The quiet of Ramadan

The PLACE has been quiet over the last couple of weeks as we’ve settled into the rhythms of Ramadan. The Afghans who were filling the space each day with laughter and tea are mostly staying away—likely sleeping longer due to their daily fasts. This new silence is vastly different from how the last few months have gone! It’s allowing our team to catch up on things, and to rest a bit.

At the same time, this silence reminds us that we haven’t yet found a way to draw many others from refugee communities into our midst. The PLACE has largely been full of Afghans, when we dream of building a multi-ethnic community here. Please pray that we will use the quiet of this season to dream about how to be a welcoming home for people from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. It’s wonderful to serve those who just arrived with classes and help with paperwork. But ultimately, those are just surface needs. We’d like to build a joyful and welcoming place that draws in new friends from Myanmar, Congo, and Somalia too. Please pray for wisdom and renewed vision for how to get us to that next stage.