will you not forget the forgotten.

12:50 am, a little past my bedtime. late night blogging = the best blogging… sometimes, I’m trying to be brave + going out on a limb here + share some thoughts, hopes and new dreams…this late at night, can you tell I can’t sleep + have something on my mind? i’m deciding to overcome my fear of being judged of sharing my heart by knowing this.

there is something powerful that happens when people unite, things change, and our world changes too. and if i care enough about this, then someone out there does too

ref·u·geeˌrefyo͝oˈjē/

noun

plural noun: refugees

1. a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

   “tens of thousands of refugees fled their homes”

What is a refugee, what does it feel like to be forced to leave your country? What does it feel like to live in a constant state of fear of a war, a bomb, hunger and the displacement of friends and family members. What does it feel like to run away from home and never look back? What does it feel like to have your family killed by evil people? What does it feel like to see your home burned or destroyed to the ground? What does it feel like to have no one show up for you? What does it feel like when other countries don’t want you either? What does it feel like to watch thousands around you die? What does it feel like to starve to death? What does it feel like to be persecuted for your faith, what does it feel like to be a forgotten people group? What does it feel like to be a forgotten person? What does it feel like to be a refugee?

Maybe you want to click away, maybe this is going in a different direction than you thought. And that is okay, I am not pushing any political views or opinions. I am simply sharing the deepest burdens on my heart. I am just sharing my vision I have for the future. I am just sharing hope in knowing among this evilness,  God still reigns, and God can always interfere in a bad situation, that God can turn things around. That God can bring rain to a dry wasteland. From my heart to your screen, I’m sharing something very different today. And different happens to be a good thing from time to time. 

These questions weigh heavily upon my heart as I sit behind my screen reading stories from different ongoing civil wars around the world that have left millions of innocent people misplaced, forgotten and in severe devastation.

I am not sure what I can do. My heart says go, but I know this is not a logical answer at this exact moment. Sitting on my bed writing this blog from a safe and comfortable place not living in fear I want to do something. I don’t want to just sit back and not do anything. So I’ll write, and spread awareness in hopes that this ignites the interest of one other heart, we we can join our hearts and pray for these nations experiencing this together in Christ.

I wish I could show up and be there for them, to listen to their hardships to provide them with a meal, to show them love. To show them that they matter, and that I care about what is happening in their life. I wish I could physically hug them, or hold their hands and give them promises of hope, unspoken promises of a change in their lives. I know I can pray and I will be praying for these people all around the world who suffer hourly, who live in fear, and who struggle to keep themselves alive.

Refugees are people like me and you. They are no different, we are all people. We all deserve to enjoy the same rights no matter where we are in this world. We don’t deserve this, and we shouldn’t allow it to happen in this day and age.

What has caught my attention and has weighed so heavily upon my heart, which brings me to tears and I am not even sure why is what is going on in South Sudan. But it has truly been on my heart, for some reason I love this place and I believe in these people. I want to see peace and I want to see victory for them.

A year and a half ago I felt a burden on my heart for this country and have since been praying that one day things will change. Because we serve a big God who turns things around, and makes the impossible possible.

The world’s newest country, a place where civil war has been going on since 2013. More than 3 million people where half are children are displaced and scattered throughout Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia. I pray these people feel accepted in their new home, isn’t that what we all want. To be accepted and to be wanted. Imagine not being wanted anywhere.

This civil war is not just fighting, it is forcing their own people to leave.

This is a humanitarian crisis. The UN is calling for 1.4 billion to help restore and create programs for the South Sudanese people. Thousands of civilians are being killed for their ethnicity or perceived political views. Schools, hospitals, clinics have been destroyed and abandoned.

People are fleeing from their own homes, from their own countries. Where is their hope, what is their outlook on life? How can they have hope when everything around them is so dangerous, violent and uncertain?

And we have to do something. We have to use our voices for these people, because we are all one, we are all people, and we should all care. 

We have the ability to use our voices through social media connecting the world and making it a much smaller place. It’s a dangerous and cryptic divide of the advantages and disadvantages the internet creates in our lives. But I know for a fact that millennials have experienced what no past generation has before, and I believe that if we come together in a common cause we can make a difference. It has been done before and it’ll happen again, and I pray it happens for South Sudan in our lifetime.

Maybe this means nothing to you, maybe you don’t think about refugees often, or South Sudan, or other countries that are struggling to find relief or solutions for corrupt and unjust situations. And that is okay I am not urging or telling you  what to believe in. I’m just using this space to share the thoughts that keep me awake at night. The dreams of one day going to a place like South Sudan, or the hopes that one day things WILL change. Not only here but other suffering and forgotten people groups around the world. For the unreachable, for the forgotten.

I believe in a day where South Sudan will have peace, I believe in a day where South Sudan will have just leadership and I believe that in the 21st century we shouldn’t allow mass famines to happen, we shouldn’t forget, what if we were forgotten?

If you feel led would you join your hearts with these people, will you remember to pray for them, will you not forget the forgotten in South Sudan. Would you hope for peace to rule over this nation sooner than later.

We are the world, we are created for a purpose. I believe we all have a similar purpose to stand up for humankind, I believe that we were created to love, serve and be evolutions of change and innovation. Let’s make this world a better place before we leave it, let’s unite our hands and hearts together. I hope this inspired just one of you. Let’s make a change, let’s be the change, let’s be changed.

your heart + their hearts = one united people 

Be the change = be the changeD

Romans 12:9-13

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

 

Thanks for reading, 

you are all loved,

Dev