Welcoming The Stranger

Rocking her infant son, Mohibullah, in her arms, Zargona Haidar looked over the fabric that Sister Ruth Ann Haunz had brought her to sew clothes for her family. Her husband, Janat Khan

Haidar, smiled as two of their sons, 2-year-old Asadullah and 4-year-old Nasratullah, played peekaboo with the visitors to their apartment. Soon, 6-year-old Freshta, their daughter, and 8-year-old son Jawid would arrive home from school. It was a typical day for the Afghan refugee family for the past two months, but before that, there were many months of uncertainty and chaos.

As our translator, Siddiq, explained, Janat had worked for the United States Army as an escort, which was a type of bodyguard. The family lived four hours south of Kabul in Khost, which is close to the border of Pakistan. Working for the Army gave the family financial stability. Janat and Siddiq both said that the Afghan people love the United States for all that the country did for their people. When Kabul fell, they had to leave siblings and other family members behind in Afghanistan, but feel it is worth it for the better life and safety that they can find in America.

They told us that one of Janat’s brothers had been killed by the

Taliban, and that Siddiq’s teenage sister could no longer attend high school with the Taliban in control. They both said they would only return to their country if the Taliban were no longer in power. Reports coming from Afghanistan now cite rising homelessness, poverty and food scarcity. 1

This summer, when the United States was in the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, Janat and his family were able to use his military contacts to get the proper documentation to leave. They had to make the hazardous journey to Kabul, and then wait a week in a hotel until they were able to get inside the airport. They flew to Qatar, then Germany, then Washington, D.C., before arriving in Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. Once at the army base, they had to share a tent and one bathroom with three other families, spending four months there before coming to Louisville. Zargona was 8 ½ months pregnant when they fled Afghanistan, and baby Mohibullah was born when they arrived in the United States.

Enter Sister Ruth Ann Haunz and an ecumenical effort in the Buechel/Hikes Point neighborhood to sponsor a refugee family in Louisville. Sister Ruth Ann has

worked with refugee families in the past in her role as pastoral associate at St. Gabriel Parish and with a family that the Ursuline Sisters once sponsored, as well. She now manages a Dare to Care Mobile Food Pantry with 15 generous volunteers and organizes and supports virtual tutoring for children through St. John Paul II Parish. Sister Ruth Ann attended an information session that Catholic Charities hosted in early September

about Afghan refugees and began coordinating with other Buechel area churches to sponsor an Afghan family through Catholic Charities.

The four churches involved, St. John Paul II Parish, St. Martha Catholic Church, Buechel Park Baptist Church and St. Andrew United Church of Christ, contributed time, talent and treasure to the effort. They began asking church members to save furniture and other household items to donate once the refugees arrived. The tricky part was, they did not know exactly when the refugees would arrive in Louisville, or how many.

In early October, the news came that Catholic Charities was going to be getting up to 200 Afghan refugees. Then, the waiting began.

Finally, on December 20, the four churches learned that a family of seven was going to arrive the week of Christmas, not a typical week for refugees to arrive. On December 22, volunteers from the four churches collected, delivered and set up furniture and household essentials for the Haidar Afghan refugee family. They met the very tired Haidar family at the airport on December 23 at 11 p.m.

Sister Ruth Ann says, “One of the things I try to remind our volunteers about is that we are doing God’s work. And the fact that this family came at Christmas, it was very easy to make those connections. Here was a family that had to travel a long distance and the baby was born in a foreign place, just like the Holy Family.”

Sister adds, “The backdrop of working with refugees is that Jesus said, ‘Welcome the stranger. Welcome the alien.’ And the story of the Good Samaritan is the story of a stranger stopping to help someone in need. And there weren’t any questions such as, ‘Where are you from?’ or ‘How bad off are you?’ or

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‘Can you pay me?’ It was a stranger seeing someone in need and using their own resources to help that person. That’s the story of the Good Samaritan. And that is what we are being called to be.”

In addition to the donations of furniture and other household goods, the volunteers from the four Buechel churches continue to mentor the Haidar family. Transportation is one need they have. If the entire family is going somewhere, they must take two cars because they need four car seats! Volunteers will transport them to the food pantry and to Catholic Charities, where translators can assist them. English classes will begin soon for the adults so they can become independent as quickly as possible. Zargona and Janat have learned how to use Google translate on their phones to communicate. Often, gestures or photos will work, as Sister Ruth Ann realized when she was called upon to help Zargona with a problem with her sewing machine. Sister Ruth Ann, who sews, used Google translate to type in “sewing machine” into the Pashtun language so Zargona knew what that was and immediately pulled the sewing machine out. Sister Ruth Ann says, “She was so excited when I got it working. It was something very simple like a spool guard, and I used the photos in the directions to show her now to fix it.”

The children are very friendly and loving with Sister Ruth Ann, playing games with her and hugging her. She quickly has become a friend of the family.

Sister Ruth Ann says, “It is in our heart, that we want to help someone in need. If we can reach out from the depths of our being and reach out to others with the gifts that we have been given, and do it in a responsible way, that is what it is about—doing God’s work. Plus, I get all these fringe benefits of building relationships and learning about Afghan culture, and a little child who wants to hold my hand.”

Through this ministry to refugee families, Sister Ruth Ann is living the words of Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35

It is in our heart, that we want to help someone in need. If we can reach out from the depths of our being and reach out to others with the gifts that we have been given, and do it in a responsible way, that is what it is about—doing God’s work. Plus, I get all these fringe benefits of building relationships and learning about Afghan culture, and a little child who wants to hold my hand.