"To be in this refugee camp is to feel like you've been put in prison, but you don't understand the offense you committed," my refugee pastor friend told us. His face was shadowed with sadness as his words fell heavily in the room.

We were sitting in an office IAFR helped the Dzaleka Christian Churches Union (DCCU) build in Dzaleka. Tim Barnes, Jake Tornga, and I (April Palmbos) had been discussing various business matters with several of the refugee pastors who are part of the DCCU leadership team. We've known many of them for years and have partnered together with them in ways that support their work.

Sometimes it feels like we are lying.

Sometimes, in moments like this, they open up and share things with us that they cannot share with their communities.

"As pastors and parents, it has become more and more difficult for us to answer questions about where God is." he continued. "When people are dying and going hungry, and nothing changes year after year, it is easy to feel abandoned. I have been asking myself if I made a mistake in leaving my country because I've been stuck in this camp for more than ten years, and I don't know what the future is for my kids. I wonder if I made a mistake and should have stayed in my home or tried to figure out life in another way. "

The other pastors nodded in agreement.

"Last week, a congregant asked me where God is and if He has forgotten us," another pastor added. "Of course, I reminded this woman that God has not forgotten or abandoned us as His Word promises. But sometimes, it feels like we are lying to them because we, too, feel like we've been abandoned."

The ache to be reminded

I felt compassion well inside me as we held space for these courageously honest words and expressions of deep suffering. I knew only our many years of friendship made this kind of sharing possible.

These pastors are the brave godly leaders of whole communities of displaced people who suffer constantly. They are the ones who are called when someone dies, is sick or has a spiritual or emotional need.

But as we visited together, they felt free to speak of their own need for the shepherding of Jesus and of the ache to be reminded that they were remembered and not alone. As we prayed over them in that hot, dusty room, in a place far from ease or answers, I felt honored by their trust.

Visiting "Christ in Prison"

IAFR’s work in Malawi starts with a commitment to showing up in an attempt to break the isolation of life in Dzaleka Camp.

As Matthew 25 encourages us, when we visit brothers and sisters "in prison," we are visiting Christ himself. I sensed that to be true as I walked away from the sacred sharing time in the office that day. Jesus is present even in the darkest places through His body and His people, who carry His Holy Spirit within them. This is the promise and guarantee that no matter how hard life gets, we are never truly abandoned or alone.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR WORK IN DZALEKA REFUGEE CAMP.