Nine years ago, my friend and I had to escape from a system that not only wanted to stop me from practicing my Christian faith, but also resolved to put me in prison just because I followed Jesus. We walked for four days and three nights to enter a Sudanese border city. It was a very risky journey. The Eritrean border patrol units crisscross the terrain near the Sudanese border, and they have a “shoot to kill or injure” order against anyone leaving the country illegally. If we were to try to leave the country legally, it would be like a rat teasing a cat in an open field where it cannot hide.
God allowed us to walk through the camp of these units unnoticed. I wondered if He had made us invisible to them. We crossed a dry river without being physically aware of it. We only realized that it was a river bed after finding ourselves on the other side of it. God changed the route we had planned to follow and made us follow a route He planned for us. As we slept for three nights in the open semi-desert, He protected us from all sorts of fierce wild animals, and He made us survive the extreme heat. He was in charge of our lives.
Throughout my journey, I believed the words: “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared” as if they were said to me (Exodus 23:20 NIV). I kept remembering Jesus, who had to escape to Egypt as a baby. I would pray, “Jesus, You made a risky journey while You were a baby. Please keep me safe.”
While I was living with my family as a refugee in Kenya, I would pray, “Jesus, You once were a refugee in Egypt, and we are now refugees. Please, take care of us.”
As refugees we had many challenges, but our main challenge was harassment and extortion by the police. However, our challenges strengthened my faith in the Lord. Now that I am in my newly adopted home among the friendly Canadians in Edmonton, Alberta, I consider it a noble act and a ministry to regularly pray for Eritreans, Syrians, and people of other nationalities who are going through similar circumstances that I went through. The Lord delivers!
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