HESSTON, Kan. — At half past midnight on Aug. 18 at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, a welcoming group searched for a Congolese refugee family. As passengers spilled into the concourse, five greeters from Hesston Mennonite Church saw the family they had been praying for and waiting for — Mary Noella and Alex Salumu and their children, Shania, 6, and Daniel, 2. After a 32-hour flight and years of waiting in a Kenyan refugee camp, the family had finally reached safety.
Before I retired, I taught in the Biblical Studies department at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Each fall term, I was assigned two sections of a required course, Encountering the Bible.