Walking Alongside One of World Relief WNY’s First Program Participants
Rev. Laura Fry, Pastor and Head of Staff of Perinton Presbyterian Church, shares her journey of walking alongside one of World Relief WNY’s first clients, an Afghan couple, as they welcome a beautiful baby girl into the world. Read to hear more about Pastor Laura’s experience.
“I’d like to give you a glimpse into a recent blessing for our congregation through our partnership with World Relief WNY. On an early August afternoon, we hosted a baby shower for the newborn daughter of the Afghan couple PPC has been accompanying in their resettlement in Rochester. The shower was a collaboration between two Perinton Presbyterian Church members and several women from Afghanistan who came together to cook, bake, decorate, and host the joyous celebration.
One special thing about Afghan baby showers is that they happen after the baby is born, which means we all got to meet the sweet new baby girl. The hospitality we shared across cultures, faiths, and languages as we welcomed and blessed this new baby was such a gift. I myself felt not showered but rather drenched in the goodness of God.
All this joy was more pronounced because it stood in stark contrast to what these women have lived through. The child’s mother and father escaped Kabul in the midst of the Taliban takeover of August 2021; other women I talked with told me they escaped a few months later, having seen first-hand the oppression and violence brought by the Taliban. Nearly all the women have family members still there, loved ones for whom they are very afraid. One woman told me she and her husband are sending everything he makes back to help their parents and siblings; they are getting by here, raising their three children, on her part-time salary.
After we had eaten and enjoyed tea, cookies, and cake, we moved on to dancing—the women each taking a turn for the others, dancing in the traditional Afghan style—their vibrant dresses flowing freely to the music. As I watched, and clapped, and smiled, I saw the best of what can happen when we build relationships across cultures.
I had to leave before the new mother started opening gifts, yet I felt as though I, and our other church members in attendance received abundantly that day: experiencing life in all its contrasts–joy and heartbreak, tears and beauty, and most of all, defiant, determined love still living, still breathing, still dancing as I closed the door.”
-Pastor Laura Fry