Our Thanksgiving Story
I can't help but think of a Thanksgiving that happened several years ago that marked a significant event in the history of Blood:Water Mission. Not too many years ago, our founder Dan Haseltine, and his family, found themselves with an extra seat at the table. The one who would fill it was a man named William. William was a refugee from Rwanda who had escaped during his country's most violent time. His immediate family had fled the country but were still in east Africa while William had political asylum in the US. The Haseltines ensured that he had a family to spend the holiday with.
I think that Thanksgiving dinner really affected Dan as he sat at the table with a brother from a completely different place, context and, even, understanding of God. I remember Dan remarking at William's wisdom and faith in the midst of such diversity. William had something like, "Dan, If you ask me about computers, I couldn't tell you very much because I don't have any frame of reference for the use and purpose of a computer. But if I ask you about the provision of God, you would not have a frame of reference for it like my family has had." It's these humbling words that fueled so much of Dan's journey of understanding toward William's experience in Rwanda as well as general suffering in broken world. These were the seeds that planted the beginnings of Blood:Water Mission.
Dan's relationship with William shaped the foundation of Blood:Water Mission and the belief that we are inextricably linked to one another. We believe that in a globalizing world, the concept of neighbor is changing, and that we are responsible to one another. We have access to relationships of brothers and sisters in Africa whose challenges and environment seem drastically different than ours. But we have also seen that people like William teach us and mold us, and bear witness to suffering that is often met with God's unfathomable and irrational joy.
Today, William is reunited with his family and they live here in Nashville. I have had the privilege of bringing letters and gifts to his friends in Rwanda on visits that I make on behalf of Blood:Water. One of the partnerships in Rwanda is led by a dear friend of William. Through that partnership, American communities and Rwandan communities are joined together in love and service toward one another. It comes full circle, and it began by leaving an extra seat at the table for another to join. Who will be at your table this week?
~ Jena Nardella, Executive Director
I think that Thanksgiving dinner really affected Dan as he sat at the table with a brother from a completely different place, context and, even, understanding of God. I remember Dan remarking at William's wisdom and faith in the midst of such diversity. William had something like, "Dan, If you ask me about computers, I couldn't tell you very much because I don't have any frame of reference for the use and purpose of a computer. But if I ask you about the provision of God, you would not have a frame of reference for it like my family has had." It's these humbling words that fueled so much of Dan's journey of understanding toward William's experience in Rwanda as well as general suffering in broken world. These were the seeds that planted the beginnings of Blood:Water Mission.
Dan's relationship with William shaped the foundation of Blood:Water Mission and the belief that we are inextricably linked to one another. We believe that in a globalizing world, the concept of neighbor is changing, and that we are responsible to one another. We have access to relationships of brothers and sisters in Africa whose challenges and environment seem drastically different than ours. But we have also seen that people like William teach us and mold us, and bear witness to suffering that is often met with God's unfathomable and irrational joy.
Today, William is reunited with his family and they live here in Nashville. I have had the privilege of bringing letters and gifts to his friends in Rwanda on visits that I make on behalf of Blood:Water. One of the partnerships in Rwanda is led by a dear friend of William. Through that partnership, American communities and Rwandan communities are joined together in love and service toward one another. It comes full circle, and it began by leaving an extra seat at the table for another to join. Who will be at your table this week?
~ Jena Nardella, Executive Director
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