Isn't God Good?

"I was fleeing through the jungle when I got separated from my wife and baby," Richard told me on a recent visit to Dzaleka. He's a young man from the DRC whose family fled for their lives from the violence in their home region. He's been in the Dzaleka refugee camp for nearly seven years.

"I did not know if I'd ever see them again."

"I had no idea if my wife and child were dead or alive. I did not know where they were or if I'd ever see them again. It was a heavy grief to carry.

Then, one Sunday, when I'd been in the camp for two years, I went to church as usual. That morning, the man leading the service announced that a group of new arrivals had come to camp. He asked the newcomers in the church to stand up so we could welcome them.

I looked over at the other side of the church, and a woman stood up. I saw instantly that it was my wife. She was holding my three-year-old child in her arms. I couldn't control myself. I was on my feet in an instant, running across the aisle. I grabbed her and my child in my arms and cried right there in church. I was so overwhelmed because I thought I'd never see them again, and there they were, right in church!"

"Isn't God good?"

Richard turned to me at this point in his story, his dark eyes bright with the intensity of his memories. "Imagine what would have happened if I hadn't gone to church that Sunday? Imagine! I never thought I'd see her again; she was there with my child in church! Alive! Isn't God good? He's so good to me. He brought me my wife back after all that time!"

As we walked on through the camp, where most of these displaced families live on the brink of starvation, I was humbled once again by the resilient faith of my brothers and sisters in this challenging place.

God sees, hears, and cares.

"Isn't God good?" Richard's words would stay with me long after I left for my home in the U.S. Even as I grieved my friends' suffering, his story reminded me once again that amid all the suffering, hardship, and injustice, our loving Heavenly Father sees, hears, and cares.

For Richard, that goodness meant a miraculous reunion with his beloved wife and child. And amid their ongoing displacement and hunger, Richard remembers this as the personal faithfulness of God to him and continues to find hope despite the hardships.