Written by Hugo Olaiz
Luke 21:1-3 (NRSV) He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.”
A while ago I watched a video about the “Jungle,” a shantytown in Calais, France, built and inhabited by thousands of migrants. The video features David, a young man from Eritrea. With a hammer, a handsaw, and discarded plywood, David was building a church. “You need quality time with yourself,” David says, in broken English. “Your God House can be anywhere.”
I have visited many impressive churches over the years, yet none of them move me as much as the plywood structure David was building in France’s poorest shantytown. Truly I tell you, this poor migrant has put in more than all of them!
Last February, French authorities took possession of and began to raze the Calais Jungle—not just the church but also the mosques, the theater, the library. I can still hear David’s words floating over piles of debris and through the clouds of smoke: “Your God House can be anywhere.”
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