Afghan refugee

A few Sundays ago, I looked out the window of the second story of the Kingdom Hall as the meeting was starting and saw one of the sisters with what appeared to be an interested man rushing up to the building entrance. He sat in the back and during the Watchtower Study even gave a comment! I could not, however, identify his accent.

So about 20 minutes after the meeting, I managed to meet this person. His name is Shayan and he is a refugee from Afghanistan. He has been in Rwanda for a little over a year and lives on a small amount every month given him by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). He said he had to leave Afghanistan due to religious persecution, apparently for being a Christian.

At that point in our discussion, I had assumed that someone in the congregation had offered him a Bible study, but apparently no one had. So we agreed to study in the Good News brochure, even several times a week, since his life here is characterized by absolutely nothing to do all day. He has no work, no school, he can't communicate with his neighbors and so spends most of the time in his tiny, unfinished concrete room with only a mattress on the floor.

Since that first meeting, he has come to the midweek night meeting and has downloaded every publication needed for that meeting on his phone. He has also downloaded materials in Persian (also known as Farsi), which is his native tongue. However, presently only the Greek Scriptures of the New World Translation comes in Persian. The walk to our Kingdom Hall takes over an hour each way. So I agreed to go to his place for the Bible study. Definitely the English is a challenge, but if we read the material in both English and Persian, he will understand it.

By the way, Shayan was found by the sister while she was doing search work, as encouraged by our circuit overseer. So all the effort we are putting forth to locate English speakers—as well as those for whom there is no other option—is certainly paying off!