Christ-like leadership requires love that learns and serves. Sometimes the simplest act of kindness can be a holy demonstration of Jesus’ love. In this episode Gina has a conversation with Sheri Briggs about her story as a single mom encountering Jesus’ love through the generosity of strangers and the call to do the same for others who find themselves in places of vulnerability.
Gina and Sheri cover lots of ground from loving and learning from those that are the most vulnerable, to Sheri’s own story of losing her son and how her faith was challenged and changed.
Sheri Briggs is the founder of Bridge of Hope San Diego, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening families through transition. Transition can mean many things including families leaving homeless and domestic violence shelters or recovery homes, families facing crisis, and refugees relocating from around the world.
Click below to listen starting at 15:32 to follow along.
Serving Comes First by Learning
Gina:
You serve single women who come out of domestic violence, and you also serve refugees. Can you talk a little bit about the different people that God’s brought and what fruit you’ve seen and the things that God’s been doing?
Sheri:
What I want to point out is that George Muller was to be my mentor in this process. He was the father of orphans in the 1800’s. He didn’t ask man, he’d say, “I didn’t ask man for anything, ask God.” And he prayed and God would provide. We were called into that. That’s how this ministry has been run, waiting on the Lord to build and to provide, as we go about His pace.
We started with women like myself who were starting over. Then when we moved to city Heights in 2007, which happens to be one of the largest refugee resettlement areas in the whole country, close to downtown San Diego. When we moved there in 2007, it busted open to be this whole other thing that the Lord had planned and invited us into.
He saw the need of the refugee. He saw the need of the immigrant and those who have suffered greatly in war. Not only were we serving women and children in transition, coming out of homelessness, recovery, domestic violence, but now it was refugees.
In 2007, I met my first refugee family on the street. They lived two doors down from our building that we had there. Within a month I knew a hundred people from Uganda. Then from there I knew the nations were coming to this little driveway on 38th street where we had our shop. We had thought we were just storing furniture there, but we ended up becoming kind of a community center, on slanted driveway, in a little 900 square foot shop.
Every week more and more people showed up from all over the world, from Iraq, Burma, Uganda, Congo, Ethiopia. All kinds of people. And it became this beautiful, messy, crazy thing we never planned, but God did. We just kept rolling with it and rolling with it. It was wild. I don’t think I could have ever dreamed of what He had in mind.
Gina:
How has this journey changed you?
Sheri:
That’s a really good question. I’ve learned so much, I knew early that I didn’t know anything. I really didn’t know anything about cross culture. I didn’t know anything about a lot of things. I think God was bringing me in, to come under and into my new community who was going to teach me.
Gina:
That’s good. Unpack that a little bit. I think it’s easy for us in America, with the relative ease with which we live, to make a lot of assumptions when we see people who are refugees or from other countries. We decide what they need, what they should do, how they should respond etc. I love that you said that you didn’t know, but you also didn’t assume.
You postured yourself in a place of actually learning from them. Can you talk a little bit about that, because I think that really matters? I think that when people are shown honor and value and worth, regardless of their stage of life or their trauma or their ethnicity, that opens some doors.
Can you talk through some of that, the complexities of that, what that looked like?
Sheri:
The first story that comes to mind, I’m in my new building, on 38th street downtown City Heights, I’m trying to keep this thing going, hustling, running in and out of this building, unloading my furniture, doing it as a lone ranger and my neighbor next door from Mexico comes over. She spoke only Spanish. I spoke only English. She said “You need help?” I responded, “No, I’m fine. I got this.” She replied, “No, you need help, you need help to you.” She walked in and started working for me.
Then she became my teacher, because that was her neighborhood. I was new here. Then when I met my first refugee family in 2007, it was like a holy encounter. This beautiful man named Simon Boyo, who had 14 of his family members in a two bedroom house that came from so much war. A whole incredible story. He looked at me and his eyes were so weighty and wise. I kind of trembled. I realizes in that moment, we’re here for the refugee, but really I need them.
