Janice Clayton and her dog. Pepys
by Janice Clayton
One Saturday in the spring of 2015, I received a call for help from Lenna Baxter, IWC director (and great volunteer.) She asked if I could go to the Mennonite Church’s shelter La Casa de Maria y Marta and help clean it up. One large group of asylum seekers had just left, and another was coming in later in the afternoon.
I’m the world’s worst housekeeper, but I said “Sure!” and headed downtown. As I stood in a bedroom putting fresh, clean sheets on a bed and listening to the quiet of the house, I saw what looked like a pencil smudge or maybe even graffiti written on a wall near the door.
Thinking how rude it was to deface La Casa de Maria y Marta, I walked over and read what had been written in a little cloud: “DIOS ES GRANDE.”
These words filled my heart, and I said a prayer of thanksgiving for the person who wrote those faithful words, a person who had prevailed somehow in the struggle to reach the U.S.A. And even more, I thanked God for the great power of love that sustains volunteers and suffering asylum seekers in their arduous quest for human dignity.
Yes, siempre, “DIOS ES GRANDE.”
