I held it in my hands today with an almost holy wonder. “What is that?” he asked me.
Keeping back tears, I told him, “This, sir, is your voter registration card.”
There was a reverent silence for a moment, a palpable sense that this small piece of paper in the hands of Rohingya people was breaking off generations of barriers from a whole people, one person at a time.
“Citizens have the right to vote.” It’s one of the sentences people practice for their citizenship test. The right to a voice, to speak up, to enact change, to be part of the solution.
When I first gave him an American flag on the day he passed his test, he took it carefully from my hands and placed it on his heart and then his head. The most sincere form of appreciation and respect that can be given in his culture. With tears in his eyes, he said, “My country.”
For the first time in his life, he truly belonged.
– Pray for more to experience the healing that comes from a recognized identity and place to belong.
– Pray that the Rohingya will one day experience their citizenship in the Kingdom of God as their ultimate place to belong.
– Pray for more workers to come with open hands and hearts to teach, help, share, and lead the way.