Where do I begin?

I am running late. Normally, I have this letter all written and sent at least a few days before the month ends. Yet here I am at 8PM still looking at my keyboard wondering where I begin. I have a lot I want to say, but how to say it? From my perspective I could simply say the three words in my title, “Love Trumps Fear” then drop mic and walk away. For me that is all there is to it.

But I know that most of you don’t know my kids as I do. It is so much harder to love people you do not know. It is also so much easier to fear people you do not know. So I really wish you could just visit with me in my classrooms for a day or two. I wish you could walk down the street and shop with me, or get on a bus and ride with me, go to my church and sit with me while really understanding the messages given in English, then later in Turkish and simultaneously in another room in Arabic.

But that can’t happen. They don’t want people from other parts of the world coming here right now and especially not Americans. As it is, I daily wonder how long I will be able to stay myself. As long as I can I will continue to love. As long as I am able I will continue to risk letting people into my world and sharing in theirs. I will continue to teach English and Jesus with kids who have deep deep scars that cannot be seen. I will continue to have tea with parents and adults who want to practise the ten English words they know. I will continue to let my world know that Jesus loves them even when America (who they associate with Christianity) says by her actions, “but we don’t”.