Welcome home N


Refugee families find new life thanks to these ELCA partners


ot so many months ago the Arab Spring visited Heiba’s home in Beng- hazi, a rebel stronghold in Libya. Heiba (refugee names are changed for safety reasons) recalled how she and her son, Toror, 16; and daughter, Mona, 18, spent many days huddled in their home across the street from a military compound. “Sounds of machine gun fire and bullets were all around us,” Heiba said. “Explosions would shake our house. … It felt like the whole city was shaking.” Toror was afraid: “I saw people being killed.” Heiba’s husband, Hassabo, had already fled to a safer part of Libya. He


Staples, who is retired, writes for the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He is a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Lansdale, Pa.


28 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


By Mark Staples


feared rebels would target him for death, assuming from his African face that he was a mercenary soldier for Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. By early November 2012, Has- sabo, his wife and two children were safe, living at “Welcome Home,” a rented three-story residence next to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Philadelphia.


On virtually a moment’s notice, Welcome Home gives newly arrived


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