Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please CLICK HERE
The following was written by Gillian Friedman for the Deseret News. To read the full article, click here.
In a small, dingy apartment in the south end of the city, George Ngunza is perched at the edge of a faded yellow couch.
A refugee from the Congo, Ngunza is just 34 years old. But the deep creases in his forehead and around his eyes project the image of a much older man, hollowed out by the harsh trials of his life.
The frayed jeans and faded T-shirt he picked up at Deseret Industries hang loosely off his lanky form.
Ngunza taps his feet and wrings his hands, his body vibrating with nervous energy. His eyes dart toward the door every few minutes as if he fears the stale, sour air of the apartment will suffocate him.
On the bare coffee table in front of him, there are just two things: a can of cockroach spray and a well-worn Book of Mormon, written in Swahili.
When stress threatens to overwhelm him, he thumbs through its tattered pages until he finds his favorite verse, repeating it over and over again until he feels a sense of calm.
During his 19 years in a refugee camp in Tanzania, he often did the same thing with the Bible.
To read the full article, click here.
