The Journey of Discovery

I have experienced a lot through during the past week, both at my placement and in the community. Every single day and every single week I spend in Washington D.C. it is a blessing and I believe God has a purpose of sending us to this journey. The journey in which I waited for so long, and now I am living the dream by standing for those who cannot stands for themselves, by raising my voice in the sake of those who cannot raise their voices. It’s a privilege from God, to be among those who are in the field, battling against injustice. This nation has come so far—has come a long way, where it has met the impossible and turning it to be possible, but that’s not the end of our journey—we still far behind, because there is those who are still suffering, crying and dying seeking for justice and help. We still have a long way to go, and we still have a lot of work to do. That’s why I am very grateful for every single day that God has made possible to me to be here, because I believe that my contribution will make a huge impact in this long journey. During the past week, I had the greatness of preparing the World refugee Day and attending the rally, I also have experienced a lot of injustice which had happened in this country and some of them still happening.

As the week kicked off, at my placement both my colleagues and I were busy working on the posters and attending some of the hearing which impacted refugee and immigrants. It was a long day, but I was a glad that we collaborated and to get the work done. We reached across the country, trying to bring people together to advocate and sharing their stories during the world refugee day. The next day, which was the world refugee day—we had people from different states and refugees joining us to advocate for refugee and immigrants—we were divided into small groups, we went to our legislatives and shared our journey as refugees, we also asked them to be the champion for the refugees—to support them and to speak out against any legislation which will affect the refugees. At the end of the day, we went to the rally in front of the White House to speak out and to encourage people, especially the current administration to stand with the refugees. We had an amazing time at the rally, my fellow interns brought with them posters of United Methodist which say, “United Methodists Stands for Justice.” It was great.

On Wednesday, I attended the House Judiciary Committee hearing discussing on the bills which will impact both the refugees and unaccompanied children to the United states. Those bills were given proper names but has a negative impact to the refugees and children and those bills are called the Protection of Children Act and the Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act. The Protection of Children Act passed in the Judiciary Committee with amendment, but I am hope that those two bills don’t get passed in the House of Representatives. Finally, I was grateful to learn about the history of the Native Americans. That lesson taught me the struggles that the Native Americans have gone through and the lesson has shaped my perspective.

In conclusion, this week I have received lessons and understanding that we should be always appreciative for what we have. I now know what I didn’t know before, I have learned a lot just for few weeks I been here and I know that there are still a lot coming to learn from. With all the issues, I have seen this week, I am still shocked with the injustice going on in this country, especially the system that the governments run need to be updated to new version so justice can ring in all corner of the country. Thank God that I got the opportunity to discover that, and I hope that can get changed the soon as possible.

Engoma Fataki,

EYA Intern, 2017

Church World Service