victory

I just got back from Court on my latest Human Rights Initiative case. . My client, a young pro democracy activist (from Ethiopia) just received Asylum here. He cried on the stand as he testifies about the protests in 2005, where police fire into the crowds, He watched people die around him. From their wounds. He testifies that he was hit on the head with the butt of a rifle, thrown into the back of a truck, among other bleeding and injured protestors, and then taken to jail, where he is released 5 days later, for taking part in a protest about election fraud. He still has headaches and is experiencing post traumatic stress disorder because of his past. We produce the record of the Red Cross verifying the one year he spent in jail for attending a peaceful protest. After his release, he makes his way across two continents and 6 countries to come here and apply for refuge. Within one hour of getting asylum, he's filling out paperwork for work authorization, having not been permitted to work at all while his case was pending. He hugs me in the hallway. (three times). Telling me thank you. I walk out the backdoor. I pause at the door. Unashamably, I kneel right there and say a prayer of thanksgiving at the Courthouse. He comes by my office this week to bring me a thank you gift, a handcrafted shirt from Ethiopia and a note saying, he'll never forget what I did. So, if I wasn’t clear about why I love this work, maybe that says it.

This morning I read:
Ps 9:9The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
Ps 9:10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. True that.