Global Fountains

By Jessica and Michael Peterson*

During the winter of 2013-14, my wife and I were finishing up medical school and interviewing for resident physician positions across the Midwest and South.  We felt God’s call on our life to spend our residency years living among the patient population we would be serving, building relationships with them, sharing our lives with them, and sharing our faith in Jesus with them.  When we interviewed here in Fort Worth, we felt especially drawn to the large refugee population here, and nothing excited us more than the opportunity to move into one of the apartment complexes where they were resettled.  We were fortunate enough to be given jobs here in Fort Worth, and the decision to move into the Fountains Apartments among refugees proved to be a decision that far exceeded our expectations.

As a couple with no children (at that time) and two resident physician salaries, we certainly had the income to buy a house which would have afforded us more space and private amenities than the Fountains Apartments.  But we knew at the time that the blessings we’d receive from living among refugees would far outweigh the comforts we would forego in not buying a house.  We moved here hoping to be a blessing to refugees, but in so many ways they were the ones who blessed us!  We have loved the relationships we’ve built with refugees from all over the world.  The day we moved in they offered free and unsolicited help moving our belongings up the stairs and into our apartment.  They have protected us, cooked for us, helped care for our daughter, and been the best neighbors anyone could ask for.  We’ve shared meals with them during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Ramadan, and Easter.  We will never forget the relationships we’ve made with our refugee neighbors here in Fort Worth, relationships we thank God for.  Through these relationships, we’ve been able to share the life-giving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, good news that we believe with all our hearts and that has changed our lives forever.  By God’s grace, we’ve seen some of our refugee friends come to believe that good news, and accept Jesus Christ as their savior as well!  

Another one of the greatest joys of living here at the Fountains has been worshiping God with Christian believers (some new and some old) from all over the world, people who we have little in common with apart from Christ, people from diverse cultures and backgrounds.  We’ve worshiped God with believers from the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the United States.  I’ve found no greater joy in life than worshiping God with diverse groups of Christians like this.  It is a foretaste of what’s to come when we will one day worship God together as a “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,” (Revelation 7:9).

To our friends and family, it may have looked like a sacrifice to delay buying a home to instead live in an apartment complex among refugees.  For us, it hardly felt like a sacrifice, because the worldly comforts we deferred were so small in comparison to the rich joy we experienced here.  Jesus once told this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  For us, we sold our proverbial possessions in joy to live here at the Fountains, because it has given us more of the kingdom of heaven, and more of God Himself.

*Names Changed

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Jessica and Michael Peterson* are physicians, practicing in Fort Worth, Texas.  They were married in 2012, and have lived at the Apartments at Fountains Corner since 2014.  They have a daughter, Sophia*, who is 1 year old.