HELP US REACH OUR $5,000 END OF YEAR DONATION GOAL! DONATIONS WILL BE MATCHED
Blog → July 31, 2016

BYU Magazine: Strangers No More

Strangers

Melissa published an article with BYU (Brigham Young University) Magazine about the nature of volunteer refugee work in central Germany. You can read the original article by clicking here.

Excerpt:

Eyes speak. That morning at the Limburg refugee camp, I heard volumes.“Guten Tag,” I said, tipping my head toward the man sitting alone at the end of the table. One of the dozens of refugees I’d met while volunteering as a German teacher in camps near Frankfurt, he had drawn my attention more than once.
He was hard to miss: his shoulders were nearly as broad as the table; his steady, weighted gaze from under the brim of his baseball cap gave him the air of a once-imposing but now-cowering animal, bruised from repeated blows.
His eyes had been watching, speaking while I worked. Two minutes earlier, a dozen or so children and I had been rowdily chant-singing “Kopf, Schulter, Knie, und Fuß” (“Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”), our laughter like splashes of yellow in the slate-gray atmosphere of the camp. But after an hour of language instruction and songs, the kids had lost interest and run off the instant there was a lull.


Other Posts

Bearing Witness

December 20, 2024

Official Statement on U.S. Election Outcome

Here at Their Story Is Our Story, we know that the United States of America is stronger because of those who were forced to leave their homes and start anew with us. They bring vitality, determination, fortitude, and are essential to our economy, our culture, our communities, and our country. We are, and will continue to be, #betterwithrefugees.

November 6, 2024
Add Impact to Your Inbox
Sign up for our emails to get inspiring stories and updates delivered straight to you.
Subscribe
© 2024 Their Story is Our Story Privacy Policy
Their Story is Our Story is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization under the United States Internal Revenue Code. All donations are tax-deductible. Our tax identification number is 812983626.