What does sheer gratitude look like? The moment a Sudanese refugee was reunited with his family at a Texas airport pretty much says it all.
The story began back in 2012 when a Sudanese woman showed up in Forth Worth, Texas, pregnant and with her two small children. Her husband couldn’t make the trip, unable to leave the refugee camp because the couple had lost their marriage papers while fleeing war. They had to find a way to prove they were married and that the children were indeed his. The man, Dyan, feared he would never see his family again.
Four long years later, Dyan finally resolved the issue and was cleared for travel to America and see his wife and children – including meeting his now three-year-old for the first time.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Watch:
Stunning.
The publisher of the video, Robert Fuqua, shared some background:
This video represents the next chapter in the now near four-year-old story of our church’s ministry to refugees in a North Fort Worth complex. A ministry that began with two of our elder wives, Mary Claire and Molly coming alongside the Sudanese woman in this video, now has over a hundred vetted volunteers serving the diaspora in our region. And, hundreds more participating annually in coat drives, back pack drives, and many opportunities through the year to engage with these families around food and fun.
For me, this video is a testament to what can happen when God’s people respond in simple, yet sacrificial obedience to God’s call on the Church, His Bride, to engage and embrace people of all tongues and tribes.
Fuqua added some more details you may have missed the first time watching the video:
There are nuances in this video most people will miss that to me signal the fingerprint of God. One of them for me is the advertising display hanging over the baggage carousel in the background of the shot when Dyan embraces his wife for the first time in four years. Though many ads were looping endlessly on that monitor, at that very moment the ad read, “Where Dreams take their Course”. Another special moment for me was when Dyan dropped to the floor overwhelmed in gratitude toward God, and my camera POV inadvertently became the POV of his three children, at times framed by the side of his son’s head. In the background of that shot you see Mary Claire and Molly’s husbands with their four sons, American playmates of Dyan’s children, transfixed on the miracle for which they themselves prayed these past years.
Simply beautiful.
For complete background on the story, read more at The North Hill.