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A few years ago I was working with refugee populations as a support person to help them learn the English language, find employment, navigate our system of banking, schools, insurance, and all the things we take for granted in our everyday lives. For those who are new to our country, these things are overwhelming and they need some help in figuring them out.  

One of the families I worked and developed a close relationship with was from Uzbekistan, where they had lived under Soviet rule and communism for all of their lives. As Christians, they had encountered persecution and therefore they were granted refugee status to immigrate to the United States.  

I had been working with them for a few months and our English conversations had advanced to the level where we could begin to discuss their future aspirations and job possibilities. You know the type of conversation because we have it with children all the time. It goes something like this; "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?"  

Implicit in the question is the assumption that each person has a uniqueness about them and a special destiny, purpose, and passion that will be propelled by their own intrinsic motivation - as I wrote about in the previous blog post. We get familiar and common responses from children when asked this question like, "a doctor", "a fireman", "a basketball player in the NBA", "a horse trainer" (okay, that's not usual, but that one was mine...).  

So, here I am one evening with the Uzbek family all sitting around their dining room table, where I asked the question,....