Last weekend we, along with a group of our friends went downtown to check out the simulated refugee camp set up in Confederation Park by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The only thing lacking from what you would expect to see were the throngs of people, shelters stacked up one against another and garbage strewn about. In about half an hour our guide (who had returned from Sri Lanka only two weeks prior) did a great job in helping us catch a glimpse of what a refugee may likely experience in their journey – from saying goodbye to loved ones at the border when guards only let some pass through, to walking for miles to a camp where they will hopefully find shelter, to the waiting in line day after day; for food, water, the latrine, and medical attention and hopefully for the day when they can return home. Something I didn’t expect was to feel joy bubble up in my heart when I saw little toy trucks made out of tin cans sitting outside the rapidly erected shelters – a testament to the indomitable spirit of children – of hope in that place. The Kingdom belongs to such as these.
Last weekend we, along with a group of our friends went downtown to check out the simulated refugee camp set up in Confederation Park by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The only thing lacking from what you would expect to see were the throngs of people, shelters stacked up one against another and garbage strewn about. In about half an hour our guide (who had returned from Sri Lanka only two weeks prior) did a great job in helping us catch a glimpse of what a refugee may likely experience in their journey – from saying goodbye to loved ones at the border when guards only let some pass through, to walking for miles to a camp where they will hopefully find shelter, to the waiting in line day after day; for food, water, the latrine, and medical attention and hopefully for the day when they can return home. Something I didn’t expect was to feel joy bubble up in my heart when I saw little toy trucks made out of tin cans sitting outside the rapidly erected shelters – a testament to the indomitable spirit of children – of hope in that place. The Kingdom belongs to such as these. 
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