Their faith has been literally tried by fire. I need to learn from them. He became my mentor in many ways. When he would say to me, “Sheri, God is on your side.” I believed him, because his life literally was tested by fire and he was standing and praising the Lord. It was not an easy road and it would not be an easy road just because they’re on American soil. It’s going to get hard in a whole new way.
I think those moments I just saw that I know nothing, but I’m here, God put me here. And I began to learn, be open and be taught and look to them for the things I needed to learn, how to serve in that community. It’s been challenging. I mean I only speak English. I don’t know what’s wrong with my brain. I think to God, “Did you plan that on purpose?”
Because of that, I’ve learned the language of the power of love, the humility of loving someone, the smile, being present, hearing, seeing with my eyes. Those things have meant a lot without the language. That’s a supernatural thing.
Continually going into people’s homes, sitting and eating with them, putting myself in places of just being with people and learning, is what I determined to do. I have built friendships with people from all over the world. It takes a lot of energy to try to communicate sometimes. You’ve got people talking to you from all different parts of the world. But you just keep being present and believe in the power of love.
It’s been God’s grace and gift to me. These beautiful relationships have become probably the most caring for me and my family. They’ve taught me about the power of being together. Breaking bread together, sitting with no agenda, taking your time to really eat someone’s food, to listen, to worship together, to not be in a hurry. They’ve taught me family.
I grew up in an alcoholic home. They taught me the power of community. I didn’t have community. I now have a community. That’s very deep in their culture. I didn’t have that here. Growing up in America, even if I didn’t grow up in an alcoholic home, it just wouldn’t have been there. It’s just not something we have. This is something they bring here. We can learn.
The holiest times, they say, were in refugee camps. There’s nothing, they’re hungry. It’s so hard, yet they have each other. They found community in the worst places. They found hope and love and times of deep intimacy with Jesus in the darkest places. It wasn’t about a nice house, a nice car to go home. It was people. That kept them alive. That’s what they’ve taught me.
Gina:
We’ve reduced spiritual community to going into a building on a Sunday morning and singing a couple of songs and having a couple announcements, maybe doing a group. That’s what we’ve defined what community looks like. There’s a whole new invitation into relationship.
Because we’re made for relationship, relationship with Jesus first, God, Holy Spirit. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s all relationship; vertical and horizontal. I think we don’t know how to do that here.
Sheri:
Desperation creates motivation for that. If you got money in the bank and you’re sick, you’re going to go to the doctor, and you’re not even going to call your neighbor. But when you’re sick, and you’re in a community where you don’t have anything, or you’re in a refugee camp, you’re going to go to your brothers and sisters to pray for you and sit with you and care for you.
These things have come and have been so rich in relationship and dependence on each other. It’s life changing to be a part of that now. I’ve always said to them too, “Clearly God brought you all here to America to teach us things that we just don’t have here. It’s Him. It’s His Holy Spirit. We need what you have.” I believe that with all my heart.
Gina:
What does it look like now? The ministry’s grown exponentially. Your family is in a different place, that was a long time ago when you were in the car accident. What do things look like now? What is God teaching you now?
Sheri:
It’s been 17 years and we’ve continued to grow. There’s a great rhythm that’s formed. We started on that driveway on 38th Street, just being a community and putting out chairs and a foosball table, if someone donated this or that, or doing art with kids is now a real place. It’s like a playground with lots of tables and chairs. We’ve created that community place, that real safe that the Lord has given us there.
All the little pieces now have become a real moving machine that’s there. We do a big food distribution every week where our clothing closets open, we serve over 70 agencies in San Diego, bringing their clients from all over the county that are needing this type of practical help. The goal and the hope is that in the gospel of pots and pans, people will see that Jesus sees them, that He loves them. Forever He’s the living water.
The hope is, the way He met me, is what we are providing that they would see Him. There has been lots of opportunities to meet people, pray for people, share our hope. They come on our property and see the things that we painted out or written out that just kind of declare why we’re there and it’s operating and growing.
Sheri Briggs is the founder of Bridge of Hope San Diego
Check the rest of this conversation Redemption and Stewarding Vision, El Roi – The God Who Sees
Check out the Dwell Meditations
