Yusef is tall, soft spoken, kind, full of knowledge, and has a great head of hair. (I’m talking the kind of volume that would make any woman a little jealous.) He is the kind of person you just want to be around.
I met Yusef when he drove us the hour and a half to an area scattered with refugee camps. I immediately regretted my decision not to sit in the front seat. He was peppered with questions from Cortnie for the entire drive about the history and culture of his home; he answered each question thoughtfully and throughly. He wanted to help her truly understand his home.
Since that first trip we have spent many hours in the car with Yusef and at the camps. He not only translates for us but encourages us to share despite the language barrier. He could do it without us, and probably do a better job of it with his years of experience but he invites us anyways. It reminds me so much of the way that Jesus doesn’t NEED us to further his kingdom but he invites us to be a part of it. More importantly, Yusef models for us how Jesus shared stories in the Bible. He showed us that stories are powerful. You don’t have to argue with someone or disprove their beliefs, just point them back to Jesus. I was so in awe of the way he carries himself and exemplifies Christ that I almost forgot he had a story of his own.
Yusef’s childhood was shaped by war just like the rest of his generation. After experiencing the brutality and devastation that comes with war, he could have taken on the same attitude of the majority of his peers thinking of protecting himself and his home and keeping the dangerous “others” out, but he did not. Yusef loves Jesus. He chose to go to the equivalent of seminary in a muslim country in the middle of a civil war. He drives 6 hours, round trip, out of the city to spend a few hours at refugee camps multiple times a week. He goes out of his way to love the unwanted. He helps facilitate the meeting of physical needs while sowing seeds that will meet the spiritual needs of hundreds of displaced peoples. People who don’t really want to be in his country and have strong opinions about how his fellow countrymen are receiving them. He is fighting the hard fight. To top it all off, while doing all of this, he is taking a gaggle of American girls along for the ride answering all of their questions and discipling them through the process.
He’s also doing his darndest to teach us a salvation prayer in Arabic. Shwai shwai *slowly slowly*
This is what I’m doing here. Learning from people like Yusef, and hopefully helping to encourage the encourager.
