generally more comprehensive than a résumé) to help the mother in her search for better employment. Before long, this woman secured a more permanent, full-time job with opportunities for training into a role of responsibility; this, coupled with her husband’s job, enabled them to upgrade to a better apartment.

These interactions within our community were more than the result of chance; they were evidence of the unexpected ways that good operates in our lives when we are open to it. They began in 2016 and later coincided with an assignment I was given to pray for the world’s displaced people. The assignment from my Christian Science teacher was a project for her Christian Science students’ association—a group of individuals who have all taken a course in Christian Science healing with the same teacher.

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