Love Letters

Valentine’s Day is still a month away, but my heart is so full of love and admiration for my Peace community. Earlier this week and with only a 24 hour notice, we learned that the refugee family we’ve been preparing to welcome would board a plane in a much warmer climate and land in our January snow globe of a city. And right away, the love letters began to pour in.

First came the flood of questions. Who will pick up the family, a mom and dad with their 7 year old and 18 month old boys, at the airport? What about a car seat? Where on earth will they stay–a hotel or maybe someone’s guest room? They’ve never seen snow, let alone dressed for these temperatures. Coats, gloves, hats? If we had had more notice from the umbrella organization that is matching families with communities, there would have been excellent solutions for all of these things. Team responsibilities were assigned months ago with the very best leader imaginable. But the climate, the political climate, not in the country the family is fleeing but in ours, made the move much more urgent.

The love letters we exchanged were not your standard, stamped and mailed letters. These came as texts and emails. So many that it was hard to keep up. Offers of rides and car seats and promises to ask around about children clothes and boots to share. Raiding closets for warm sweaters and hats for the adults, and trips to use up store coupons for winter items that will soon be cleared from the shelves to make room for Easter dresses and jackets. The love letters were extravagant gifts of a cozy place to stay, while someone behind the scenes works feverishly to find more permanent housing. Valentines came in the form of someone to stay at the house in case there was confusion or questions, love notes by way of cookies and tasty meals, and all of it wrapped in words our new friends can understand, because someone is there to speak Spanish and to understand the words they say.

I was not surprised, and have never doubted the way our community shows up for each other and for the wider world. So many occasions in my life are marked by kind notes from Peace friends. The chains of love letters this week for people we hadn’t even met yet were so beautiful to see, and I thought you ought to know.

God of love,

Thank you for equipping us with huge hearts and endless opportunities to share love.

Amen

Eli is a song leader at church. Her parents, Maria and Pedro, moved here as refugees from Cuba in 1962 with two very young children. It’s an extra special privilege for her to welcome the Garcia family and honor her parents by using the Spanish they taught her so diligently.